Tel Aviv, Israel. Football: Hapoel Tel Aviv vs. Bnei Yehuda

It is Christmas Eve in Tel Aviv and I’m off to the football. Kick-off is at 17:00 after another warm winter’s day. A cool change is coming in from the Mediterranean as I walk to Bloomfield Stadium, near old Jaffa town.  The wind is picking up, the sky clouding over and in the distance I hear thunder.

After a basic English conversation at the ticket office, I buy a ticket for Gate 8 where the home team Hapoel Tel Aviv supporters are seated. Hapoel Tel Aviv is one of the most renowned clubs in the Israeli ‘Ligat HaAl’. They have played, and beaten, some of Europe’s premier teams in the Champions and UAFA Cup leagues. Also, they have won the local Israeli competition thirteen times.

No alcohol is served inside the stadium and the pub across the road is full of Hapoel fans. There’s no Christmas tinsel to be seen. It is Hanukkah time in Israel and Christmas trees are swapped for candelabras. Saturday night is the end of the weekend with Sunday the first day of the Israeli working week.

I drink a Gold Star beer at the pub then attempt to find Gate 8. I accidently pass it as I walk around the outside stadium fence and have to backtrack past security who had asked no questions when I first passed by. Now an armed guard stops me and I guess he asks where I am going.

“You speak English?” I plead as I show him my ticket. It has a large bold “8” printed on it. “Gate 8”.

He talks again in agitated Hebrew and I shrug my shoulders back.

He stutters out “you….you foreigner?”

“Yes I go to gate 8” pointing over his left shoulder as I see it now. The sign was hidden behind the hessian on the perimeter fence. Another security guard appears and after looking at my ticket lets me through.

At the gate fence security check bags for bottles, bombs, whatever and direct me down the line for a thorough pat-down. Once inside, I walk up the stairs and sit in the roofless stand watching the teams warm up. Bloomfield Stadium holds just over 15,000 and tonight it looks half full. The fans at both ends are singing and waving flags as the players go through their drills. One end is orange for Bnei Yehuda and the home team terrace is red.

The players walk out and line up to sing the national anthem. I don’t know what the milestone is but the manager of Hapoel receives a flower bouquet and lots of cheering after his speech.

At kick-off the crowd go silent and everyone sits down. I’ve never seen this happen at a game before. In Israel, the done thing must be to respect the first few minutes and pay full attention to the game. They didn’t have to sit quiet for long as the first goal was scored by Hapoel’s Omer Damari after two minutes. Everyone celebrates and chant in Hebrew.

Hapoel Tel Aviv fan terrace

Then the skies open. The distant thunder has now moved closer and torrential rain pours down. Umbrellas pop up blocking my view so I stand to watch the game. Usually rain doesn’t bother me but after five minutes of this Israeli thunderstorm I’m out of there to the only cover available – the stairwell. It’s full of people with the same idea, so we all stand squashed together until the end of the first half and the rain eventually eases off to a drizzle.

Batten down the hatches, here comes a thunderstorm

For the second-half, I stand between seat levels with more animated fans instead of the umbrella families. I am closer to the action and drier than sitting on a soaked seat. Hapoel fans continue to celebrate their lead with three guys jumping and dancing on a cage over the player’s entrance tunnel leading the sing-along. The away side look defeated and soaked as much as the orange flags their fans had put up on the back fence. Most of the flags have fallen down and scattered around on the ground.

The main scoreboard at half time

The only refreshments I saw available was a guy yelling out “Cola, cola, cola”, although he was mostly selling packets of sunflower seeds. Seed shells were scattered all over the ground as everyone ate them.

Both teams are predominately Israeli players but a rare foreigner from Lithuania scored a goal for Bnei Yehuda after 80 minutes to level the scores at 1-1.

At the full-time whistle, I leave the stadium with everyone else spilling onto the street. Everyone is quiet with no cheering or happy faces. It was a draw after all.

