On the trip to the Europa League final
In economics, there is such a term - "black swan". So called events, the probability of which is so negligible that no one takes them seriously. And yet, from time to time they happen, forcing everyone who has to do with it to clutch their heads. .
With the final whistle of the match "Dnipro" - "Napoli", the understanding came that in less than two weeks we will witness a unique event that will take place very close to Ukraine - the place of the Europa League final was incredibly close to the Ukrainian border - from Lviv to Warsaw only 380 kilometers! With a multivisa in my passport, I immediately decided that I would go to the match, but what about the rest of the Dnepropetrovsk fans? The peculiarity of the Europa League tournament grid (as well as other European competitions) is that they have a long winter break, but the final part of the tournament passes very quickly - there were exactly 13 days from the semi-finals to May 27, of which only 9 were working. This is critically small for obtaining a Polish Schengen visa, it was necessary to act quickly.
And already on Friday morning on the Internet we posted information about a trip to the Europa League final with a departure from Lviv! The desire to form a good tourist product led to the idea that a tour is needed without night crossings and overnight stays in Poland (as a result, ITravel! turned out to be almost the only company in Ukraine that offered a tour without night re-runs, which is good news) . This was probably the most stressful day in the office. People started calling! The most popular question on Friday was the question of buying tickets for the match (I was quite surprised by this fact, because it is very difficult to get a visa at such a time, while it is obvious that the winning team of the semi-final will receive its quota). The intrigue was fueled by the silence of the press service of FC Dnipro on this matter - but we already had the first answer to this question. One of the online ticketing services could offer everyone tickets for the match, though at slightly inflated prices. The mechanism is simple - many fans bought tickets for the match in advance, and after the defeat of their favorite team, interest in the match disappeared, and these tickets could be redeemed. It was especially interesting to answer calls from Warsaw - it was impossible to buy tickets in the Polish capital, and we advised the Varsovians, mainly our compatriots, how to buy a ticket for the game.
It quickly became clear that we would have to work seven days a week, and our whole team, with a sigh, rearranged the alarms for early on Saturday. The feeling that we are involved in this holiday, that we can help people realize their dream was overwhelming. The geography of calls in just one day was amazing - our tour was found from Lviv, Nikolaev, Kherson, Odessa, Kyiv, Kharkov and many other cities. Needless to say, completely different people were also interested in the trip - from students to pensioners, but the fact that the vast majority were men probably liked our female part of the teamJ. Men in Ukraine travel much less often than women, and this is actually very bad (however, this is a topic for a separate article).
The news about the simplified issuance of Schengen visas was not particularly news for us - we knew about the preparation of such a decision, but there was no 100% certainty in this, therefore, when booking our tour, all tourists could apply for a visa without a personal presence at the visa center – the only condition, as in the case of the personal submission of documents to the visa center of Poland, was the availability of the original ticket for the match.
But many have already bought tickets on the Internet, in which other names and surnames were written! ! From the point of view of access to the stadium, this does not matter - tickets for such European competition matches are always named, the name may not match the real recipient of the ticket. But without a ticket, we could not get a visa, which is unacceptable. And then we decided to take a radical step (now we can reveal a couple of secrets) - for every tourist who, for some reason, could not present the original ticket in his last name, we bought a ticket for the match, already named. This is the right step, if only because there is a small, but risk that the tickets ordered on the Internet will be fake or invalid (on the forums they wrote about isolated such cases). In such cases, the money for tickets is returned, but this will be small consolation for those who traveled more than 1000 km for this event! In general, our "airbag" was already ready.
And our swan, only not black, but blue-white-blue, set off! Accompanying the trip (130 people - a rather big company) is also a team of guides, but what kind of team without a uniform? Here we are.
In Lvov, buses lined up near the station were already waiting for us. For such an event, we ordered the best cars from Lviv fleets, which transported the national teams of Germany and Holland to EURO 2012. And there, and here in the end the Spaniards won . . but let's not get ahead of ourselves. The road to Warsaw was remembered first of all by the insanely long customs work - despite the fact that due to the early departure we were earlier than the rest of the buses, the clearance procedure lasted 1.5-2 times longer than usual. At a gas station near Lublin, the lights went out during a stop, and near Warsaw, the bus was stopped by the police and we drove into the city, accompanied by police cars. The atmosphere of great football was captivating, and when a handsome stadium with a capacity of 70.000 spectators appeared on the horizon, hearts beat even faster.
The tickets that were ordered on the Internet came all right, so our reserve sold out very quickly right in front of the stadium - there were enough people who wanted to see the match. The names on tickets bought online are mostly Italian, but sorry, Neapolitans and Florentines, today is simply not your day.
It's not worth describing what happened next - everyone who could see the match saw it. I personally remember only one moment. It's no secret that many of our fans were afraid of defeat or just a one-sided game (for non-football fans, our team's opponent in the final is the most titled team of this modern tournament and simply the clear favorite of the match). The first half passes, the score is 2-2, and in the eyes of the Spaniards there is no longer that confidence in victory, as at the start of the game. There is a beautiful football fight, the tension is incredibly growing...
. . And then the stadium starts the song "Chervona Ruta". In full voice, to the whole stadium.
And I understand that we have already won.
That right here, before the eyes of the whole of Europe, a little-known team gives a real fight to the European grandee. And we sing our love song to our full height and at the top of our lungs.
Victory in such a match is always a smile of Fortune, someone is a little more lucky. Dnipro gave us a fantastic evening, which we will tell our children about.
Well, we are just happy that we became involved in this day!
Thank you for all your help:
Evgeny Pereverzev
To Mikhail Tonkonogiy
Passenger Transportation Department of the Lviv Railway
To the team of the tour operator "ITravel Agency! "