U21 football Estonia vs Germany
Sometimes jobs come out of the blue, like this one to travel to Tallinn to cover the U21 match between Estonia and Germany .. and yes, I do shoot football as well 🙂 And with some other clients really cutting big time on their content needs – I need to look for other avenues for income.
This post is maybe more about my travels – than football photos (photos you can find from GETTY IMAGES if needed.. go and buy them so I get more work 😉 But what observations do I have from this little trip to a city I’ve been plenty of times…
With gale force winds predicted – I was not looking forward to the crossing on the boat – but some travel calm tablets, etc and a nice clear view of the sea… the trip on the boat went smoothly while enjoying a quick cooked breakfast on the boat before it departed Helsinki.
Hotel in Tallinn had check-in at 14.00 – so I had about 90mins to kill after the boat arrived – luckily the ferry terminal in Tallinn is really nice and calm – so the time flew by while catching up on emails and stuff. After checking-in – it was needed to get an early dinner with the game in the evening, so decided to try a burger in one of the ‘Top 10 burger places in Tallinn’ (according to many websites). Not going to name the place as that’s not what I do .. and I mean the burger was OK .. and maybe I just haven’t been to restaurants too many times in the last 20 years or so… but since when has just the burger cost almost €20?!?!?!? No fries – no side salad, no drink.. I mean come on!! almost €20 for a burger … as I said, it was OK.. but not THAT nice… and it seemed like the waiting staff in the restaurant had also had a late night .. as it was pretty quiet in the place and waiters pretty much slept after they had served me .. but, I got some hot food and was OK for the evening.
Hotel by the harbour was nice – no carpeted floors is always a bonus – and not sure if they know my preferences but the corridor outside of my room, the lights never come on while I walk to the lifts. So I get to walk in a nice long dark corridor .. big bonus for the fact you can open the window!! Really hate when I travel and you are stuck in a hotel where you can’t open the windows to let fresh air in!
Evening went at the football – about 2,5km walk from the hotel to the stadium – and let’s just say that carrying in the 400mm f2.8 lens in the case in your hand.. it does come surprisingly heavy on walk like that.
Game itself – I finally got to know how it feels to shoot a ‘very good team’ – when you need to fire off the goal celebrations as soon as they come… and the team you are shooting scores 10 (TEN!!!) goals in a game.. you rarely managed to empty your memory card before they had scored another one! By the end of the evening the floodlights were attracting a ton of mosquitoes to the photo positions, so it was a case of taking photos, editing photos and trying not to be eaten alive …
As always – the night at the hotel wasn’t as good as nights in the camper van, honestly – one would think that after almost 20 years of traveling to shoot games all over the world.. I would be able to sleep well in a hotel.. but NO!! By no means was this as bad as the last nights in Mexico over the summer .. but give me my camper any time over a hotel room!
Wednesday morning arrived and it was raining like mad outside – so no going out for walk … but better that it rains now, rather than during the game yesterday! Back to Finland on the boat in few hours ..