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Czech Republic – Sedlec Ossuary, The bone church in Kutna Hora

I awoke early for the 6:02 a.m. regional train out of Prague to the Czech countryside town of Kutna Hora. I was on my way to see a place that had been on my ‘to-do’ list for a long time. Sedlec Ossuary; the infamous church decorated with human bones. The journey took one hour and shrouded in fog, although I did see out the window my first wild deer standing in ploughed fields.

To the Ossuary, Kutna Hora train station is an easy twenty minute walk following tourist signs and children on their way to school. Sedlec is an outer suburb of this former silver mining boom town.

I arrived early and filled in time breakfasting on something that looked like a sausage roll from a small supermarket around the corner from the Ossuary. The only other shops around were closed souvenirs vendors.

At the Ossuary, a German film-crew was setting up their cameras outside the entrance. I walked around the surrounding graveyard, noticing a lot of fresh flowers left by early morning locals who had been coming and going quickly.

Sedlec Ossuary with the surrounding graveyard

A 13th Century Abbot brought soil back from Golgotha and sprinkled it over the Ossuary graveyard, spurring a belief that if one was buried here, their body decomposed to dust in three days.

In the 1500’s, bodies had been dug up due to over-crowding. It is said that a bored, half-blind monk decided to do something constructive with the stacked bones of 40,000 people around the Ossuary and used them for interior design.

Skulls and bones making up the bell/pyramid structures

The Schwarzenburg family bought the Ossuary in the 1700s and commissioned a woodcarver to redecorate some more. He added a coat-of-arms and a chandelier made from every bone in the human body.

After opening time at 9:00, I walked in and was immediately warned to “shhhh” by one of the film-crew.  Gunther von Hagens, a recognisable and controversial face from German ghost-and-ghoul TV documentaries, was being filmed under the chandelier.

Gunther von Hagens on camera

Creeping around inside, trying not to make echoing stepping sounds, the place seemed smaller than I thought it would be, but definitely big on bones and decoration. There were four large bells or pyramids stacked and surrounded by a protective ‘fence’. A glass cabinet displayed more unusual skulls, including one with a huge hole that had started to heal.

The glass skull cabinet with a hole in the skull semi-healed.

Hanging outside one of the bell pyramids was the Schwarzenburg coat-of-arms. A bird is depicted in the bottom-right panel pecking out an eye. Some of the designs have a touch of humour about them.

Raven pecking an eye out.

The chandelier was definitely impressive and worth seeing in real life, although Gunter hogged my photo frame as he perfected his spiel underneath. This place is a unique piece of alternative art.

Chandelier made from every bone in the human body

I left Gunter and his team to it as I exited past the gift shop full of tacky skull trinkets.

I had a fifty minute wait for my train back to Prague. I waited on the empty station platform until Misha, a painter from Ukraine approached me asking if I had a cigarette. Our language limitations revealed that he was a painter and played racquetball. He insisted on shaking and kissing both my hands, pleased to meet someone from a place so far away that he couldn’t fathom where it was.

Then he groped my breast so I moved elsewhere on the platform and pondered how that would be a sexual assault in my country.

Link to my photo essay of Sedlec Ossuary

Latvian football – Skonto FC vs Liepajas Metalurgs

The infographic sign above the ticket office at Skonto Stadium shows bombs and guns are banned inside, along with syringes. Tickets to the game are only 1 Lt (1,50 Euro) and come with a 6 page guide, written in Latvian, showing the players and current Virsliga table.  Skonto FC sits in second place and Liepajas are fifth after four games of the season.

Skonto Stadium ticket office

Skonto has won the national title 15 times, including 14 years in a row since their inception in 1991. Virsliga was suspended from 1944 due to the Soviet inconvience.  Winning 14 titles in a row is a European record. Skontos’ other boasting right is holding Chelsea FC to a scoreless draw when hosting a UEFA Champions League qualifier in 1999.

The Skonto Stadium in Riga is also the home ground for the Latvian national team and seats approximately 8,000 but this evening there is lucky to be 200 people here.

Skonto Stadium. You can see the game without paying through the temporary fences.

