WALES AWAY BLOG: Bucharest Part Three (06/06/26)

June 7, 2026 clintiguana blog 0

Match day, and all that jazz. Romania v Wales.

It was a bright hot day in June and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile sun, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a gritty dust from entering along with him.

Winston Smith
Miserably staring at the floor he didn’t notice Megan and Clint brush past him, with a spring in their step, a glow in their hearts and Spirit of 58 bucket hats on their heads. They were off out for breakfast and a beer. It’s match day!
Breakfast of champions
It’s like an illness. Wherever we stay, we always seem to end up going back every day to eat in the the first restaurant we ate in on the first day of the trip. If you have been paying attention, that means today we are having a Greek brunch washed down with Leffe Braun. Again.
I have no idea why this picture is upside-down
Mad Dogs and English men go out in the midday sun. And mad Irish men trying to persuade you to have a Byriani for breakfast.  But we are neither, so discretion is the better part of valour.  We head back to our grim Orwellian dystopian apartment block and crank up the air conditioning. So, spoiler alert – no museums, art galleries or churches were visited in the making of today’s blog. Not even the museum of football, which apparently the Cascade Youth visited.
Leon Trotsky

Unfortunately Megan had to host one of the original Communists this evening so was unable to make it to the game. After much deliberation, we struggled on without her.

Typical scene from this quaint Bucharest ‘old town’

 

There are three types of people in town today. Welsh football fans, waiters lubricating the Welsh football fans and police with itchy trigger fingers waiting for an excuse to shoot Welsh football fans. It is understandable, although slightly frustrating, that many police forces assume we are going to behave like our boisterous neighbours the other side of the River Severn. However , no plastic chairs are thrown in the making of Wales Away. We are lovers, not fighters. We throw shapes, not punches (and sometimes, just get in ‘a bit of a shape’. And there were quite a few fans so shaped up they were shapeless).
We find the Cascade Youth plotted up outside a restaurant and join them for refreshments and light bar snacks.
“Did I tell you about the time I nutmegged Hans Krankl?”
The stadium is quite a trek out of town and, despite the cheap and efficient public transport system, there doesn’t appear to be a simple way of getting there. The FAW had tried to arrange special busses, but to no avail. However, having seen the Red Wall gathered, the local gendarmerie decide to put some busses on – but not enough for the one thousand ticket holders in town (I have to say, it feels like a lot more. Perhaps people are just moving around). To avoid the mayhem of the busses, we take advantage of being with the yoof, and let them take the strain of using Uber apps.
How much?
In no time at all (well, twenty five minutes to be precise – ish) we are deposited outside the stadium and catching up with old friends.
An old friend

Steaua Stadium is a new stadium, only opening in 2021, with a capacity of just shy of thirty two thousand. As well as hosting international football it is home to club side Steaua Bucharest. Tbe club had a brief spell of major European success back in the 1980s

They don’t mess about when it comes to crowd control over here.

 

 

Our Uber driver had referred to it as the ‘military stadium’, I’m not sure why. But it does have two large cannon parked outside for some reason.

We are through security quite quickly, although the queues for the ‘bar’ are quite long. I say ‘bar’ because no alcohol is being served. We hang around outside the toilets for a while, once again taking advantage of the yoof to queue up to buy us orangeade. More old friends are reacquainted.

More old friends, one of whom is apparently also a close personal friend of Aaron Ramsey

The stadium is quite full. Certainly fuller than the Cardiff City stadium friendly against Ghana. The home fans are vocal, banging drums and waving big fuck-off flags the way Europeans often do.

The national anthems take on a very personal and emotional significance. This is the first Wales Away our beloved Posh is missing since she went to the Away game in the sky. She loved the singing of the anthem – although ironically often missed them due to downing one last beer in the pub. Tears are shed, hugs are had.

Posh, still with us in our hearts, in our memories, and on our t-shirts

The Red Wall is in good spirits, although frankly ambivalent about the game. When Romania score there is a collective shrug and a thousand fans go – “meh”.  Spirits are lifted slightly when Wales equalise and we get a chorus of “Brooks will tear you apart” to the tune of the old Joy Division song (I think it’s called Transmission).

Brooks, Brooks will tear you apart again

 

 

 

Conscious of the pending post match transport chaos we decide to leave on seventy-five minutes to avoid the rush. Seventy-five minutes comes and the kids decide to wait for eighty minutes. We decide to stay with the kids because we love ’em. And they know how to work the Uber app.

Romania score again and there’s a mad rush for the exit. The police close the gate. We had been warned we would be kept in after the game to avoid confrontation with the home fans. Standard practice really.  We thought we were going to have to hang around but the police decide we are no threat and let us out.

After a little bit of faffing about, and laughing at taxi drivers talking about “on the meter”, we are soon Ubering our way back to town and grabbing a takeaway from our usual Greek restaurant for Megan who has been a prisoner in Victory Mansions due to us taking the key. She advises us the final score was 2:1 to Romania. “Meh!”

Normal travel info overload will resume tomorrow: we are planning a hop on hop off bus trip around the city.