Kazakhstan is well connected with the Russian rail network which is very easy to travel on and it soon will be accessible using the "Iron Silk route" via Turkey, Georgia and Azerbijan:eek: although you need to get a boat across the Bosphorous until 2013 and another one from Baku across the Caspian sea.

I recently did the journey that was talked about earlier for the game against Armenia.
09.00 to 02.30 2 days later on the Istanbul to Kars train, almost made it on time but we got held up on a loop waiting for a derailed wagon to be rescued.
No direct bus from ther to Georgia and I missed the one cross border bus so it took two minibuses, three taxis, an unforgettable Armenian bus full of turf and a 3 km walk to reach Yerevan instead.
A week later I traveled Yereven to Tibilisi, the train had 12 sleeping cars stuffed full of Armenians going to the beach in Georgia.

Back to Euro 2012, and our finals draw saw us sent to Gdansk and Poznan in Poland. Poznan is well connected to Warsaw to the East, and from Berlin to the West. As usual, overnight transport back is available but limited. It's 2am before anything moves out of Poznan, 3 hours after our games end.

Gdansk is the most Northern outpost of the championship, and hosts our toughest game against Spain. It's also a night game, and barely leaves half an hour after the final whistle back to Warsaw. Miss it and it's a 5 hour wait until the next one.

Irish fans will base themselves in Krakow, Lodz, Warsaw, and Wroclaw as well as the host cities themselves. There's a lot of interrailing to be done.

Does Inter-Rail get suspended for the relevant countries for events like this?

Dont bother with Inter-rail tickets on the East side of the old Iron curtain, train fares are still quite cheap there. I would say dont buy anything except in Poland or from the PKP website if they offer such a service.

Might end up travelling on familiar looking stock if you go to Ukraine!

Competition
 

There's trouble up north :rolleyes:
http://fisherbelfast.com/no-northerners-need-apply/ (note the reply from IE in the comments)

It made the BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-17741233

and Slugger O'Toole:
http://sluggerotoole.com/2012/04/17/...across-europe/

Translink do the same, can't even buy a discounted ticket without a UK address

urgh, got brain fade half way through the slugger o toole comments section.

here is an example of myself being accused of being partitioist by various SF people (same sort as commentators on that blog) on twitter.

I asked why RTE were leading the radio news with a story that several hundred jobs were being created in Belfast. It would be the same, I suggested, as saying several hundred jobs had been created in Liverpool (actually I think i used birmingham, but Liverpool is closer again). None of those jobs benifet our ecomony (and yes I got taken to task for not including the wee catholics of Belfast as not being "ours"), none of the taxes arising from them come here, they will not reduce our unemployment rate nor raise our employment rate.

This led to a predictable amount of "partitionist" accusations from, as i said, the likes of that on the Slugger O'Toole site. I find this "stick your fingers in your ears and hum loudly" stuff - post GFA and post Referendum on Arts 2&3 and the Governement of Ireland Act - to be annoying. There may or may not be a physical boarder, but there is a politicial and soverign one. Belfast, and Northern Ireland, is still a constituant part of the United Kiingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

No amount of SF/Stickies agenda within the RTE newsroom and at whetever level of RTE deems it important to treat news that happens in a part of the UK as if it was happening in the State of Ireland (interesting legal note - we dont live in the Republic of Ireland, it doesnt actually exist, we live ina State called, in Irish Eire, in English, Ireland) will change this fact, nor being taken to task by them for daring to point out the obvious realiity that exists. Ironic that a SF polititian can, when it suits him, recognise the existance of this state, when most of the time they dont by constantly referring to where I am a citizen of as "the 26 counties" or "the free state", so before picking holes lads, you should start by recognising the legitimacy of the state down here.

Same goes for yonder boarder blogger and "offended of Derry" in relation to this harmless promotion. One thing I have noticed from anything on the net, though, is that once one Shinnerbot comments on an article, within 12 hours dozens more of them will be on-site to back him/her up, not matter how trivial and harmless the original percieved offence was.

Still, beats blowing things up I guess. A favourite historical past-time of the Replican movement in relation to Irish Rail services in northern ireland, and one for which an "RoI" address was not a condition of participation.

Good to have got that rant off me chest.

You would expect such an "amazing trip" to have at least decent accommodation. Not this one though. You get to spend 11 nights on a patch of grass aka "campsite" in rural Poland, and like it or not, you have to take it.

On the plus side you do get €1k spending money, even if you only need half of it. :o

It's a shame though that IE only recognised that the Euros are on only now. Most fans going to the arsehole of Poland made their travel arrangements months ago.

Extra services have been laid on for the finals. An extra Berlin-Poznan train has been put on at 15:40 local time for the championships, while a direct service to Gdansk serving Berlin is also set to be introduced shortly. The only direct service between the cities leaves Gdansk before 7am local time the day after the Spain game.