"Paris 1999" Paris by snorril

I went to Paris in October 1999. It was a surprise as a friend of mine invited me with a week notice. The reason; Euro 2000 qualifier, France - Iceland. After a draw in Reykjavík and a few other good results Iceland had a slim chance by winning this game to go to the Euro 2000.
We arrived on a Friday and went to town looking for some parties. We ate at a very funny restaurant; none of the furniture matched and the waitress didn’t speak English so she had to act a turkey and a bull.
The morning after we headed for the classic signs. The Eiffel tower, Champs Elysée and the Arc de Triomphe. The crowd at Eiffel was such that we didn’t venture in the lifts and decided to walk up. I think we only made it up to the first platform so I still have something to do in Paris.
The metro system in Paris is great. It is so easy to use and we were like natives in 15 minutes. We only had limited time that morning because of the game so if only covered this area around Eiffell.
We were at Stade de France approx. 2 hours before the game and what a stadium. It looks like a spaceship from the outside. There were already plenty of people outside the stadium and people selling flags, shirts and other souvenirs. The armed guards at the entrance decided that our flags were potential weapons and wanted confiscate them. We reach a compromise, they got the poles but we kept the flag itself.
What a game it would be. It didn’t look good after about 25 minutes the score was 2 nil to France. Their supporters (who outnumbered us 85000 to 350) were probably dreaming of a rout but fortunately that was not to be. The second half saw us back into the game with two magnificent goals. The stadium got completely still except 350 Icelanders who totally went wild. The minute after the second goal we were in ecstasy. I somehow ended up 10 seats below mine and we just went crazy. What a feeling. The rest of the game was exciting to say the least but unfortunately the France managed a goal 8 minutes from time.
In the evening we went downtown. We were still wearing our Iceland T-shirts and what a reception we got. Everywhere we went people wanted to speak to us about the game, and even buy us some drinks. We dined at a Greek restaurant, where people broke their plates after eating, and had a delicious souvlaki. The owner came to us and gave us this address at a club he recommended. I do not remember its name but it was quite unique. On ground level it looked just like and ordinary bar, except maybe a little expensive. But it was this ladder that led down and was guarded. We tried to go down but the guard didn’t allow us, said it was full. We had to wait for an hour before we were allowed to go down but there a totally different environment greeted us. There was this cave with shows and live music but we weren’t in there yet. We still had to wait probably another hour but spent the time singing Icelandic hits with some people from the Caribbean. When we finally got into the cave we had the time of our live. A big, big black guy was singing B.B. King songs, belly dancers on the tables and we even got on stage and sang the Birthday Song in Icelandic for the owner.
To sum it up this was almost a perfect weekend. It would have been better had Iceland won but then we probably wouldn’t have got such a great reception in the evening. France went on the following summer and won the European Championship.

• Pros:nightlife, sights, atmosphere
• Cons:lack of time
• In a nutshell:What a weekend