We could tell on arrival, we were not the only scousers taking this route to Bulgaria and then the long crusade to Istanbul.
We arrived in Bulgaria and were transported from Varna to the Sunny Sands resort. The resort isn't that bad, it has Sky Sports bars, McDonalds etc... (is that a good thing?) It’s a very poor country, which makes it real value for money - everything was as cheap as chips! In fact cheaper than chips in our chippy!
Next day (Monday) we got the local bus into Varna. It cost us 50p for a 20-minute journey. I can’t get from Palacefields to Halton Lea for that price - a 700-yard journey!
We found a travel service shop and booked our coach to Istanbul, departing Tuesday, returning Thursday. The cost was £27 return. It was to be a nine-hour road journey.
On Tuesday morning We bought a 1 litre bottle of water (50p), a 2 litre bottle of local beer (90p) and a salami cucumber & ketchup roll (50p) for breakfast. What more could you ask for? A toilet on the coach would have been my first preference! Thankfully there were a few stop off points to relieve ourselves.
We and about 20 other lads were on our way. This was to be my fourth European Cup final and my brother’s first. We grinned the Grimes'y grin at each other, we were already buzzing with excitement, and we knew this was to be a special moment in our lives.
We crossed the Bulgarian Border, travelled 50 yards then disembarked again to go through Turkish Border/passport control. Here they requested our passports and our match tickets! These were the two most important things in my possession, not my bank card or the cash!
We all got very nervous about handing over our tickets! After about 30 minutes (this was stretching security too far, that's my match ticket sonny!!) the officer then made light of our plight by reading out our names including our middle names, much to the merriment of everyone! "Mark Jude Grimes" Cheers! That’s me mate, ta!
The landscape altered dramatically as we entered Istanbul, the huge mosques and high rise buildings and flats, the whole feel and purpose of the journey was now unfolding in front of our eyes. This was like nothing we'd experienced before, the sound, the look, the smell, the vastness of the place, the biggest city I have ever seen!
We got off our coach at the biggest bus station I have ever seen, it’s on three storeys. We climbed the stairs till we got to the main area and tried to negotiate our taxi to our accommodation. 20 lira. Sorted! The taxi driver knew his way to the area of the city, but finding the street proved difficult. He asked five different people for the street. We arrived at the bar/hostel to find we were to be relocated somewhere five minutes away for an inflated price "very nice, has Jacuzzi, all new, you like". It was fantastic - very swanky posh!
We went to Taxim Square, the lid had been lifted, the place was bedlam and 20,000 scousers had peaked too early and were partying like it was 1984! It was absolutely brilliant!
When you have a small island mentality like us Brits have, when we gather in numbers on foreign shores, it’s a sense of pride joy and safety in numbers, home from home. Not that we don't embrace other cultures, we aren't philistines, we just like to let them know we've arrived and celebrate the fact! The flags and banners and songs were all out in full force! It really is a force, and the locals came out to witness and some joined in! We fell to bed at 3 am!
Match day, morning came it was time to see some of what Istanbul had to offer! We were close enough to walk to the Blue Mosque, we went via the back streets in the heart of the old town, the shop owners were astounded to see and called to others shouting "Liverpool, Liverpool" and pointing to us. They all acknowledged our presence and probably our bravery for walking through the heart of there community's local shopping area! We were made up too! This city and its people had totally embraced the European Cup Final and made us welcome!
The Blue Mosque was amazing, followed by a walk back and then onto the Spice Bizarre and then to the Bosporus ferry, where we travelled on their version of the Royal Iris (probably the Royal Abdul?). We did two trips and then taxied back to Taxim! Nothing had changed at Taxim - it was still bedlam!
I travelled to the Eastern side by taxi to meet up with the lads I always go the match with - Syd & Mick Scott, Nello & John Hughes. I asked Syd for directions, he said pass yer mobile to the taxi driver, this guy at our bar will tell him were to go, passing my mobile phone to the taxi driver he was some what puzzled to say the least (like who knows me on this guys phone, it was like a scene from Candid Camera!). He was then given instruction in Turkish and I arrived after one phone call back for further instructions, which involved Syd chasing the barman round the bar!
We all met up, like we do on every other weekend, It was like Riley's on Mount Pleasant but in Istanbul! We all laughed like drains and giggled like school boys with a dirty mag! Magic moment, we spent a good three hours, and the bar across from us belted out Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire!
I had managed to blag my way onto on of their coaches, but before we set off, we got a txt to say "Bring Beer none on sale!" so armed with a pack of 24 Efes beers we were on our way!
As we slowly edged our way, the ground was in sight! The Tuborg beer had well and truly seeped into my system and thoughts of my son back home, wearing the same t-shirt as me and his uncle Joe, would be in our local with the Palacefields massive and the rest of the family came to mind. Dad is in Spain on holiday, along with the all expectation of the Reds in our city, the weight of all of this emotion was now running down my cheeks. I was still an hour away from the Ataturk stadium, and I was holding the liquid gold!
Along the route the locals had come out in force with little cardboard banners with "Liverpool Champions" all waving, husband and wives, grandparents and kids all waving - it was touching, Turkey really had embraced this cup final and, more importantly, the vast majority were behind us, grown men, some big hard cases and young lads and girls all waved back, and the songs rang out in response to the well-wishers. It’s just so good to be a Liverpool supporter at times like this, mixing with true ambassadors of Liverpool!
