England v Sweden Quarter Final.Rose early and hired a car and driver to take us to Samara, Home to the Russian space programs and Yuri Gagarin’s birthplace. A five hour trek south. Headed off at 9am and arrived around 2.30pm. By 4pm we had tickets and watched a huge contingent of Swedes wind their way to the stadium. It didn’t translate to amount of fans inside the stadium. 39,000 attendance. Loud England contingent.England 2-0 Win. Next up Croatia/Russia.Headed back with Valery and in Kazan for Midnight. Great guy and player of some great Russian hits.Declined the use of the roadside toilet…

Woke up in Kazan after flight last night.Lunch in Tartarstan fast food joint- very good. Headed to fan park for France v Uruguay, (finished 2-0, no Cavani and Suarez quiet) before Kazan arena for BRAZIL V BELGIUM Final score 2-1 …..Belgium.Steak dinner in nice place close to Hotel. Serenaded by enthusiastic Russian w/ national anthem. They love it. Decided to head to Samara.Crossing the Kama River southwards towards Samara.

Up and around St Petersburg for the last time. Beautiful day. We took an extensive walk around the city. Over to the Peter and Mary Fortress. Checked out the mini beach there. Saw Putin getting on a helicopter, turned out to be a tourist helicopter….Goose goose for lunch  near fan park then hipster place for a quick one before the flight.

Back to Bar to get jacket…Breakfast in Gasroti next door. We are located literally smack bang in the middle of St P.Loving it. Canals, wide avenues, beautiful buildings!No football today. Read, walked. Ended up getting haircut and walking an hour to dinner at 11pm…..but it was worth it! Blok was amazing!

Big Day! We got up and ventured to the Fifa ticket site on way to stadium. Scored tickets for 5pm game!! $150 each. Sweden v Switzerland Only a smattering of each set of fans. Very boring game. Great stadium. Built at excessive cost with backhanders etc…aren’t they all?Beautiful walk and surroundings. Oliver got a haircut.Made it back to the city for pizza and then the splendid tight fitting St Petersburg-slap-bang-in-the-middle-of-the-city fan park. Great setting with backdrop of beautiful buildings. Talked to lots of people and great crowd. 50-50 England/colombia fans.Penalties, then mayhem! Oliver danced with his top off with strangers. Read that again. So much fun. There was even random German guy co-opted by the England fans. Some good songs. I love the Vardy’s having a party one, and the “Drinking all your vodka” one has a good tune. “Who are you?” And “you couldn’t score in a brothel” raised Russian eyebrows! We then hit bars and I found my favourite beers! Brilliant. Then met a Sunderland fan. Click on the video link for that one!

We arrived early in St Petersburg and sat in an after hours club/breakfast place playing dance music till we could get into our apartment. We had some sleep 10-2pm then ventured out. Rainy and wet….makes a change from Kazan. More English spoken here and only two steps out the door and we’re being helped by friendly folks telling us where to go and how to get there.Brazil v Mexico followed by Belgium v Japan.Watched the Brazil game in a new Belhaven Bar then in another spot close by. Rain lashed down on us and we retreated to home!Brazil 2-0 Mexico Belgium 3-2 Japan

Russia v Spain and Croatia v Denmark

Both ended up on penalties with Russia and Croatia prevailing. Portugal, Argentina, Spain and Germany are all out. There will be a finalist from Croatia, Sweden, Switzerland, Colombia, Russia and of course England.

This is what we came for and wished for this game. Not an easy feat when the team you want to prevail ends up leaving it till the last five minutes to secure their place! Here we are- loads of Argentinians. 89% of stadium ends up being Argentine. Where are the French?

They’ve won 3 major tournaments and made at least Semi final in 7 others ( England is 1-3 in that department…).

Epic day- cycle around the city. Museum of So it’s life 60’s-90’s. Then games.

Argentina v France followed by Uruguay v Portugal. Back to hotel then back out at 1am for dinner. Home at 3am and walked home in the full light of morning sunrise. (2.15am).

Taxi to the airport. French and Argentinians on their way to Kazan. Delay of 2 1/2 hours saw us arrive at 4pm w/ Argentine National Team.

Met Da Fonseca (Monaco) waiting for delayed flight.

Kazan is a sprawling and epic city.

Up in the morning for a stroll, found some lovely Williams Brothers Beer available…

Walked through a superstore like whole foods. But much fancier w/ clothes too.

Sanduny Baths. 2-5pm. Russian sausage, caviar pancakes, Beer whilst partaking in sauna, massage and a leaf hitting massage technique.

All whilst wearing a hat….

Off to the first game:

Colombia v Senegal 5pm. Outside seating and ate Salmon carpaccio….1-0 Colombia who top their group and face G2 in 2nd round.

Japan finished 1-0 losers to Poland. 2nd place.

Off to the fan park (again), rowdy atmosphere with a 9pm start and many Muscovites out and about. Big screen, beer, rock band beforehand made for a good build up.

Game was flat as Southgate played a weakened team. England play Colombia then Sweden/Switzerland for a place in the Semi-Final.