Proudly on Tour

27th May 2019 Arrived in Tbilisi airport at 3am in the morning and the place was a bustling hive of activity. Got a stamp in my passport and a new country to add to the long list of countires I have been fortunate to visit. In some ways the before scheduled arrival time and efficiency of immigration, baggage claim and customs just added to the 6+ hours we then had to wait before checking in for our third and final flight to Baku! Tbilisi airport is clean and spacious but without many places to be able to rest in any sort of horizontal position....at least nowhere that did not involve lying down in an ornamental feature. After a long wait and after a beautiful sunrise and watching the airport wake up, we finally got checked in and literally sprinted to lounge number 3 of the trip for much needed coffee and food! There was some trepidation about the next flight on an airline we did not recognise before the trip and one with apparently only 8 planes in it's fleet. We shou...

27th May 2019 It is 04:00 local time in Tbilisi, Georgia and the airport is full of life....well, nearly full of life as I can barely keep my eyes open. Another 4 hours at least until we can check in for the final, and thankfully, short flight to our final destination, Baku. Flights on Pegasus Airlines were  relatively uneventful apart from 1 hour 45 minute delay leaving Stansted. One of life's irritations is being sat on a plane going nowhere and not being told why. I managed to get in nearly 3 episodes of Line of Duty while my erstwhile travelling companion had his ears blagged off by a Chelsea fan sat between us...despite my best efforts I could still hear Chelsea fan through my noise cancelling headphones! Keep having football chants popping up in my head and  then humming them randomly in the three airports used so far! Now watching the European election results coming through, through bleary eyes...not a good night for some! Let's more than hope that the result...

 24th May 2109 Well, after what seems like never ending hours of planning, I am finally on my way to Baku! First leg was a short 300 mile car ride from South Cumbria to Watford on a Friday before a bank holiday. I discover on arriving in Watford that UEFA have laid on extra train cpacity from Tbilisi to Baku, set up bus links from Tbilisi to Baku and increased capacity on flights including more direct services into Baku! FFS UEFA, too late!!And if Baku airport really could handle 10,000 passengers an hour, then all 65,000 attendees of the game could be cleared in under 7 hours!? Someone somewhere is telling big porkies! I have done some travelling in my time, but never had such a convoluted trip to travel a 6,500 mile round trip. Anyway, I am beyond caring about that now, I am just excited to finally have begun my epic journey. Day off tomorrow other than collecting my match ticket in London tomorrow and meeting some fellow GGs for a few light refreshments in the afternoon/ev...

Azerbaijan, one of the least accessible place in Europe to visit from Barrow-in-Furness! Days of frustration with UEFA, travel websites, airlines I have never heard of before and rapidly rising accommodation prices have made me question, "is all this worth it?" Now that everything is mostly booked and I am in receipt of a visa, I have to say, so far, "Yes!" Routing is Barrow-in-Furness to Stansted to Istanbul to Tbilisi to Baku taking well over 24 hours! Thankfully, access to airport lounges (thank you American Express) along the way, will help the strain of the journey. I pity my travel buddy, fellow Gaygooner Steve, for the last flight when he will be sat next to me on the Tbilisi to Baku flight when I will be long overdue a shower and a change of clothes! A suitably grumpy tweet was posted this morning whinging at UEFA about the choice of venue for a major European final, especially as the travel difficulties are enough to put off even some of the m...