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IN LISBON FOR BENFICA...


In Lisbon we went by airplane thanks to then the owner of the agency "autoroller" Peri Jercic, who was a member of Torcida himself. Two planes went there, from those two planets, 50 members of Torcida, because Pera let us pay only 100 deutschmarks instead of normal price of 700. That game was special and the whole atmosphere was special. On the first game in Split, No Name Boys (Benfica ultras) came with one combi, 9 of them, they were friendly, I don't want to say lost, so like that we took them in and became friends with them, and looked after them. On their way back they had a terrible car accident and 2 of them died, so that game was even more symbolic. We all wanted to know how the story will be when we get there...
Airport, before midday. The group is killing time by drinking, as we await the call for us to be searched. But there is a problem, we have one more person that would like to go, but doesn't have a ticket. What are we gonna do now? And we thought of something. Because we carried that huge bag, with 4 handles and in there was a banner "Torcida Brda", we're gonna put Mato from Brda put inside the bag, cover him over with the banner and go through!? Sounds crazy, but worth a shot. Four of us were struggling carrying the bag that suddenly had extra 80 kilos. So as we went to be searched, we started to argue and yell out and stuff, they asked us what do we have in the bag, we said a banner, he said al right, just felt it on the top and said that we can go trough. Mate went trough...so we carried him upstairs in the waiting room which was empty, and he got out. We waited a couple of more minutes there, and we started drinking again (Trepeca, fro example, didn't sober up 3 days, he was drunk the whole trip and back). And finally we enter the plane.
That flight pilots and stewardess "Croatian Airlines" will remember as one of the worse they had, the same experience would later on be shared by the rest of travellers that got into our plane (in the plane there were 50 of us, and 100 of other people, but we didn't all sit together, we were located everywhere around the plane). 3 and a half hours to get there. stewardess started to push those trollies giving out that miniature food that you can eat with a single bite. We all took whiskey, no one chose soft drink. Mate the postman and myself were sitting together. We ate those , if you can call them, sandwiches, and were more hungry than before...so we pulled out a bag with some meat and garlic, and some knife like the villagers. Later on Uso who was the leader of the trip, came to us and said how the people that work at the plain complain about the 'light weapon' that we posses. As the time passed, everyone got more and more drunk. There was no more whiskey on the plane, we drank it all. Now they started handing out those wine coolers, and as she was passing by, Trepce grabbed her butt. She started flying with the trolley, she started yelling something, and after that, they stopped serving us (and walking near us). Drunk Trepce gets the idea to put on a banner outside the windows, so that everyone can see, like in a train. So he's walking and falling over people, trying to figure out how to open the windows, and as we explained to him that you cannot open those windows, he didn't let go, he took the banner and placed it inside the plane. Mate and myself entertained ourselves when we learned that the girl that was sitting in front of us was scared of flying. So we started talking louder so she can hear us:
-"Image if the plane started falling down all of the sudden"
-"Huh"
-"The whole Slobodna Dalmacija newspaper wouldn't have enough spaces for the names of the death"
....She was totally shocked, she turned around and said..."How can you say things like that", she started pulling her hair, and we just laughed. The plane was already a mess. Cola and drunk Toro started aruging how's going to go to the toilet first, and started fighting...Fists flying everywhere at 10 000m above the sea level. Steurdese started screaming, the group jumped on them and separated them. Cola went back to his seat, while Bosna held Tora who was mad, because Bosna said that he should go up there and apologize. Toca said "What did I do, that I have to say sorry to him", Bosna finally convinced him and as they went to Cole, Cole just said "Go away, go away", and in rage punched the seat in front of him, and the old guy that was sitting in front of him feel of his seat. That all happened as we flied above the Marseille and the pilot spoke through the microphone saying that he will be forced to fly down to Marseille if we don't stop with troubles. Nino Aviani goes up the front, opens the door to the pilots cabin, sets of a firecracker and closes the door... The pilot didn't do nothing and we ended up in Lisbon after all. As we went out of the airport, there was a group of No Name Boys waiting for with some old car and our "Torcida Kombi" that went there by combi, and were totally drunk. That night, NNB made us welcome and didn't leave us alone for a second, we even had to run away from them, because we just couldn't stand any more of their good will. They were with us all the time, in the hotel, in the city. That night we were in hotel, I gave them a bottle of pelinkovac (strong alcohol), which when they asked me at the airport what it was, I said traditional Croatian fruit drink, and they were happy. After that we went to the sea side suburb and there we were at the bars and with the prostitutes, until the garbage man didn't come to clean the streets with the water truck. We were surprised that in some bars they had Hajduks scarves and the tapes of our singers, that were left by our sailors.
In the morning we somehow made it to the hotel (at the seats next to the reception there was Trepce, he was sleeping there, and he continued sleeping there, because he couldn't find his room. We slept a bit, we took a subway and went to the stadium. There we looked around their souvenir shop. Friendly hosts took us to their supporters fan club, which is located under one of their stands, and we all enrolled in their fan club. Nino Aviani signed in all his family members even his birds, and was the only one that wanted under the location field on the card instead of TORCIDA/SPALATO to be simply "Split" instead. So that he can have the only card that says Split. Very special person indeed. After that we went on to some field to play a game of soccer with them, but we played for a very short time, because the ball had a puncture. The result wasn't important because the teams were mixed. Later on they took us to the restaurant next to the stadium. We ate, and drank, and then started singing. First we get up sing one of our songs, then they get up and sing one of their's and so on... Then anthems, and one of them even climbed up on the table, and started dancing their traditional dance, kicking all the bottles off the table. Crazy.
Then we went back to the stadium, and placed us alone in the sector, that hold like 20 000 people. One of us said that we should spread around the sector so that it looks as if there are more of us. We somehow managed to shorten the gap on the sector with the big flag Torcida Brda. Before the game we had a program. One of their ultras leaders had alive eagle with him, and came up to our sector, opens the gate,and together with him Bosna and Panda, and placed some flowers below their new banner that was in honor of their friends that died on their way back from Split. During the game 50 of us didn't stop chanting and singing, while other 250 tourists would sing only at times. We lost the game, but we heard the results of other games in our group so this result didn't matter much. In front of the buses, Mate the postman showed off his knowledge of 8 different languages and saved the journalist Jurica Radic from delicate situation. Around the stadium we could walk freely, the police didn't follow buses. Some boring supporters started to talk to Jurica and wanted to exchange for scarves. Jurica didn't want to, but this guy was so boring that he couldn't get rid of him. And then comes Mate. Comes up to Jurica and said "Let me handle this I know 8 languages", and the dialog looked something like this:
- "The guy doesn't want to exchange scarves, he doesn't want it, because he said that he already has one" (all in Croatian but with strong Bosnian accent).
- "You understand, this guy doesn't want to exchange, no, he was the same one already" - Mate continues. The lost Portuguese just turned around and walked away. "Fuck it, how I can get a person out of a okward situation, because I know 8 languages"...and we all started laughing.
We went to Lisbon one again the day after the game. That day we spent mostly like a tourists walking around the city running away from our dear hosts. Because, you'd like to buy a scarve of Porto or Sporting, but how can you do that in front of them. I know that I wouldn't like if a stranger comes to Split and insists of buying scarves of Rijeka or Dinamo. As we went back to the airport, our friendly Croatian Airlines staff didn't give us any alcohol, or food, but Gose saved us because he was celebrating his birthday, and bough us all a couple of bottle of wine.

By: MejeSplit 
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