Love, Beer, Ryneks and the death of a club
- Ruairi Sean Criscuolo
- Apr 9, 2018
- 18 min read
Updated: Apr 10, 2018
When I think about how I moved to Poland, I remember how quick and unexpected it really was. So, I had left Spain after two amazing years and returned to my parents to think about where next. After a while I decided to go to Budapest, a city I had fallen in love with when I visited in 2009 as part of a “Eurotrip” with a mate.
When we were there we met an awesome pair of Swedish girls (one of whom I definitely had a soft spot for) and a couple from England. We ended up spending the entire time together, drinking far too much and exploring what really is a fascinating city. I have vague memories of the famous ruin bars, playing foosball on a boat/bar and running around the city at whatever hour trying to climb statues.
I love the architecture and the history of any Ex-Warsaw Pact country. It really fascinates me to an unusual level. I'm not sure why this is. It might be that I love hearing about different ways that people live, or it could be that inside me burns a passion for Communism. I'm sure some people who know me may say that it's definitely the latter.
Anyway, back to Budapest, I also love that when you're a traveller there you feel like it's the door to the rest of the world. It lies on the River Danube and on the path into Asia. This means that people from all over the world gather here for a massive non-stop party on their way to other destinations.
This is basically what made me decide that it was the place for me, so I returned for a while to my crappy job in the hotel I had worked in before Spain, putting up with the disingenuous “Aww sorry did Spain not work out?” questions and pitying smiles. It was something I promised myself I would never do but, hey, it was a means to an end.
So, after getting the money together it was time to go. I arrived in August 2014 and started to hunt for both a job and a flat. It started very well and I had a lot of time to reacquaint myself with the city. Now two things happened that would see me return home once more.
Firstly, the hostel I was staying in had bed bugs. Really really not great. So they moved me into another hostel. Problem solved I thought, then food poisoning hit. Great.
This meant that I was having job interviews and looking for flats all whilst looking like Pete Doherty after a particularly long session. In between the job interviews and flat viewings, I could be found in bed watching Jonathan Creek and drinking massive amounts of water. Not quite how I saw my experience in Budapest starting.
Eventually I would decide that Budapest was sending me a clear message and it was time to go home, after a cheeky little trip around the Balkans. A post about these travels will come at some point in the near future.
So, I was back home again and looking for a job again. A job appeared in Poland in a city called Torun. I had never heard of it, but a quick Google search told me that Copernicus was apparently from there and that was good enough for me!
I had an interview and got the job. Sweet! Pack my bags off I go. Then I got a phone call that the job had gone, but their sister school in Bydgoszczcwczcyczcwcz was available if I was interested. Again, going along with my not thinking about things too much, I agreed and off I went.
The fact that I was sent to Bydgoszcz and not Torun is something that I will always be thankful for. No disrespect to Torun or the people I met there, but the people and times I had in Bydgoszcz really were the greatest I have ever experienced.
I was lucky that the school I came into was incredible and I improved as a teacher almost immediately. Also the group of teachers were incredibly welcoming, close-knit and we instantly formed a great group of friends. Straight from arriving I was invited on a “lads” weekend to Krakow, and it would all but melt my brain.
On the way to Krakow on a Polskibus (god I love Polskibus)with people I had met at most a week before, I was excited to see a new city and undoubtedly get pretty messy. I did not anticipate how messy it would get. After doing some sightseeing and eating dinner we went out to sample the local night life. It started slow, a few beers, a few vodkas then quickly accelerated into MDMA and a mystery drug that revealed itself to be some form of hallucinogenic. Here we go!!!
Well, I have fleeting memories of this night. A few that stick with me are a guy we were with falling down the stairs, me not realising how serious it was and thinking it was hilarious. Then talking to some random bloke at the bar whilst seeing diamonds shoot from my eyes and describing this all to the poor bloke, who must've wanted nothing more than for me to just fuck off. I remember for quite a while seeing myself dancing and walking into my own body on loop, failing to comprehend that my mate had bought a bottle of cordial, staring at it for a long time and throwing it across the club and walking off. Sorry mate. What order any of these things happened in your guess is as good as mine. Just the start I wanted in Poland if I'm honest. From this point I knew that I could trust the people I had come to Krakow with and that this year was going to be a lot of fun.