The only entrance open is via the club rooms where a dusty trophy cabinet greets you at the door. The merchandise shop consists of a few garments hanging off a clothing rack and there was little interest in it.

There is a bar lounge inside where the local beer, called Zelta, is served in a plastic cup. The bar girl serving was chatty as her job is very boring with just a handful of customers. She tells me how she would love to see the game outside. I ask her why she doesn’t turn on the TVs nearby but she replies that they are not allowed to be on as “there are money problems”.

Both teams walk out to an instrumental fanfare and gather for team photos before kick-off.  Players are mostly Latvians with one Japanese, one from Panama and a smattering of ex-Soviet Bloc nationalities.

Throughout the game the home team fan-zone sing familiar football chants in their own language. There are only thirteen hard core Skonto fans standing tonight in front of various homemade banners, including Bart Simpson with his pants down.

Below them is an old guy who looks drunk and sings his own songs loudly. By half time he was hoarse and was later responsible for the smoke bomb that goes off.

Skonto FC fan zone

In the second half, the scoreboard, which looks more like a basketball scoreboard, decides to work finally. Surprisingly no one claps for any good play, like when the goalie makes a good save.

Skonto is in red

Liepajas score the one and only goal of the game at the 48 minute mark. The skill standard is comparable to an amateur senior’s competition, although the majority of the players for Skonto are under 23 years of age. I doubt they are professional players yet they have a good chance of making the Latvian national team.

Smoke bomb and scoreboard

The defence for Liepajas are the size of giants and prove hard to get past for the Skonto level the score line.  It stays at 0-1 and Skonto lose a rare home game.

The official crowd attendance was 250 on a Wednesday night. The bargirl had told me it was quiet due to the weather being too cold. I didn’t think it was cold at all but then again, the game was one of the most boring games I’ve been too.  I think basketball is a more popular sport in the Baltic region. Or weightlifting.

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Riga, Latvia – The Great Cemetery (Russian Orthodox section)

The Great Cemetery was set up in 1773.  At the time, Catherine the Great decided that all burials in the Russian empire were to be moved from churchyards to new cemeteries set up on town boundaries. This was to overcome the overcrowding due to the outbreak of the Black Plague.

Orthodox church in background.

Walking north-east from the centre of Riga, I came across the Russian section of the Great Cemetery. I have never seen Russian Orthodox crosses before. It has three horizontal beams and the bottom one is a tilted footrest.

Russian Orthodox cross

It was a quiet place and I saw no other visitors. The graves have no flowers, except for the occasional weather-beaten plastic arrangement. The trees, in mid springtime, were still bare sticks and gave the place a bleak, dark atmosphere.

Plastic flowers and grass on a grave

Wooden crosses on graves

The Orthodox Church in the middle of the graveyard was closed and seemed to only in use for funerals. A few burials have taken place since WWII but not many.

The majority of the graves have concrete boxes on top, although small and not practical to hold an adult. I gather they are traditional or symbolic to place above a grave. Many were nameless.

There was a small section of graves of World War II Russian soldiers at the back of the cemetery.

Russian soldier memorial from WWII

Russian soldier graves from WWII

One of the Russian soldier graves.

The Great Cemetery continues across a main road from this Russian section. The area is used as parkland, more then a cemetery nowadays. A lot of the headstones have deteriorated over the years or been destroyed when Latvia was occupied by the Russians and Nazi’s.

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Walhalla – An old mining town cemetery, Victoria, Australia

Walhalla – An old mining town cemetery, Victoria, Australia.

Recently reclaimed from overgrown bushland, Walhalla was once a thriving gold-rush town situated 180 kilometres east of Melbourne.  While driving nearby one Sunday, I took a detour and checked out the cemetery there I had heard about.

The road winds around the lush ancient eucalypt forest, ending in a steep gorge where Walhalla is tucked away. Gold was discovered here in 1863, and in its heyday Walhalla had a population of approximately 5000 people. When the gold ran out in 1914 everyone left. Buildings were dismantled and moved to other towns on the narrow-gauge Walhalla Goldfields Railway. The left-overs were left in disrepair or burnt.

