Game and between Cyprus & Turkey
Game day was and has been - tight game which the home team edged in the end..
But let's start in the beginning, Wednesday morning was time for bit of exploring in Nicosia/Lefkosia and seeing if I can find that USB-cable (as noted in the previous entry). Hotel is about 15 minute walk from city centre - so nice walk there in the sunshine, and once I got there.. not overly impressed with it. Sure, few shops here and there - but very little to see as such. So I drifted away into my own thoughts and kept on walking and somehow found myself on the between Turkish side of Nicosia and the Greek side.. how that happened, I have no idea - never saw anyone checking any ID's or stuff.
Now, stuck in the 'no-mans land' I turned around and started walking back towards the Cypriot side.. but they were checking ID's and passports.. and I had really neither with me. Unless my AIPS card or BBL press-pass counts as one?? So there I was trying to explain to the guards that I actually hadn't made it to the Turkish side yet.. but with a shirt having a Turkish flag and promoting the 2010 Basketball World Championships.. it was a hard one to sell to them. "Where did you buy this shirt then.." After few minutes of explaining.. they did allow me to cross back to the Cypriot side.. and let's just say.. Lesson Learned!!
Game was late in the evening - but got to the gym nice and early. Talked to the local press officer and helped the announcer to pronounce the Finnish names of the players. Then normal shooting of the game, and this may be the third level of European Club competition - but it was entertaining game and fast paced.... almost forgotten how players 'kick' to get past defenders. Some decent pictures taken as well, and with the Keravnos fans charging to the court at final whistle.. celebrations were in order for the home team. Bitter pill to swallow for the Finns, who fought hard, but can really only blame themselves for the defeat with the way they handled the ball in the final moments of the game. Two turn-overs and a missed lay-up from under the basket and it didn't help that every time Adread Pilavasof Keravnos shot the ball from downtown.. it went it, and those were at crucial times as well.
Three clients were waiting for the pictures back in Finland, so quickly wired them off at half-time and after final whistle - shame there weren't any celebrations (or I had some images, but they would not be used) at the end. Quick chat with the Kataja captain at the end of the game, and the coach as well. Then back to the Hotel to edit more videos and pictures. It helped to be on the same time-zone as Finland, so even if the game finished at 9.30pm - there was still time to send pictures onwards.
Thursday - gave a nice reminder why these long travels can sometimes be worth it (besides the basketball and work). In the morning drove to Larnaca and sat couple of hours by the sea, just relaxing and reading a good book. And when you can do that in mid-November in your shorts and t-shirt... you know things are going well :-)
Just lasts dinner to grab anymore - then a 2am start from the Hotel to the airport and catching a 5am flight, it another three flights back home and then it's two BBL games this weekend. Next weeks European adventure takes me back to Belgium - for Men's EuroCup basketball, so we'll get back to that later on.
For now - over and out from Cyprus - it's been fun!