"Beer, rays, music, this is what being a fan is all about!" said Per Lindquist, an Uppsala machinery salesman, as he sat in a lawn chair under bright sunshine on shore of Trukhanivsky Island, the Dniepr's brown water lapping his ankles.
A neon-painted galley manned by some two dozen Swedes paddled by, a young woman in a gold-and-blue top calling the stroke.
"Sure this site is primitive and there have been problems. But if you want things easy stay in a five-star hotel," he said.
Lindquist and some 1,500 of his countrymen were living in tents on Kiev's Trukhanivsky Island on Sunday afternoon, with more arriving every minute to cheer Sweden on against Ukraine in Euro 2012 group D competition later on Monday.
Only days before preparations at the site were so incomplete, live electricity cables criss-crossed the camp, trash was uncleared, fences were still being erected, and Swedish fan representatives complained to their embassy that the place was unlivable.
But the fan encampment had come a long way by the weekend. Uniformed greeters were steering fans to clearly-marked camp sites, the first WiFi spots had gone hot, and the mood was upbeat among the mostly young male Swedes that had traveled to Ukraine by plane, automobile, motorcycle, train and even by thumb to support their side.
Some said they were unemployed and others said they worked as travel agents, firemen; or in insurance offices and medical labs and on factory production lines. One said he was a professional hockey player and another described himself as a junior employee of Sweden's national tax inspectorate.
Fans said they were planning to spend between 50 and 100 Euros a day for their vacation, all expenses included.
"When the rains came our tent held up fine," said Karl Rundstrum, a Stockholm student. He pointed to a drainage trench dug around his tent, and sleeping bags and t-shirts drying on pine tree branches nearby.
"Either you are prepared to camp or you are not," he said.
Torrential rains leaving puddles sizable enough to mire vehicles have been only one of a long list of things the Ukrainian government promised would not be a problem at the former Soviet republic's budget lodging for Euro 2012 on Trukhanivsky Island, but has failed to deliver on by deadline.
The cafe with beer, burgers and a big screen television that was supposed to have been ready when the Swedes began arriving on Friday, was on Sunday still being built.
Beer was served - but then it ran out. Water supply was still off-and-on on Monday morning, and the public toilets (although miraculously for Ukraine all seeming to contain sufficient toilet paper) still had peeling paint on the outside and Soviet floor tiles and smell on the inside.
Several fans said that the big breakthrough came when the Ukrainians, finally, switched on the public access power grid, and dozens of student volunteers showed up over the weekend.
Boom boxes on Trukhanivsky Island on Sunday were mostly playing a mix of Europop and heavy metal, with periodic selections from Swedish bands Abba and Ace of Base.
"They (the Swedish fans) seem to be nice young men, very polite and friendly, very European," said translator Maryna Tkachenko. "Maybe these boys are a little shy but they are very happy."
The Swedes seemed taller, fairer and more handsome than most Ukrainian men, she said.
As the clock ticked down to the Ukraine-Sweden match, a continuous stream of Swedes in gold jerseys and faux Viking helmets was in motion walking across a suspension foot bridge connecting the island with the rest of Kiev, to a supermarket some three kilometres away, and back again laden with sausages, dark bread, and cases of local Chernihiv and Obolon beer.
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