We arrived after two hours of slow coach, grid lock torture. We all met to the right of the stage and I could of sold the beer four times over. It had only been three hours since we met up previously, but it was still magic moment to be with my brother and my match mate buddies. We've been going to games together for 25 years!
We laughed and joked and took team photos, all the usual stuff, then it was time to split and venture of to different parts of the stadium. I agreed to meet Joe by some odd power junction type box, facing the free buses that would take us back to Taxim after the game. We hugged and muttered something like "COME-ON" we don't have to conversers at times like these, we are focused and so in tune!
I entered the stadium to be greeted by a sea of red, we had taken virtually three quarters of the ground, and apart from the Milan end I couldn't see any neutral areas! We had come in our thousands. This was the furthest we had travelled to a European Cup Final and yet even more had come than our first trip to Rome in 1977, where they recon we took 30,000! This looked like 45.000, maybe more?
It was said by media hacks that the Kop wouldn't be able to generate the same sort of passion they do at Anfield. because the ground had no roof and was so open! Well I can assure you we roared our hearts out, it was big and loud and just as passionate.
I could see Ste and Nello three rows back and towards the middle. I went up to join them but a lack of space was going to prevent us staying in the same place, not without feeling the wrath of the others lads who would have to budge up! So I moved back to my seat! The game was going to be an ordinary stalemate, both teams cancelling each other out with one goal in it! Never trust a journalist!
This was beyond anything I could have dreamt of. AC Milan started and scored within the first minute, and totally ruined our game plan and, by going three goals up before half time, gave them only one way to play for the next 45 minutes!
At halftime I looked behind me and Ste and Nello had disappeared, I thought! Don’t tell me they've done one and got off! They'd done it before and gone the pub, but here at Ataturk there wasn't anything but waste land and the road out? (They hadn't, they just went the loo at half time and met up with some other lads we knew).
The second half was to be just a sensational, though even with hope in your heart it was hard to imagine we would get three goals so quickly, so dramatically! As soon as we scored everyone started to believe, two goals brought roars of "COME ON", Three Goals brought roars of "WERE GONNA DO THIS". We seemed to have given our all in getting back into the game, the rest of the game was played out, with both sides content in keeping possession, AC grew stronger in extra time and an amazing double saved by Jerzy and a clearance off the line by Jimi, plus Carra throwing himself in front of everything except the bus we arrived on, reassured the red hoards it was written in the stars, this was surely to be our night!
Penalties came and the AC Milan end was chosen, I didn't know it had already been decided. My thoughts returned back to Rome ‘84, when Roma players felt the pressure, I said to the lads around me, I've seen this before and shouted" as high as yer like son" and sure enough the ball ballooned over, joy broke out the quickly settled as we now need to score, Didi stepped up and with German calm stroked the ball home, the Jerzy stepped back into the area, collected the ball and eyeballed the Milan lad, we could see on the screen he wasn't up for it, Jerzy was acting like a clown on a rodeo bull, legs and arms going all over the shop, he guessed right and saved again, bedlam broke out "it in the starts stars lads" Cisse strolled up and a s cool as you like stoked into home sending Dida the wrong way, Jerzy again handed the ball to Thomason and eye balled him, did all the clowning again but Thomason then put Milan on the score card. 2-1.
Riise started the walk to the penalty area, I want him to strike, as he stepped back I could tell has was gonna side foot it, and I knew he'd miss, body movement does show an awful lot and Dida dived and in fairness my a really good save low to his right, Gerrard ran to Riise to put a consoling arm around him, took him back the team who were all in line linked up, a quality captains performance.
Kaka then scored despite all the tom foolery of Jerzy… 2-2. Valdi started the walk, his last game, his last chance to score, and his last time to prove all the doubters wrong! I was one of them! Never thought he was strong enough mentally or physically for the Premiership! I wasn't thinking about any of that, I just wanted him to plant it home, the roar grew and Valdi sent the keeper the wrong way, the place went up with the biggest roar so far, Valdi roared YES YES YES! We could see him on the giant screen; his kissed the badge and punched the air to the Liverpool fans! 3-2.
One more time please Jerzy, I prayed to my mum as I always do, though as Shevchenko stepped up I thought this lad won’t miss! Jerzy was now in full doolally mode, skipping along the line, wobbly knees going ten to the dozen. This kind of behaviour anywhere else would have seen a group of strong arm hospital security staff hold him down whilst a nurse applied a sedative!
Then Sheva kicks, Jerzy takes about three steps forward, guesses right and saves! LIFT OFF, queue unabated pleasure and tears and screams all lost in one huge roar, this was the best feeling imaginable! To see Gerrard lift the cup!
My god! I looked to the skies with tears tripping me, just saying thank you, thank you! Two young lads jumped on me and hugged me "it’s alright Lar, we've won it" I know mate, I know! Having travelled this far, the thought of the nine-hour journey back to Varna on two hours sleep, nothing could be further from my mind!
I just thought of my son Joe back home, and my brother witnessing his first winning European Cup Final, my Dad in Spain, all my sisters and their family going daft and I just knew the waters of the River Mersey would be quivering with the amount of noise and the tremble of people jumping in the city, I knew it would have gone ballistic back home! It had been building for weeks. The sense of pride was enormous, so proud to be Scouse, My team, My City, My Liverpool.
This was truly one of the greatest moments of my life!