12 days of basketball – Final Stop
4.20am wake-up – what I won’t do ‘for the love of the game’ 🙂
Walk across the parking lot to the terminal, nice and empty (well it is Sunday morning at 4.45am!!!) drop my new orange bag at the baggage drop and go through security.
With two flights and a game today, arriving at the terminal is a good way to keep you daily step count up – so I keep pacing back and forth at Stuttgart airport while waiting for the short hop to Frankfurt – and an hour to change planes there, so more walking around the airport …
10am arrival to Venice, knowing this is WAY too early to check-in to the hotel – I leisurely walk to the car rental to pick-up my car, then drive to the hotel and leave my car there.. and with sunshine (only the SECOND place in my trip where it’s been sunny!!! need to work on this for the next trip) outside I head to walk on the fields next to the hotel. Feels great to be in the open – not surrounded by buildings and people.. or cars.
Two hour walk later – the hotel room is ready and I drop my bags at the hotel and head out towards Treviso for the evenings game. Being very tight – I decide to drive the non-Toll roads for the 30minute drive. Much to the annoyance of local drives who naturally know that on the 50km/h zone.. you should drive at least 80km/h.
I manage to have a little bit of time in Treviso and find an open shopping center where I get to grab few bits for home – couple of toys for Rafi (our Lapinkoira) and for Svanhild. Also buy lots of gluten free pasta and pesto for myself.. pesto that in our local shop costs about €4-€5 these day… only costs €1.10 here – and pasta that is €2.75 is €1 here. With these prices a weekly food shopping soon would be cheaper if I fly from Helsinki to Venice and do a quick shopping.. crazy!
Last game to photograph is Treviso vs Derthona – and Micke Jantunen is the Finnish player here – not having the best of luck to end the tour, with the last couple of games ending into defeats for the Finnish players teams. But got some OK photos – photopositions a slight challenge on the court level, but I enjoyed doing some shooting from a higher vantage point as well, so all was good.
Then it was back to the airport hotel and an 8am flight back to Finland.. decided to have a ‘better’ meal at the hotel restaurant, but the ex-chef in me did not really think the meal was worth it. Unfortunately the fish was quite poorly seasoned and tasted like.. well, it didn’t taste like anything which was the problem.
Flight back home went smoothly and couple of train rides later I was back home being eaten alive by Rafi.. who then went and promptly destroyed his souvenir toys in two minutes…
Tour over – only time to write one more post to wrap up the ‘good, bad and ugly’ of the trip – and then it is back to the Korisliiga grind, and hopefully (still waiting to get the call for this!!) some Susiladies and Susijengi media duties in February.
