Going on this European trip has been a big reminder of what we're missing now that UEFA Cup football seems so far away. For some it was the starting drinking at Stansted at 6am which brought back memories of the trips to Moscow, Helsingborg and the rest, for others it is the getting to see a few new places which we wouldn't otherwise have travelled to.
Despite this not being a 'real' European tour there are a fair number of supporters taking in the games at Mjällby, Helsing¢r and Trelleborg. Many of these are Swedes and Danes who who support Town and look forward to these tours perhaps more than the season proper. They seem to be a large part of the Scandinavian population as far as us English travellers can ascertain. Some of them had travelled as far as 900 miles by road to see the Blues in action.
First up was the trip to Mjällby, or more correctly Hällevik which is where they play at a ground called Strandvallen ('beach valley' according to our Swedish speakers). Hällevik is in an area of Sweden called Blekinge and is on the Listerlandet peninsula. It is a very small village of only a few hundred people which makes the fact that their club has spent time in the top Swedish division an impressive surprise.
Mjällby, the place, is a few miles away, the reason for the name/location mismatch is that the club is the result of a merger between two clubs some years ago. Mjällby kept the name, Hällevik got the ground.
And what a ground it is. Where else can you make a five minute walk from a beach bar across a white sandy beach, through a few pine trees and into the stadium? It is a small ground which apparently holds 8,000 people, although it is difficult to know where you would put them all on a busy night. And even from inside the ground the sea is visible, I can't think of any better setting for football, my tour brochure calling it Sweden's most beautiful ground.
The village's history was very much built on fishing and it even contains a fish museum, the first I have ever come across. It was more a museum of fishing rather than fish and contained actual trawlers and implements for catching, keeping and removing the innards of fish.It is far more Southwold than Grimsby, if we're talking fish towns, and on a sunny day (as the end of last week was ) there can be few nicer places to be.
The Blekinge region as a whole is now increasingly looking towards tourism with salmon fishing, cycling and the general attractiveness of the region proving popular to more northerly-based Swedes and foreigners.
Mjällby AIF is very much a community club and this was illustrated by one local I was speaking to pointing into the distance where one of the club's former keepers was sitting on his balcony.
The beach bar proved very popular amongst the Town support, both before and after the game. The musical entertainment was a touch too 'Euro-rock' for the English taste but with a late bar (by UK standards) and the general friendliness of the locals, no one was too bothered at the aural atrocity that was a cover of Europe's Final Countdown.
From there many went to Copenhagen for the weekend while others were involved in a footballing tournament in Trelleborg, which is where the squad has been based. The tournament was organised by IFK Trelleborg trainer Per Kjellberg and involved Town fans from England, Sweden and Denmark as well as sides from the three local football clubs: Trelleborg FF (beat Blackburn in the UEFA Cup a few years back), IFK Trelleborg and BK Ymor, who provided the ground.
The quality of the opposition was a surprise as these weren't supporters of these sides but actual players with real fitness and ability. In fact the IFK side included three Brazilian trialists. Not surprisingly the Town sides didn't win any matches at all until the Swedish Town team beat the English-Danish Blues 2-0 in a keenly contested 'final'.
After that there was a strange pentathlon involving bandy ( a sort of hockey), outdoor darts, penalty taking against the IFK goalkeeper (I scored mine) and kicking the ball into the centre circle from the corner quadrant which is surprisingly difficult.
Then it was to the BK Ymor club bar where we are all now members. Will probably come in useful at some point I'm sure.
Rather fortuitously we'd met a Trelleborg fan on the train on the way to Hällevik who told us the best pubs to visit. We chose the recommended Tre Lycktor which was as good a way to spend the evening as possible with thoughts moving towards the next day and the return trip to Helsingborg, an obvious stopping off point on the way to Danish side Helsing¢r.