We were also told we d be searched twice for pyros and intoxication (gulp!) and held back 15 minutes

The game itself might have been a damp squib, but the event of City s first competitive discount airfares cheap airline tickets European tie was a momentous occasion indeed. Amber Nectar travelled to Slovakia to see The Tigers take on AS Trenčín in Žilina. Instead of a match report, here s a travelogue piece of our beer drenched experience. Self indulgent? Yeah, probs.
Les:   Is it cruel to mock another person discount airfares cheap airline tickets s irrational discount airfares cheap airline tickets fear? Yes of course it is, but that s what s mates are for, and the four took great delight in the one becoming more ashen faced the nearer we got to Luton airport. By the time flight-fearing Andy boarded discount airfares cheap airline tickets the slightly delayed 7.25am Wizz Air service, his face was whiter than a boil-washed replica Leeds shirt.
Andy s coping mechanism was Dutch courage, and by the time the flight to Košice was airborne, he was at Eindhoven level and could sleep for the entire voyage. One of the Wizz Air stewardesses had the vague look of a Kraftwerk video robot and was amusingly named Vasilena. She probably wasn t as lubricated as Andy at this point however.
Matt s audacious earlier attempt to convince a security staffer that a 200ml bottle of deodorant was half empty so therefore within the permitted take on volume cut little ice, and his entreaties were ended before he was invited for a cavity search. No complaints about Wizz Air, in fact I d rather be flying back Anglicky-ward with them than Ryanair.
The taxi ride from the airport to Košice city centre was very brief, though perilous as the driver discount airfares cheap airline tickets thought he was Sebastien Vettel. We were delighted to find that the average price for a pint of beer (pivo) was just €0.70 and spent the afternoon exploring Košice's hostelries. The general rule seemed to be that the deeper the bar was in the building (most seemed to be in cellars) then the less the beer cost. Glorious sunshine was quickly replaced discount airfares cheap airline tickets by a torrential downpour as we sat outside a restaurant that claimed to be vegetarian but advertised discount airfares cheap airline tickets pork cutlets.
It was there where I first tried the 'black beer', which was a bit like a chocolate stout and delicious, though discount airfares cheap airline tickets it does unpleasant things to the innards as I later discovered. We found a supermarket selling discount airfares cheap airline tickets large bottles of beer (50p, 40p and 30p) and stocked up for the train journey to Žilina, which proved to be a beautifully scenic 3 hour meander through the High Tatras mountain range, though group member Tony was more interested in perving over a young Slovak lass (that is before he fell into unconsciousness).
We arrived in Ž-town by 7pm and soon found our hotel. I was greatly amused to find out Matt and Andy have a double discount airfares cheap airline tickets bed to share, but less amused by the odd bracketing that held the shower head and meant I soaked  the entire discount airfares cheap airline tickets room as soon as I turned on the shower. It was time to find yet more beer and heading to the Marianske Square, where we found an impressive contingent of City fans, some singing retro chants in a somewhat tuneless discount airfares cheap airline tickets manner. It ll be better tomorrow when game day focuses the vocal chords.
Astonishingly, that turned out to be true – and so at 2am, with everywhere dark and silent, we sidled out of Hull with a bag full of bacon sandwiches and another full of beer. 2.17am is the earliest start of my life. My mother will be so proud.
I really hate flying. I'm not interested in statistics about death-likelihoods, discount airfares cheap airline tickets it is a simple and straightforward violation discount airfares cheap airline tickets of common sense to hoist a massive winged cylinder of metal into the sky and pretend it's safe. Luckily, discount airfares cheap airline tickets we somehow made it safely to Košice and its harmfully cheap hostelries. 58p for a half-litre was the best we found, though throughout the entire discount airfares cheap airline tickets trip we rarely paid more than a quid. Amusing, during a Radio Humberside discount airfares cheap airline tickets interview the following day, this was one of the things they seemed to enjoy a mildly intoxicated me informing them about.
We knew we'd only get a few hours in Košice, and perhaps discount airfares cheap airline tickets we could have spent more time looking around it instead of diving into cheap underground bars. But what we did see seemed alright Mestský Park was near to the railway station, as was Jakab's discount airfares cheap airline tickets Palace. It's always good fun looking at which parts of a city formerly occupied by the Soviet Union still bear the scars of Communist thinking – to the presumed relief of the locals but the mild disappointment of this traveller, none were sighted in Košice.
The journey from Košice to Žilina discount airfares cheap airline tickets was a quite marvellous one. At 3½ hours it wasn't short, but we knew in advance it'd take us through the Tatra Mountains, part of the Carpathian Mountain range. I've always thought of the Carpathian mountains as being a long way east of anywhere, and somehow discount airfares cheap airline tickets darkly sinister discount airfares cheap airline tickets in nature – I attribute this solely to Vigo the Carpathian discount airfares cheap airline tickets in Ghostbusters II, who scared me a bit as a kid.
