Thoughts from a van | The road to the Mexico vs Brazil match

450 USD for the cheapest Mexico vs Brazil match ticket - sold in the illegal market, there were no available tickets in the FIFA ticket center. 150 dollars for a plane ticket from Moscow to Samara, Russia where the game will be held on June 2 at 18:00, local time. No hostels available so getting an Airbnb was the only option; 40 usd a night for that. Food, beer money and cigarette budget - remember I'm smoking again for a long as the world cup goes on - had to be around 50 usd.

---

Roughly 800 dollars to support my team on what will be the most important game in the last 4 years.

Of course, it was impossible for me to attend. That's like my full budget for the past 15 days.

I was already resigned to watch the game in the fan fest or in the Mexican pavilion where I'm sure there would be a lot of Mexicans and the best vibe possible.

But, as it turns out, like most of my good anecdotes and because I'm probably the most low budgety dude you'll ever meet, combined with a full bucket of luck I carry with me all the time, I'm spending 1/5 of that budget.

I was sad, lonely and regretful, drinking a beer watching the France vs Argentina match (oh yeah France, nice ass kicking) when I got a text from a friend I met when I was in Rostov-On-Don, Russia a few days ago: “Mate, there are not many Mexicans going to the match in Samara, we need all the support we can get in the stadium, so the Mexican Football Federation is selling tickets at FIFA price right now in Moscow, go to the St Regis hotel before they sell them all out!”

Oh man. Oh boy. Just exactly what I needed. Paying 115 usd instead of 450! What?!?

Damn. But I didn't have cash. I had on me around 40 bucks and no money in my bank account and I was looking to make them last for a few days - remember I was already resigned to watch the game on TV.

Double Damn. The steem price is at its lowest since December, I don't really want to sell right now. I know that in 3 months those coins are going to be worth ten times what they are worth right now. I need to HODL.

On the other hand, how many times in their life can someone have the chance of watching their national team beat Brazil in a world cup?

I'll give you a quick answer: Just once IN YOUR WHOLE LIFE if you are lucky.

So the hell with it, I decided to sell some Steem against my will. I used localbitcoins to cash out and I arrived to the hotel at 10 pm. These dudes mentioned they would be selling the tickets until midnight, so I had plenty of time.

But I didn't consider that I needed a Mexican partner to deposit Pesos to my Mexican account so I could withdraw Rubles in Russia. But it's Saturday in Mexico, how could I forget that? It would take some time for the partner to be able to transfer me the money.

It was already 00:30 and I hadn't received the money. I was bummed and disappointed, borderline suicidal (I'm being parabolic to dramatize) because the freaking Mexican ways didn't allow me to get my ticket.

But as it turns out, one of the girls selling the tickets in the lobby saw me the whole time staring at my cellphone screen looking more worried than a Brazilian when they found out they are up against the powerful mexico, so she told me while she was closing down the little made up store in the middle of the hotel lobby, “hey, are you certain you'll get the money? If it's so, I'll save you the ticket, just come tomorrow at 10 am sharp and I'll give it to you”.

Oh yassss, it was working out! How the hell did this happen?

Anyway, I took the metro back home and went to bed early, woke up at 7 am to work in a video I have prepared for you and then went straight to the hotel. She was waiting for me, but I didn't have the money yet, so I went to the ATM inside the hotel and asked to withdraw the usd.

No balance available.

What? No no no, this can't be, come on!! This had to be a mistake, so I went out (while the girl looked pissed at me for this whole situation) and I found another atm that was giving out Rubles and not dollars and checked my balance. The money was there but I couldn't get it. I couldn't get Rubles because the Mexican federation only takes dollars or euros and I also couldn't get dollars in the hotel's atm for reasons unknown.

What am I going to do?

Oh damn. Eric you are an idiot. Yesterday everybody was getting dollars from the hotel's atm to pay for the tickets, perhaps the zero balance was meant for the USD inside the atm and not about your account. After all you are using the Google translated feature that translates images and the translation may not have been as accurate as you expected.

I went back to the hotel and asked for euros in the atm. Of course no one asked for euros, Mexicans are not used to the currency and if the Mexican federation gave the option of paying with dollars and euros, Mexicans obviously prefer doing it with dollars.

Ahhh. I got the tickets. I can breathe easily now. I think this was the most stressed I've been in the past 2 years. I really wanted to attend the game, it was already in my mind. I mean, it was meant to be right? It all came down perfectly, being in Moscow, my friend knowing a guy in the federation, me having some Steem in my wallet, Mexico qualifying. Yeah, it was meant to be.

Oh, but now I need to figure out how the hell I'm going to cover the 1,035 kilometers from Moscow to Samara.

I knew for a fact there weren't any trains available because everyone on Facebook (yeah, I'm using the blue social media, sorry, it's just while the world cup goes on) was saying it. But I needed to know for a fact so I went to the train station.

I've been in Moscow for more than two weeks, I'm already an expert in using the metro network, I dont even need the app anymore.

Anyway, I arrived to the train station and it was true. No train tickets available, not the free ones - ticket holders have free Transportation between venues - not the paying ones. Flying was out of the question because of the price. I had tickets for the match but I was stuck I Moscow.

What the hell Eric? Are you a newbie traveler? Are you just going to give up?

Hell no. There is a whole Facebook group with more than 12,000 Mexicans dedicated to unite us in russia. I saw there was a guy yesterday who rented a van with 19 more people he met through the group and they paid a decent amount of cash to a guy to take them to Samara.

I contacted the guy and did the same, organized a van transportation from Moscow to Samara. I said to myself “I can't be the only one in this position, there's got to be more losers like me stuck in Moscow with tickets”.

Oh yeah, I was correct.

So here I am, 4 hours into the van Odyssey and 10 more hours to go. I'm not spending in hostels because im driving all night and I'm returning to Moscow the next night, so that's two nights of not spending in accomodation while spending little money in transportation.

I know for a fact we are going to be less Mexicans than Brazilians in the stadium. A great percentage of the Mexican army already went back home…

I guess we'll have to shout louder than the Brazilians so the Mexican team knows we are there, supporting them no matter what, doing all sorts of crazy stuff just to be able to watch them beat Brazil.

I guess we'll have to shout as loud as we can to silence the Brazilians...