The most significant thing to happen to me when I arrived in Poland was meeting Chris. Now I can see you all rolling your eyes or just skipping this bit as, and I agree, this does have the potential to be awkward and uncomfortable, but I promise to keep it short and as entertaining as possible. This was the first serious relationship of my life and no-one has ever meant more to me. She made the two years awesome. We travelled a lot together and whenever I think of Poland she will always be the first thought in my mind. Right. Done.
So anyway, I had found myself in a fairly sweet situation. I was in a great school, in a flat on my own all paid for and people to get messy with at the weekend. What more could a guy want? A local football team to watch that's what!
Well, unsurprisingly I had researched this briefly. The local team was Zawisza Bydgoszcz and had just won the Polish Cup, beating the giants of Polish football, Legia Warsaw, in their own stadium. My expectations were pretty damned high, I'll be honest. So, of course, one of my first solo explorations around the city was to the stadium. It was quite impressive. As I walked around it I imagined it full to the rafters and the atmospheres that you see on YouTube. The likes of Poznan and Wisla Krakow.
My imagination ran away with itself and I went straight to the ticket office and bought a season ticket which, if I remember correctly, cost me £40. £40!!!! I definitely had to check the salesperson's English before paying. So, with my season ticket in pocket I carried on walking around the stadium to see if I could get a glimpse at the hallowed turf. My luck was in, there was a ramp that took you to a platform and from there I could see the team training. I was as excited as a child and couldn't wait for the first home game.
In an effort to meet new people, I had been told about a monthly event for people to practice their English and network at a local bar, so I decided to go down with a few colleagues and check it out. Here I met two lads. One I heard before I saw him. Alex a lad from Australia and Joe a guy from London, who I quickly learned was as into his footy as I am. Unfortunately was a Spurs fan. I decided to let him off and we arranged to go to watch Zawisza together. I don't really remember much else from that night after a few bottles of Bydgoskie. This would be a theme running through the year.
My first game was against Piast Gliwice. Zawisza had finished in the bottom half of the league before the winter break, this meant that they were in the “Relegation Round” and therefore only playing the teams that were also battling against relegation.
The crowd I saw was underwhelming to say the least. In a twenty-thousand seater stadium, I would say there were around four to five-thousand people and the atmosphere was not what you associate with Eastern European football. When I asked a student of mine, who was also a huge football fan and a big Zawisza fan, why this was he told me that there had been a falling out between the owner of the club and the “Ultras”.
It turns out that Zawisza fans had a big reputation for far-right views and hooliganism. There's what I had been expecting! So, in an effort to change the image of the club the owner had banned them all from the stadium. Now this was undoubtedly a good and noble act, but I think it would eventually lead to the ruin of the club. This also of course meant that the reputation of the owner within the city was very negative.
If I'm honest I was slightly gutted about this, as I wanted to experience the atmosphere you find on YouTube of the Zawisza fans before this all happened. I want to clarify that I don't feel at home surrounded by racists and thugs, but it could've been an interesting experience.
Anyway, in spite of this, I enjoyed the match a lot. Zawisza looked very good and went on to win 2-0 comfortably. One player in particular impressed me, a defensive midfielder called Kamil Drygas. He was someone who loved the club and was therefore a fans’ favourite. I think he had turned down moves to bigger teams in order to play for the club he loved. My kind of guy!
He was great at protecting the defence and dictating the play for Zawisza as well as popping up with the odd screamer of a goal to get the crowd on their feet. There were two other players who really stood out. The manager the previous season was Portuguese and he had brought some of his compatriots with him - Alvarinho and Micael.
