Russia Travelogue day 7: The Messi'ahhhhhh'

June 22,
We reached Nizhny at 5 in the morning. As has been the custom in my travels, I hardly slept. 5 am in the morning also meant that it was bright sunshine outside the station. We had to go through a lot of trouble to buy our hotel stay in Nizhny Novgorod or ‘Nino’ as Shaks insists everyone knows it by (Although I think she just read it once and has clung to it as fact). The only hotel we found was 5 miles away from city center. This, when we booked the place two months in advance. So, we got out and went to take the metro. It was weird to reach the metro gate and see it locked. Everyone had to wait for the gates to open which was a change from major cities like St. Petersburg and Moscow but then how many cities are as big as those two. The gates were opened by a guard at 6 am.

Google had told us that we had a ride from the train station and it was going to be a 4 minutes’ walk from there to the hotel. Surprise! we went inside the metro which turned out to be confusing again. The list of stations didn't match Google maps and I wasn't going to another wrong track right after the mishap last night. I am not that incompetent.  Therefore, I made sure to ask a Russian officer showing him the address. After confirmation that this metro does go to the address we were going to, we boarded the metro train. What do you know, we had indeed taken the wrong option. Google wanted us to not take a metro but a tram.  Good news though this was going to take us close enough to walk to the hotel as I saw the station in the map. The Russian officer had been right in his own way. Second good news that now I knew the difference between map symbols for metro and tram. See, I am not that incompetent.
The station wasn't anywhere near close enough when I got down and looked at the trusty Google maps for the shortest way to walk. Google was telling me that It was a 40-minute walk which didn't pass the eye test at all.  The hotel was right there! So, I decided to ditch Google this time and just jay walk across a big road. That risk brought the time down to a brisk 15-minute walk and let me tell you that with my back pack and Shaks’ bruising duffel bag it was no walk in the park. I mean that metaphorically, as literally, it was a walk in the park. No really, we had to cross a trail through an actual park to get there. On the way, we saw abandoned building with windows smashed.  I say its park and that is what it was called but it would be fairer to call it woods. The trail was not maintained at all. It seemed like this used to be an industrial town but now it was a set up for a horror story arc of our travels with abandoned buildings, empty warehouses, large factory silhouettes standing silently in distance… you get the picture.
Continuing with the horror story motif, we reached the hotel only after walking back and forth a couple times because it was a small in-road easy to miss from the main street. Strike 1: horror hotel in outskirts, hard to get to. Then when we finally located the road, before we could enter, a Russian woman smoking cigarette on the side told us something in her language and waved her hand to stop us from going forward. We smiled at her, told her we have reservation and moved ahead. Strike 2: a person warning us to turn back but we ignore/don't understand her. As soon as I opened the door, a strong smell of antiseptic and chlorine hit me. If you have been to hospitals in India in early 90s, then you know what I am talking about. The stairs to our 3rd floor room were wide like the ones you see in hospitals as well. So, strike 3: I suspect my hotel used to be a hospital. This horror movie writes itself.
With my senses tingling, like any sensible person who has seen horror movies, I ignored all these signs and crashed onto the bed. I really needed to sleep. I had a deep sleep as well. I woke up once and that was when I heard our door slam and shaks yell “who is it?”. Strike 4: No one answered. Well, probably one of the maids had opened the door. We went back to sleep. Once we were up and had taken a good shower, it was time to get to our cab which was already waiting. So, I grabbed our passports while shaks opened the door, or tried to.  It was locked, and the key which had been left in the key hole when the hostess showed us the room wasn't there. Someone had opened our room, taken out the key and locked it from outside! Strike 5: locked in the suspicious room, I tried to look around but no key. Shaks then called the reception and explained to someone who didn’t understand much English that we were locked in our room. At the same time, I sent a text to our cab driver, who was still waiting that we will take some time. The cab driver texted us back to after 5 minutes to ask what is happening? Finally, someone came and opened our door. Now we couldn’t just leave as soon as we got out. We had to go to the reception and explain again that we couldn’t find the key. The maids were asked and they said they didn’t take any key. Meanwhile, slightly disconcertingly the cab driver texted me “are you alright?” was this strike 6? I didn’t know. Promising the reception that we will look for the key again when we get back and getting a promise from them in return that they will let us in to our room in the night, we finally escaped to our cab.