There was nothing evil in what we saw though – soaring peaks, twinkling blue lakes, rolling fields – together with our indecently cheap beer and the comfort of Slovak railways, this was one of the most enjoyable train journeys I've ever had. Whether Les enjoyed our friend Tony spending much of the journey unconscious on his shoulder is not really for me to comment upon.
It was a little after 7pm when we arrived in Žilina and piled straight into our hotel. At £16 per person per night we weren't expecting the Ritz, though functional door handles, the twin bedded rooms we'd booked and a working shower would all have been nice. Never mind.
By 8.45pm we were ready to go, and we headed straight for the Mariánske námestie square that'd been touted for some time as the best place for City fans to assemble. A beautiful and archetypally discount airfares cheap airline tickets European urban square, it was headed by the imposing (and when lit, gorgeous) discount airfares cheap airline tickets Church of St Paul the Apostle, featured fountains and greenery and most importantly, an array of bars. We encountered a group of Amber Nectar friends, ordered giant pizzas discount airfares cheap airline tickets for about €4 a pop and settled in for a good drink.
By midnight, our numbers were now about 16 strong (would've been 17 had Matt now wussed off early) and we alighted upon Charlie Chaplin's Bar, where ale flowed, conversation drifted in and out of City, and excitement about the following day reached intense discount airfares cheap airline tickets levels. By about 2am a small number calved off in search of some more risque entertainment; we remained and supped up, falling into bed at about 2.30am. Sorry for waking you up, Matt.
Matt:  (06.45)  Some of us aren t nervous fliers, but inexperienced with the ways of air travel. As a result, one can of deodorant, one tub of hair wax, one bottle of facewash and some aftersun was removed from the hand luggage for being too voluminous. The wax was half empty! So I head for Kosice with short-term concerns for my hygiene, hairstyle and complexion. Someone on the staff at Luton Airport is going to look and smell like him now
(09.20) The trim that colours the wings and interior decor of the plane is the same hue of purple as the City change kit of 1999/00. These are things you force yourself to notice when you ve already read the in-flight magazine and the two AN editors are asleep either side of you.
(17.00) One hour into three hour journey across very green and picturesque Slovakia countryside and you sense our number are now relaxed and starting to flag. Bottles of tasty (if unchilled) local ale are taken as the train pulls into Spisska Nova Ves, people struggle to acknowledge that they may need to rest up. Perhaps the level of intoxication is such that it matches entirely with the sense of realisation that comes with the occasion and, at last, we finally and full come to terms with the madness discount airfares cheap airline tickets that is: City in Europe.  Žilina has a lovely discount airfares cheap airline tickets piazza with big screens, two of them! And there weren t any tramps watching discount airfares cheap airline tickets rolling BBC News either. King Edward Street this was not.
Les:  "These shorts are awesome" said Matt abruptly, to Andy and I's puzzlement and disagreement, "but they don't have pockets" after he'd replenished discount airfares cheap airline tickets toiletry stocks "nicked by Luton Airport". We headed to the stadium to have a nosey while many in our extended group elected for a lie-in.
We arrived to find the stadium manager hoisting the UEFA Respect flags in one of the corners while muttering UEFA mafia! UEFA bandits! to our amusement. Matt was suddenly overcome with the need to babb so pleaded with the stadium manager and was directed to the women s toilets, becoming the first Hull City fan ever to use the MSK Žilina stadium women s bogs.
Then we headed discount airfares cheap airline tickets back to the rather pleasant main square discount airfares cheap airline tickets for our first pivo of the day. As the day progressed the number of Tiger Nationals in it swelled and there was even an appearance put in by Ehab Allam.
City fans were interviewed by both ITV and BBC in Marianske Square, and as some of them were filmed singing City till I die with flags, a member of the clubs corporate travel group sat at an adjacent bar moved in and placed a placard with the new sans-club discount airfares cheap airline tickets name crest in front of the camera. Really? What a classless and needlessly inflammatory act, seemingly designed to create a them and us dynamic.
Club stewards informed us that City fans should stick to the square and not wander around in colours discount airfares cheap airline tickets unless in groups, lest neo-Nazis issue a kicking, which goes against everything we ve learnt about Trenćin and Žilina fans being resolutely anti-fascist.
We were also told we d be searched twice for pyros and intoxication (gulp!) and held back 15 minutes after the game, standard Euro fare. N o promises on the intoxication score, have you seen how cheap the beer is?
The Neo-Nazi stuff turned out to be needless even if well intentioned scaremongering, and the supposedly confrontational attitude discount airfares cheap airline tickets of police and stewards greatly overstated. The Policia were ready for anything though, and dressed like players in the Speedball 2 video game . Trenćin s fans were quite tame, and losing the noise making battle to a full throated Tiger Nation relishing the occasion. Their fans did stump us at one point by singing the theme from Dallas . Eh?
It s a shame that City s performance didn t match the sense of occasion; they lack