In the 1990s, heritage lovers took interest in this forgotten town and rebuilt replicas of numerous original buildings. Nowadays, 20 people live in the town with 80,000 visitors per year.

The Star Hotel rebuilt in 1999 like the original which was burnt down in 1951.

The old Walhalla Cemetery sits above the road into town on a 45 degree slope amongst native bushland and introduced pine trees.

Walhalla graveyard.

It’s a rather strenuous climb up the path up to the cemetery, which is surrounded by a white picket fence. It had been raining heavily before I arrived therefore difficult to sit down on the wet ferny grass and pine needles next to graves and reflect. Many of the graves are surrounded by pointy cast-iron fences. Apart from the wind blowing noisily through the pines, it felt like a peaceful place to sleep forever, yet lonely. But I tuned into native birds singing in the surrounding trees, and there must be plenty of animal company around due to the abundance of kangaroo and rabbit droppings.

The cast-iron fencing around a grave

Looking down on road below, a horse and cart clip-clops slowly by. I decide this graveyard would be a perfect place to have a family picnic. It seems appropriate here to spend some time with the dead, even if it is eating while introducing kids to history and reality.

Some restoration work has been carried out around the place with re-enforced retaining walls. New timber markers have been erected on unmarked graves, perhaps temporary memorials until the next once-in-a-century, massive bushfire sweeps through. Some of the grey slate headstones have soot stains from previous fires. They are weathered and steel supports have been placed behind to brace against the ground movement and gravity.

The road into town below with horse and cart

The cemetery reportedly has over 1100 people buried here, although less than 200 plots have been located. The cemetery is so steep that some of the dead are believed to be buried in tunnels instead of conventional graves.

Headstone for William A. Fyfe aged 35. “Accidently killed at Long Tunnel Mine in 1899”

The 80,000 visitors mostly don’t come for the cemetery. There are other attractions in Walhalla such as gold mine tours, a tourist railway, a Chinese garden, historic buildings and hiking trails. I stick to my cemetery-tourist trail and suspect no other graveyard will look like Walhalla’s.

Information on Walhalla.

Accomodation: STRINGERS COTTAGE is a 1-bedroom original miners cottage $A140 per night with a 2-night minimum.

Getting there: 3 hours drive from Melbourne MAP

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Titisee – Black Forest (Schwarzwald) Germany

Titisee is a Black Forest village approximately 40 km from Freiburg and within easy reach via a scenic train journey. Or, you can arrive on a coach trip as the majority of visitors do. For the population of 1000, life revolves around catering for tourists. Summer or winter it doesn’t matter what the season, Titisee is a tourist magnet and it’s not because of the laughable name.

Adopting its name from the lake named after the Roman Emperor Titus, the Titisee tourists amble along the short pedestrian zone, down to the waterfront promenade with their cameras and enjoy the landscape of the forest and mountains around the lake.

There is the temptation to buy Black Forest ham, the famous Black Forest cake or bottles of Schnapps at various souvenir shops.  Also expensive cuckoo clocks or year-round Christmas decorations can be taken home as a treat.

Going cuckoo for clocks

A camping resort hides at the far end of the lake for holidaymakers who come to enjoy the outdoor recreation activities in Titisee.  The hiking trails available are endless beginning with an easy six kilometre walk around the lake.

During winter the lake ices over and areas are segregated for ice-skating. Over 40 meters deep in some places, no motorboats are allowed as the water is used for drinking. It is possible to rent odd-shaped rowboats, paddleboats, or ‘donut boats’ shaped as a donut for up to 10 people and sail around BBQing on the donuts. The older generation relax on a larger audio tour boat for 30 minutes.

Basically life revolves around the lake and buying a souvenir. But I have been to Titisee many times over the years and always seem to find something to occupy myself. Either hiking, drinking with locals at a small bar, snow fights or people watch over a gateau.

A new indoor tropical swimming pool and water slides has opened recently and I hope to go to in the near future.

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Black Forest intro