With summer vacation right around the corner, it's high time for The New York Times to devote an issue to family travel. And what better way to experience a summer vacay in England than watching your favorite soccer team lose to West Ham United?
That's what writer Henry Fountain did recently, and though Arsenal lost, he and his son had what sounds like a bang-up time at the team's new stadium:
There were plenty of cheers and some vulgar language, but the place was so big and open that the noise was hardly overpowering. Which left us to concentrate on the game.
We're especially impressed that he bought his tickets from a contact he found on Craigslist. You should have plenty of time to dig up your own tickets if you want to catch a game: the next Premiership season doesn't start up until August 11.
We are constantly searching for the most timely and useful travel information on locations around the world. We have always found that boots on the ground is a great way to sift through the marketing clutter and bring you the travel tips, information, and opinions you crave. However, now it is time to kick it up a notch. First, we are searching the world for folks who can take you on a field trip of their "backyard." When we find these folks, we then embed them into their local travel scene and ask them to be our eyes and ears out in the field.
We are expecting the same sort of grainy video, choppy sentences, and snapshot photos that you are use to seeing from embeds. The rub is, at the end of the day we should be left with a backyard travel guidebook like no other.
Our first embed is Benji Lanyado of London, UK. He is a budget travel columnist for the Guardian Newspaper in the UK. He also is the fearless leader of Youngin Europe, so expect his guide to skew young, but not that young, we intend to keep this thing legal. He lives in London and enjoys ranting about football.
Now that you have all the particulars, sit back and enjoy the trip.
London :: Football Pie, mash, and jellied eels along the way.
For our penultimate jaunt round London, I'm taking you all to the footy. My relationship with the beautiful game, or soccer as the yanks would have it, borders on obsession. But there is method to my madness. Football is, and always has been a cultural vehicle, offering real, local experiences beyond the scope of any usual tourist experiences. In fact, I try to catch a game every time I travel.
The perfection that is David Beckham, and his wife, Victoria Beckham (a.k.a. Posh Spice), are headed for LA. Shortly after news broke that his contract with Real Madrid would not be renewed, Beckham confirmed that he signed a new deal with the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team--one worth a reported $250 mil. Posh & Becks are a far bigger celebrity spectacle abroad than they are here in the mainstream, but Becks has long been a blog favorite for his looks, as has his wife Victoria, for her friendship with TomKat and crap boob job.
That means we have a potential new celeb travel blitz on our hands, but not necessarily of the Super World Traveler sort. With all that dough, and Posh's affinity for spending it, we see a whole lot of uneccesary LA hotel stays in their future. You know, the kind Britney Spears takes at places that are only, like, a ten minute drive from her house. We'll give ourselves $5 every time one or both of the Beckhams check into one of the following area hotels, $3 when they're spotted there: The Raffles L'Ermitage, the Peninsula, Shutters on the Beach, the Chateau Marmont, or the Beverly Hills Hotel. Brownie points but no money for every time they drop by the Scientology Celebrity Center.
With the World Cup approaching, there will be much discussion in the coming months equating the behavior of fans to their national stereotypes: the English are drunk and belligerent, the Brazilians are drunk and naked, the Italians are drunk and enthusiastic, and so on. While we don't buy into those kind of stereotypes--we went to a school that encouraged sensitivity--there has to be some kernel of truth in them. After all, there's a book about it, called How Soccer Explains the World, written by Franklin Foer, who currently edits the New Republic.
Keeping those things in mind, we present to you this clip of the 1991 European Championships semifinal, played at Red Star Belgrade's home stadium. Americans may think their fans are tough, but all they do is hurl abuse, possibly some beers, or disco records. These fans have organized chants and their own pyrotechnics. Hardly seems in the same category. In a related note, whipping a bunch of Serbs into a frenzy in the early 90s didn't end so well. Maybe keeping soccer fans drunk and happy instead of organized is the way to go after all.
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