Alvarinho was a striker; small, speedy and tricky. A player that always looked threatening and lively, and then Mica a midfielder who was adept at hitting a sweet free-kick and a long range thunderbastard.
It felt like they had a good squad that should've been much higher in the league than they were. Given more time and investment maybe they could push further up the league and cement themselves as an Ekstraklasa force … provided they survived the drop. This was not to be.
For the first season I was watching Zawisza, they won every home game. This caused two other people we went to the games with to demand that me and Joe came to every game.
One game that sticks in the mind is a game against Lech Poznan, one of the big boys of Polish football and the creators of the dance that Manchester City fans love so much now. I was looking forward to this game and hoping to keep my unbeaten streak going.
It was a tight start to the game but Zawisza had the best of it. Then the break in the game, in the twenty-fifth minute. Lech had a player sent off with a second yellow. This really opened the game up and Zawisza smelt blood. Shortly afterwards (in the thirty-third minute) they took the lead through Barisic. A well taken corner by Alvarinho towards the edge of the box, headed towards goal by a Zawisza player onto the head of Barisic to nod it in from about three yards. The rest of the game was comfortable for Zawisza and they really should have scored a few more, but still a famous win for the club and, all in all, a good result.
Poznan is very close to Bydgoszcz so it was something of a local derby and, for that reason,I expected a large away following to add the atmosphere, I learnt though that in a stand of solidarity with the Zawisza Ultras, all fans of other clubs boycotted Zawisza games. This both impressed and depressed me. On the one hand I can appreciate the unity of football fans - something I think should happen more n the U.K in relation to ticket prices, unpopular owners and various football clubs across the country. But on the other hand, they were all on the side of the racists and thugs. A tricky one!
Zawisza would go on to put up a good fight but unfortuantely their away form meant they were relegated alongside GKS Belchatow. A year after lifting the Polish Cup, this felt unexpected and damning.
So, the next year I would be watching Polish Second Division football. Yes of course I would still get a season ticket. What else was I going to do with my weekends? There was the added advantage that it would be even cheaper now!
My first year in Poland had gone incredibly well. I had a great group of friends, was able to go out and get messy most weekends and travel to some amazing cities around Poland and further afield. What’s more, as the summer came round, there were really very few better things than sitting in the Rynek (the market square) with a beer - sitting under the sun and through the warm evenings and nights until the early hours. I really do miss that Rynek and those times.
Poland is a hugely underestimated and underappreciated country. I think many people have an image in their head before they arrive that it simply does not deserve.
I remember one friend arriving on a visit and saying that he was surprised that people had iPhones (I won't name him, he knows who he is). As I travelled to different cities such as Gdansk and Krakow there was one city I completely fell in love with - Poznan.
The first time I went was when my Dad was out to visit me. We were walking round and in awe at the architecture of the city, especially the Rynek, but Arsenal were playing Liverpool and I insisted that we found a bar to watch the game. After trying several places we finally found somewhere that was showing the game.
This was a rarity in that Arsenal actually beat Liverpool and quite heavily. We had managed to meet a very loud American from Florida and a quieter Canadian guy, We got chatting and at first I couldn't wait to leave as the loud American was quite irritating when it came to football (sorry Andrew). It was nothing personal really. I just dislike hearing opinions on football from Americans. After a few beers I swapped numbers with the guys and thought nothing of it. I would return to visit those guys several times and they would become good friends.
One of the visits was for a charity five-a-side tournament, and this is where my crowning sporting moment would happen. Please allow me to indulge myself and tell you the story of a moment of magic from the left foot of a very average player.
Me and Joe arrived in Poznan on the Saturday morning and attempted to find the Sports Centre. It was incredibly hard to find but thanks to a student who had seen us looking lost and gave us a lift to the place, we arrived only slightly late.
