Withdrawal Systems from Poland

The withdrawal symptoms are killing me. One month on and I still havent got over it. Since returning home I have experienced the following symptoms of withdrawal.

1. Hangover - A hangover of alcohol which took about a week to get over in total. Im not saying I was mc hammered every night, but drinking everyday really takes its toll on your insides. My fieces are slowly returning to there solid state.

2. Bitter Disappointment - Although we all knew we were goners after the defeat to Spain, I don’t think the disappointment really kicked in until the tournament was over. We all kept our heads up and sang loudly for the Italy game and for this, we received a better response from our players, although we were all disheveled, the rest of the tournament was a welcome distraction. The real disappointment sunk in for me when I watched the a video showing the highlights of the tournament, showing 1 goal scored and 0 points, I took consolation within 10 seconds of the video as it showed the fans in Poznan square. As i watched the celebrations of the Spain team coming home to Madrid, my head filled with anger, I specifically watched a young man in the crowd, he looked around 25 years old, I started to ask myself why this young man deserved to see his country win 3 major tournaments in 9 years and I didn’t! I also thought, there’s a very good chance that his girlfriend has much greater breasts than mine, these thoughts infuriated me and this stage of anger brought bitter disappointment to an end .

3. Reliving the memories - Once I got back to work, the euros were over and I had my insides and life back in some sort of order, I started to relive the past 3 weeks in my head. I done this in various ways. Going through all my photos, posting videos of fans on tube and online, phoning friends and reciting stories and sitting down just thinking what I was doing this time 3 weeks ago. Sometimes I would sit quiet in the house beside my girlfriend, she would see a wry smile develop on the side of my face and ask me "are you thinking of Poland?" to which she always knew the answer would be yes.

4. Ignorance - To try and block out the disappointing feelings and stop the hurt of not being there any more, not knowing when the next chance would be, I decided to ignore everything that would remind me of the tournament. My theory was, if I looked back in 3 weeks’ time, my thoughts would be happily reminiscent as opposed to disheartened and regretful. I stopped watching videos, stopped reading articles, stopped listening to Ireland songs and convinced myself that it was for my own good. It was harder than I thought but getting back to work helped, I kept my head down and focused and soon other stories started to surround me in the media such as transfer speculation, the Olympics and maniacs killing people in a cinema.

5. Satisfaction - When the ignorance stage passed, I realised that my theory had worked. The disapointment has left me and I get begin to move on. I did not move in the manner of forgetting the last month of events, quite the opposite, there’s not a day goes by when I don’t think of something that happened on that trip and my heart fills with happiness. I have been contacted by many people I met on this trip, Croatians, polish, Spaniards and Irish alike, with a great grin on my face I think about the critic with the Croatians, the polish joining in with the Ireland songs, (not knowing who this John Delaney man was and wondering how he made this transition from a w*nker to alright now) the polski police singing our praises, the hassle of the campsites, the warm but not sunny weather, the zlotys, the campers, the fields of athenry, the homeless man on top of a chair in poznan square, the Ireland fans singing we love you polska, the sight of the opposition fans applauding our fans knowing they were outsung by the green faithful even 4-0 down after 90mins, the billboards in poznan, the train to Gdansk, the optimistic ticket touts, lake Malta, the cheap drink, the face painting, the beautiful polish women, the lech factory tour, the camaraderie between Ire fans, the tshirts, Angela Merkel, singing in the rain, st ledgers goal, being involved, the amazing banter that I will ever struggle to have again.

And after thinking about all this, the thought occurs to me again about that young Spanish lad banging his beautiful chica picturing iniesta and xavi while doing so and I realise that he will never have the feelings of pride and happiness that I experienced from following my wonderful nation in Euro 2012. And for this I am Satisfied that I can get back to my mediocre girlfriend and I will always have these unforgettable memories

Thank you Poland and thank you Ireland!

Eire Abu