Arrived in Baku into blazing hot sunshine very early on Wednesday morning with one hour's sleep! All the volunteers were very helpful and got us all on a bus from the airport to the (wrong) hotel. From there a taxi to our rather lovely 5 star hotel and then straight back out in a taxi to UAC - the Uniform & Accreditation Centre. I had a few problems with accreditation as they had the wrong passport no. on my accreditation pass but we got there in the end. Picked up my official flame keepers uniform, hat and smashing purple bumbag. The lovely people at UAC popped us in a taxi to the very swish BEGOC HQ (Baku European Games Organising Committee) those lovely people popped us on yet another shuttle bus and 4.5 hours after landing we were on our way to the NGA - National Gymnastics Arena. A gorgeous massive arena with the equally enormous mind boggling training venue right next door. A structure with no steel frame, seemingly inflated from the inside to house a MASSIVE training centre for all 5 European Games disciplines. We found our way to the Competition Management office and introduced ourselves to the rest of the team.
No sooner had I walked in the door but I was nabbed for a meeting with the NTOs (National Technical Officials) where I learned that my role is to be a liaison between the Judging panel and the rest of field of play - no pressure! Then we went to field of play for a quick rehearsal and the rest of the day whiz zed past with many and varied meetings with broadcast, timing officials, training with NTOs and timing, field of play team. Eventually, I managed to drag my exhausted self away and scooted home on the metro system.
After 39 hours with 1 hours sleep I fell into bed to get myself ready for the next day.
The National Gymnastics Arena
Finally, my accreditation.
Natty baseball cap - not!
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