Our cab driver turned out to have visited Boston. He had worked for a few months in Boston laying electric cables. That is hard, honest work. Chit chatting with him, we reached Nino and suddenly were in midst of an actual, honest to god, nice city. Nino has one major street which spans few blocks that is the city center. No cars in those blocks, it’s a nice area to walk in. surrounding that block are the kremlin on one side, few other parks on the other side and the end is a square where there was a fan fest being held for all the fans. Just like other cities. The street was full of Argentinian and Croatian fans. More Argentinians than Croatians but they were out in good numbers too. Lots of Argentina fans sporting wigs/ face paints and flags. There were so many Argentinian flags that they had draped statues with it and left it there. We had stepped out of our hotel, ready to go to the match after walking through Nino. Shaks was sporting her Argentina top, and I had the Argentina jacket to show my support.

Oh yes, before I get into the match, let me tell you about our Gucci conundrum. After we had food in an English pub for a change, we kept walking around Nino and got to a street that Shaks had noted we should explore too. It was a wide street with bunch of shops that were selling branded stuff. We walked into one of them, they had Hugo boss, Gucci t-shirts then they had accessories as well. Shaks tried a few things but wasn’t really taken by them. But then her eyes caught the Gucci bags on the display. She was even more excited when she saw the price. It was one third the price of the same bag in USA! She would have bought the bags right then as well but we had to go to watch the match. And as is my wont, I always discourage Shaks from buying stuff because I think I should act as a buffer to her shopping decisions. So, we decided to walk back to the shop the next day before we leave Nino and get that great deal.

Alright let’s talk football. You had think that this was a trip where we stumbled onto matches by accident, so less have I mentioned football in these pages. It changes now. I was excited to see Messi. So excited in fact that I sent a pic of the stadium to my mates with caption “Messi! Messi!” I don’t usually do these things so you can imagine how much I was looking forward to see Messi. I had gone to see Barcelona in USA but Messi had taken a break. I was only able to see my second favorite Barca player Iniesta and what a player he is. I remember first watching Iniesta and my jaw dropped when I saw this slightly bald, probably a clerk who had stumbled onto the pitch, take an amazing first touch and turn with the ball. Then Iniesta proceeded to glide forward with the football, while mesmerized defenders started somehow moving even slower than him. I couldn’t believe that this guy was on Barcelona bench and had come out in the last 10 minutes. That was 2006. By 2008 Iniesta was one of the best mid fielders in the world. But I digress, we are here to talk Messi. I don’t know how to talk about him. Much better writers than I have heaped adulation on the diminutive man. All I can say is that I have felt lucky to see Messi play and make abnormal normal with football at his feet. He has changed football and I am sure the likes of Eden Hazard, Mbappe, Kevin De Bruyne have a new appreciation and awareness of what is possible with a football. So yes, I was looking forward to Messi, hoping we get to see a moment of magic.

