12 days of basketball – Day 2 – Bayreuth
First morning abroad – good sleep in at the Hilton at Munich Airport.. breakfast of clementines and gluten free biscuits that I had bought last night (no point in paying €15-€20 for breakfast when you have two slices of bread and a yoghurt.. get that for €2 from EDEKA 😉 ).
Had booked the pick-up of car rental to 9.15am, so pack the bags and across the square to car rental to pick it up – nice clean white car (not clean anymore!) .. it’s a Ford ‘something’. It goes forward, stops and also can reverse.. so, it’s a car.
Drive was about 2 1/2 hours from Munich to Bayreuth – where I had my first game waiting BBL game Bayreuth vs Rostock – and reason for shooting such a random game??
Elias Valtonen, been too long with COVID restrictions so I haven’t managed to get ANY photos of the current generation of Finns playing abroad.. so fixing some of that on this trip!
Arriving to Bayreuth too early to check-in at the hotel and too early to go and interview Elias at the hotel, so park the car in town.. nice to see one can use EasyPark here as well, so very easy payment for the parking. Then head to walk around the town (or is it a city?? comment below!!) – which looked OK, but I was told later in the day at the game by someone.. that the town is a ‘little bit boring’.
But hey – for someone who enjoys forests to paved streets.. this city (or town) had plenty to offer. Lunch was had a Pasta Box, not great for my gluten intolerant body.. but was a nice and quick choice an didn’t actually feel too bad afterwards.
Then it was to go and check the Rostock teams hotel – so I would know when the time was to go there, but as soon as I get to walk past their hotel, the team bus pulls up and so.. I get to see Elias and then head inside their hotel to wait to do the interview.
Interview done – off to my own hotel.. a little/quaint period building in the center of town – meeting a friendly dog at the reception (owned by the people checking-in before me).. so I get talking to her and scratching her while her owners check-in. Only been away from home for 24 hours and already missing our Rafi… people with dogs… eh?
Room is OK – has a table, bed, toilet (toilet is so low that it probably looks quite funny when I sit down..) and as always, is too warm. Yet to find a hotel room where the temperature would be suitable for sleeping. But – only one night here and it’s right across the road from the Arena where the game is. So I am sure I will manage.. and did manage two hour nap in the afternoon.
Then it was to the game – and the home teams press officer has been EXTREMELY helpful with everything leading up to me coming here.. asking if all is OK, do I need any help.. etc, etc. And it’s actually a player from the AWAY team that I am photographing. Really is great when you visit a new city, team, venue – that the local press officer gives lots of advice on everything. So huge thank Sven from Medi Bayreuth Basketball for his help!!
Before the game I get talking to a photographer who is shooting games here in Bayreuth, just starting out – and maybe I looked old enough that she thought I might possibly know something about photography. So then before the game we set her camera up for the game.. never quite know whether you HELP ..or MESS UP someones photo shooting when you give them new settings and stuff.. hopefully she got some good photos from the game.. and also – I would like to apologise already that I got ideas into her head what ELSE she could buy for camera equipment 😉
Game photography was the usual – really mainly there to capture Elias Valtonen for archive photos of ‘Finns abroad’ – something I have been shooting for archives since the first days of my photography and today reminded me why it is so important to get these photos taken for any future use!!
Game was over like 22.45 local time – I mean in Finland have the people would have already fallen asleep if a game went on that late, but here it was different. Also reminding me what sort of sports culture they have here in Germany – the noise and support from the fans, totally different to what I am accustomed to in Finland .. but hey, we’re Finnish we can’t help it 😉
Few random bits from the day :
Radio station of the day : ANTENNA BAYERN
Song of the day : https://youtu.be/n5F-4Dd0LwU (Lionheart – Fearless by Joel Corry & Tom Brennan
Lunch rating : 7/10