In our first game we won 1-0 with a penalty which our goalkeeper (Andrew) insisted on taking. Thankfully he scored. The second game we drew 0-0, so we needed a win in our final game. We were playing a team whose average age was probably sixteen, but for my ego they were all elite athletes who played semi-pro football and ran marathons.
With the game coming to the later stages, on comes Criscuolo in a last ditch attempt to win the game. I don't really remember doing much on the pitch, which is pretty normal for me. I was hovering around the edge of the box (40 yards from goal at least) when the ball came to me. I looked up, saw no options and no one closing me down. I took a touch and hit it with my left foot. It flew through the crowd of players and into the top right corner. BOOM!
I wish someone had been filming as I would love to watch it back. Not least of all, because Joe told me the look on my face was one of utter surprise and joy. I remember being swarmed by my teammates and then the whistle was blown. Glorious.
We were into the semis facing a team we had already watched. They were much much better than us and in the end it showed. I think it was either two or three nil. They would eventually go on to lose the final. We wanted them to win so we could at least say we lost to the eventual winners.
We returned the following year with less success and my hangover would mean that I didn't get a second shot at glory.
Memories like this of course make me love Poznan, but I love it for other reasons too … like the fact that it is such a diverse city with people from all over the world studying and working there. This means that it is a very young city and it has great bars and clubs to match. Getting out of the centre is great and taking a walk around the lake and stopping at a few bars as you go.
But back to Bydgoszcz. Within Poland it is thought of as an ugly city, and I can kind of see where people are coming from. If you go out to the suburbs it is very grey and a bit run down, but I found that quite charming in a weird way.
But the Rynek and the area around it is glorious when the sun shines. Walking along the river on to Mill Island and the beach bars along the river really did make great places to just relax and get over a hangover together in.
There are far too many nights to try to remember in that city, but the ones that stand out are when I had visitors from home (such as the boys’ numerous visits where the 50p a beer never lost its novelty) or special occasions, such as Chris' birthday (we recorded a video of birthday wishes in which I forgot to appear until the next morning looking far from my best).
In my second year in Poland we got a lot of new members of staff as many had left the previous June. I moved in with a lad called Adam and it was a great year living together. Neither of us were particularly tidy, so the flat we had, which was very, very nice, rather quickly became a throwback to student housing. Our flat became the gathering place for everyone when we fancied a night in drinking, watching the football or occasionally the rugby.
The second year was when I felt at home. We had friends away from work and, when I walked around the city, I would bump into people I knew. This is a feeling that, when abroad, takes a long long time to get.
There were new bars and restaurants opening and Bydgoszcz felt like a city on the
rise. Unfortunately for Zawisza they were not on the rise.
The new season began and expectations were relatively high. They had lost Mica and Alvarinho and several other players, but had brought in what seemed like good players for the level … including a player called Jean-Yves M'voto. I can hear you saying “Who?!” but for me he was a legend and I was looking forward to seeing him play.
He was a player I had brought to Crewe Alexandra several times on Football Manager on a free, and he had always shored up my defence and lead me to promotions all the way to the Premiership. He is a mountain of a man and, to be honest, is a bit of a journeyman, but with my expert knowledge from Football Manager I was convinced he would be the key to Zawisza's promotion. I think one of the best things about Football Manager is when you get to see a player you “discovered” “make it” and see them play live.
Unfortunately, the season did not go as planned and Zawisza struggled in mid-table mediocrity. This is one of the lowest levels of football I have ever been to see. Despite this I managed to convince the boys to come and see a game when they were visiting. It was not a classic and I think the boys may still hold it against me that I dragged them to it. Zawisza were playing Bytovia Bytov and it went like this ...
It was a cold and rainy day in April. We made our way down to the stadium and decided to pay the extra for seating with a roof above it. This meant that we were surrounded by what was left of the “Ultras” and for a good while it felt fairly uncomfortable to speak English around them. We did thankfully meet a student of mine and his dad, which made it seem more relaxing.
