I grew up in Sweden with a football loving dad that started supporting Liverpool FC when he worked in Liverpool for a few years when he was younger. It came quite natural for me to support Liverpool because of my dads influence. My dad died about three years ago and I regret that we never got to see a game together in real life and when that happened I swore to myself to go and visit Liverpool and of course see Liverpool play. In early December this year I quit my job to start working again in January so I would finally get the opportunity to be able to do this. I got a new job but I also applied for my dream job. First I was thinking about going to see Liverpool vs Watford since I thought it would be the easiest game to get tickets for. This was not the case and I had to turn to some ticket scalpers who wanted absurd amounts even for an event like this. I was about to go this route but when I noticed that it was possible to get tickets for the Liverpool vs Arsenal game directly from the club I decided to see that game instead. I convinced a friend of mine to go with me. We booked flight tickets through Ryanair. Leaving a small airport in Norway called Sandefjord on December the 19th and coming home on the 22nd of December with some time left until Christmas "we celebrate Christmas on the 24th here". We packed lightly and traveled for 8 hours by car and ferry to Norway and just a couple of hours later we arrived at the John Lennon airport in Liverpool at around 11pm. The trip started great with me getting a phone call about a new job that I applied for some weeks earlier. I told my friend that this would come to haunt us during the trip and we both laughed at it. We took a cab to the Pineapple hotel which we booked through the internet. A cheap hotel/pub in a not so great area of Liverpool but definitely worth the 27pounds it cost per night and per person.
Story:
We woke up on the 19th, ate some breakfast and then headed out to do a little sightseeing. Since I traveled with a friend that is not particularly interested in football I didn't spend any time in the pubs before the game so I had no idea that the fog was considered that bad. We arrived at Anfield about two hours before kick off. I bought some scarves and a shirt from the store. Didn't keep track of time so I'm not really sure when we entered but when we took our seat we heard the announcer say that around 18,45PM they would decide upon if the game would be played or not. The stewards told us that the game would probably be played but I understood right there and then what was about to happen. I almost shed a tear when the announcement came but there was not much else one could do then to walk off in misery. If one could cry with actually shedding tears that was what I did. My friend told me that she was surprised that I kept so calm about the whole thing. I quickly got a message from a "friend" that basically said "Have you smashed up the whole town in rage now or what? =)". I wanted to kill him for that message right there and then but to his defense I don't think he understands my passion for LFC. We took a cab back to our hotel and I was quiet the whole trip back trying to think about all the good things that has happened me in the last few days. I know it sounds corny but the trip meant a lot to me and without getting to see LFC play took a lot of joy out of the trip. We walked into the pub at the hotel and my friend tried to cheer me up. We sat down and downed a few pints and some people asked us what we had done today and we told them about our bad fortune. The story spread like wildfire and soon the whole hotel and also the close community knew about the "Swedes" who went all the way from Sweden to Liverpool to watch LFC play and then the match gets cancelled. Apparently they had been trying to get us tickets but we had no idea about that. A couple of hours later a man comes up to us and tells us that he heard about us and told us that he would do what he could to get us tickets to the Liverpool vs Watford game that Saturday if we wanted them. I couldn't believe what I heard but I was happy as hell and I thanked him a lot for it. The next day he got me a ticket and I finally got to see them play. A big thank you goes out to the guy who helped "red circle" me get the ticket and the guys that actually gave me one ticket so one of them had to stay and watch the game at the pub. A big thank you also goes out to the people at the Pineapple.
Side stories about great scousers:
A woman on the bus invited us to her home to meet her family and friends the next day. Great people but we think it was a little bit weird to do what she did.
Numerous people helped us out when we where lost and needed direction.
I don’t want post names on the people involved in the story but they okayed me for a photo.
*edit could a mod please change the topic to "Scousers ain't that bad" I accidently hit the return key while typing.
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