Now that we have talked football, let’s talk the match itself. Shaks and I stuffed into a bus and were driven to the Nizhny Novgorod stadium. All the way, I was impressed by the Croatian crowd’s ability to match the larger Argentinian crowd. I felt that they had much shorter and to the point chants. Just one line, or call and response. Argentinians, on the other hand and long, rousing chants. One that I don’t understand which Croatians were singing was something something “Messi puro champion” Argentinians had no response to that. Finally, we walked out and entered the stadium. There was a huge roar when Messi was announced and similar but smaller roar for Luka Modric. I like Luka as well, even when he played for Spurs. This was a feisty match. The section we were in had me slightly concerned. We were on level 2. Level 1 was all Croatian fans with top few rows of Argentinians. Then level 2 had Argentinian fans in front and Croatians fans again at the back. So we were sandwiched between Croatian fans. Then right next to the Argentinian fans below me were 4 Croatian fans in their 50s. As the match went on , they played more critical role in our section. The match was bad if you think from Argentina perspective. They were sleepwalking and Messi had no space. He always had three players around him as soon as he received the ball. No one in the Argentina team was making runs to exploit the space this triple team on Messi was providing. Even the best player in the world can’t do much at this stage. The Croatians rose into volume as the match went on. After all, they were the underdogs, playing against last world cups finalists. The 4 guys I talked about were standing right at the railing of level 2. They were doing call and response with the contingent below and then looking back behind us and continuing the chant. I could feel the Argentinians sitting next to them getting frustrated both with the match and there constant yelling right in front of the. I have to admit it was slightly provocative. First half ended like that. Then disaster struck in the second half, a terrible mistake by the goal keeper gifted Croatia the first goal. It seemed to take whatever fight Argentina had left out of them. Messi had to drop even further to try something. Tempers were getting high on the ground and in our section as well. The 4 Croatian fans were still at it, not in their seats, but right at the railing, looking both at the Argentinian fans and looking back at the rest of the Croatian fans. In Moscow, the security was really strict, once the match started they didn’t allow anyone to leave their seats and stand near the railing. Now it made sense why. Here, there was a teen girl who was wearing security vest. She was never going to come and ask these guys to sit down. Then on the pitch in 73^rd or so minute Messi had a tiff with an opposition player. That was the spark that lit the building tension. The 4 provocateurs leaned into the Argentinians faces and started shouting ‘Messi Puta’ , ‘Messi Puta’. One Argentinian had enough and he threw a punch at one of them. It didn’t really connect. I thought this was a start of big brawl and we were right in between the two sets of fans. Thankfully, the punch only was seen by small group of people and didn’t spawn a bigger fight. Some more security came to our section and stood there to mediate. Curiously, they also didn’t ask these 4 guys to go back to their seats. So, they kept provoking and they were really good at using words to cut the Argentinians. I didn’t have any stake in this but even I was annoyed by them. Then at 80^th minute Luka managed a great goal. From 20 or so yards away he curled a beautiful shot into the net. Goal keeper could only flail at it. The fans above me erupted and threw a bunch of beers in their cups down so I got a fair few drops on me too. I am surprised that after this Croatia scored only one more goal as Argentina had already quit. This match in a weird way was a real downer for me. I had been annoyed by those 4 guys, with beer being thrown on me and by the terrible display of Argentina. It has been a long time since I felt so heart broken by a display. After the match was over, I was afraid that there will be a fight breaking out because even as the match was winding down with Croatia the clear winner and Argentinian fans with their heads down in their seats, the terrible 4 were still at it. In fact, they would even go and sit right next to the Argentinian who had thrown a punch before. He refused to take his eyes off his phone thankfully. In view of this, as soon as the match got over, I wanted to get shaks out of that section. But guess what, shaks went down next to the warring sets of fans to take more pictures. One of the 4 Croatian dudes happily decided she wanted a picture with him and posed with her. She came back and told me, he told her, I am your fathers age. I understand Shaks, that we not coming back to this stadium and watching a world cup match, but I really didn’t want to take pics, I felt it was disrespectful to the team we were supporting, to brush off the loss so easily. It is very silly, as there were plenty Argentinians who I’m sure would have taken pictures but that’s just me. By the way, just after Shaks was done with pics, there was another scuffle when an Argentinian went right between those guys and put his hands on the railing slightly pushing them away. But by this time, Security was again back and they stepped in again. He protested that he was just untying the flag which he was. So, things remained on the simmer on our side. Later, I saw a video on the net of an alone Croatian fan getting beaten by Argentinians which just shows terrible people are everywhere and not just on one side.

We took the bus and got back to the city center of Nino. I had a large beer to drown my sorrow and Shaks drowned hers in a Tiramisu cake. I am again surprised by how badly I have taken this loss. It shouldn’t hurt this much. To top it off, we struggled to get home because I didn’t have any cash. My battery was running low as well so we made it to a bank to take out some cash. Their atm was closed. Then we stepped into a couple markets to see if they had atm inside. They were not 7/11, they didn’t. Finally, Shaks remembered that we had walked across an open atm before. So tired and sad, we walked around until we saw that atm. By the time we took the cash out, my phone was dead. Shaks’ phone was about to die as well and her internet doesn’t work that great anyway so we had to walk back to the spot where we had seen taxis. So finally, we got to the spot and reserved the taxi back to our hotel at 2 am. I was so sad that I didn’t even realize that it was strike 7: our phones were dead in the horror hotel arc.

We got back, and Shaks tried to explain to the Russian lady with her expressive face and equally expressive mime skills that our door was locked, someone needed to come up with us to open our room. The lady was confused at her until she saw me and then she remembered our morning issue. So Natasha came up and opened the door for us. I say Natasha because she remembered me otherwise it would have been a nameless receptionist. She is cute too now that I think about it. Shaks just rolled her eyes at me when I shared Natasha’s good qualities with her. There was no further horror waiting apart from the terrible smell that greeted us as we stepped into our room. It was coming from some pipe in bathroom. Shaks went to do her routine of freshening up and I dropped onto the bed. On a whim, I picked up the trousers I was sleeping in in the morning. The pocket had the keys I thought someone had taken from us. I was so sleepy in the morning that I had no recollection of going to the door, taking out the key and locking it. So, the only horror after all these strikes was the display of Argentina and we had already been through it.

I am taking comfort from the warmth of Shaks next to me in the bed. She slept as soon as she hit the bed. We have to go tomorrow to the train station to store our luggage before we move on with the rest of the day.

See you tomorrow.