Unfortunately the football was anything but comfortable. Bydgoszcz found themselves two down fairly quickly and were playing some of the worst hit and run football I have ever seen. At this point the roof began to leak on us and I had that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you think you've fucked up massively. I have insisted the boys come to this game and they end up watching glorified Sunday league and getting pissed wet through.
Half time beers at 50p a pint and a Kielbasa definitely seemed to improve the morale amongst the boys and a late long distance goal from Zawisza helped to reignite expectations. The second half ebbed out with Bytovia getting a third and compounding Zawisza's misery before a late comical consolation goal. Thankfully the boys just found it hilarious that the football was so bad and that I could watch that every week.
Having mates visit me is always the highlight of any year. I'm very lucky that I have friends that have been willing to follow me around the globe, check that I'm ok, get incredibly drunk the whole weekend, go home and leave me to teach in a state of paranoia and dry heaves.
All of the weekends they visited have kind of blended into one by now so the stories are a bit confused and in no particular order.
The main things that stick in my mind are not things we did but just sitting round in the Rynek or on the beach bar on the river having a beer and catching up. I find that when friends come to visit of course you do the main touristy things of wherever you are and you try to do culture, but ultimately all you want is to sit, relax and chat like you would if you were at home. Where you are doesn't really matter. It is the fact that they are there that matters.
As the year went on, Zawisza's season finished disappointingly just outside of the play-offs but the closed season would bring much worse for them.
Summer comes, work is over and the Euros in France are upon us. Four games a day, sunshine, cheap beer and multiple pubs filled to the rafters with people. My idea of heaven.
We had met a few Irish medical students, and with me being a “plastic Paddy”, I was more than happy to support Ireland with them. One game that sticks in my mind is of course Ireland vs Italy. A famous and, of course, unexpected victory for Ireland through a late Robbie Brady goal. A day worth remembering in any event. Add to that the fact that me and my mate Joe had received calls earlier from my student who we had met in the stadium saying that Zawisza had gone out of business and asking whether we wanted anything.
It was a shock, I felt sad for the fans that had kept going and thought how strange it would be for a city like Bydgoszcz to no longer have a football team. But we didn't hesitate and we both asked for the shirt of our favourite player, which for me was of course M'Voto. So,I now have a match-worn shirt from a player that I “discovered”.
Writing this post and reflecting on my time in Poland, I realise that it was the best time of my life so far. The people I met (far too many to mention), the school I worked for and the travelling I was able to do around that country was unbelievable. I have often thought of returning when I have felt low or struggled, but I know that it would not be the same. You simply have to appreciate the time for what it was, not try to replicate it and hope that you get something close to that again somewhere else.
Saying goodbye to Poland was very difficult and the start of it came in a week on the Baltic coast in the Tri-city of Gdansk, Sopot and Gdynia. A group of nine of us rented an Air BnB and made the most of the time.
A lot of the time was spent on the beach, sunbathing with a beer. How this place isn't more popular is beyond me. It is easily as nice as any beach in Spain. It;s a quarter of the price and the food is much, much better. But these are the memories that always bring a smile to my face ...
Firstly, we decided to go to a waterpark and this definitely brought out the kids in all of us. There was a slide like a rapids. We thought this would be great for a race. Cue the rest of the day spent with us physically fighting our way down this slide repeatedly. We came out with a lot of bruises and my mate Joe turning to me and saying “I'm thirty odd how is this still great?”.
Secondly, one of our nights out in Sopot, where everything just seemed to come together. It was one of those nights where you find the perfect level of drunk and just stay there; when you randomly find a club that is playing great music; where you can grab a McDonald's at the end of the night and, for whatever reason, you jump in a bush, let your friends film it and end up with cuts all over you.
And Finally, the nights spent in the flat when we just cooked dinner, drank and chatted. I realise now this may all sound far too sentimental, but it really was a great way to end an incredible two years. And with the end of that week it was time to leave.
Here are some photos I just needed to add of people or times that weren't mentioned but made my time in Poland incredible.
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