Another Sunday spent flying over the Continental Europe...

It is another week with Joensuun Kataja in EuroChallenge for me, here's the journey to Izmir.. with the people I met on the way.

Alarm rings at 4am, the wind is howling and it's raining - just the weather to make you want to get out of bed and head for hours of flights over the skies of Europe. Arrive to the airport in time, check-in.. first part of the travel : Birmingham to Munich !!  Sitting next to a British man on the plane.. and he is going to Austria for a ski holiday.. and tells me, possibly, more than I need to know of his plans for the next two weeks. Then again, sometimes it is good to be the listener :-) Short flight, and I wish him a nice holiday as we enter the terminal building in Munich.

This airport is starting to get very familiar to me - I know where the quiet gates are, so I head there for an hour of reading and eating my lunch pack. Next up - flight from Munich to Izmir. An older British gentleman seems to be sitting next to me, but he is busy asking the stewardess whether we'll be served food.. he explains that he only got something very small on his first flight and is rather hungry now.

As the flight goes on, we start to talk.. (as seems to be the case with me and flights :-) ) He is heading to Turkey to finalise the order of some equipment that he has manufactured.. that makes Chickens more profitable.. I am now well taught in the productivity and life span of chickens.. What use that information will be for me in the future.. who knows. But as long as he can prove a 2.5% increase in productivity.. the lucrative deal is on. I do mention that I am on a job to photograph some basketball in Turkey, which he finds interesting (for about 30 seconds) - before showing his iPhone camera.. which is much too complicated for him,,, but takes brilliant pictures. Deep down inside I give a silent sigh ;-)

Quite a bumpy flight.. but we get to Izmir in one piece - pick up the luggage, and head for the Metro. The Izban takes me directly from the airport to the Hotel (well, the right stop and 200 meters to walk). Check-In.. head out to hunt dinner.. 'Cheesy Chicken'.. yeap, that's my dinner tonight, and as I am starving - it tastes good.

Little rest and then I can't delay it anymore, down to the Spa/Sauna for the evening.. first few lengths of the pool.. then to test the Sauna's. I manage to out-sit the two men who are in there.. and am left with the single persistent female.. who luckily agrees to have some water thrown to the rocks.. NICE! 

We can't have two without the third - so once again the conversation starts to flow.. talk about London (as most foreigners, she LOVES London). And as she is local (just there to use the gym, pool, sauna) I try to ask where should I go to eat, what to see, etc.. during my couple of days in Izmir. All in all, a satisfying end to the day.. Sauna, Steam Room, Swim.. there aren't many better ways to end a long day or traveling.

Tomorrow - time to check out the Arena in the morning, hopefully catch up with the team at some point. With any luck they are staying at the same hotel that I am, as this is the closest (still not that close) to the Arena and VERY nice. 

Very nice return to Turkey - where I last visited in 2010, for the World Championships in Basketball... good memories of those days.. getting my Turkey game-shirt signed by Turgoglu.. good times :-)

Now - after a long day, time to call it a day.. and see what channels the hotel TV has to offer!