Flip Flops & Ankle Socks – (Un) Official Austia Diary Day 6

The Spin Doctor

Wednesday 28th July

With all the party rising relatively early we all headed down to the train station for a day on Lake Worthersee. After getting the train to Velden we boarded the pleasure boat to the other end of the lake. Several beers were consumed onboard.

The afternoon was spent swimming in the lake and Pauletta attempted a long distance swim that Michael Vaughan (Nicholas) made him declare half way through and come back to shore. Nicholas was then very nearly attacked by a swan so it was decided to end the swimming at that point.

The table football competition then commenced with a victory for yours truly, although allegations of cheating were levied against me for perpetually spinnning the figures!! How else can you play table football? After bumping in to Mark Lawrensen we then had a few goes down the water slide before calling it time and heading into Klagenfurt to meet the lads we met from last night to watch US Palermo v local side SK Austrian Karnten.

After jumping on the bus we made away to the Stadion Wirt where several beers were consumed. We then made entered the Hypo Group Arena which was used in Euro 2008 where the attendance seemed to be a touch higher than at Bad Blieberg. Entrance was free and 2500 fans watched a one nil win for the away side. One remarkable fact about this ground is that there is a standing cum seating area that works perfectly well. I think the scousers need to see how this works so that we can all stand at football again!! Oh and you can also drink at your seat.

After a few photos of our Latics flag (now featured on the Karnten website) had been taken, we headed back to the boozer where the singing commenced and the drinking continued. We then got a taxi back to the station and missed the train. An hour later we jumped on a sleeper service and jumped off in Villach. After a pint or two more and a kebab we headed home.

Ripley Latic