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Last Updated (Tuesday, 30 November 1999 00:00) Written by Ron Monday, 09 November 2009 15:48
Half way between Riga and Tallinn. on the Expressenbuss I called my friend Anatoli in Tartu, and 2 hours later on my arrival a couple of his former players Sergie and Avik, in their mid 20´s, met me at the bus station and off we went for a ride out of town.
A nice surprise as we to Avik`s family Armenian restaurant for a lavish meal. Huge helpings of grilled meats, shish kebab, vegetables, lavash bread and finishing off with pahlav with nuts, honey, raisins and Georgian spring water plus a glass of Estonian A.Le Coq beer. We were joined at the table by an Armenian golf pro, really an amateur, who taught at the only golf course in Armenia, in Yerevon but was visiting Tallinn to learn more.
We then drove back into town and the 8 year old A.Le Coq Arena, home of both the Estonian national team and FC Flora Tallinn, who own the arena. It can seat 9,000, but for concerts using the covered-over pitch, maybe 15,000. At the Flora office I met the secretary, a young Estonian girl who had just returned home after being an exchange student at Franklin H.S. in El Paso Texas. If the team is lucky they may get 400 for a top division Meistri Liga match. Then to the much bigger Estonian Federation offices where it was a surprise to meet two Londoners running the women´s section, including Keith Boanas, the women`s national coach, and press chief Mikhel Uiboleht.
Before leaving, the President of both FC Flora and the Federation drove up in his SUV. That`s Áivar Pohlak I was told and I wanted to say hi. Out steps a hippie guy with long curly hair past his shoulders, a sheepskin waistcoat and jeans with huge holes in both knees and half a dozen other places. A bit of a shock, but after a few minutes chat he impressed me as hugely intelligent, and is evidently a well know writer as well. www.jalgpall.ee
Next stop Kadrioru Stadium, former home of the national team, which can only accommodate about 3,000. That`s enough for the Meistriligi match at 4.30 in the afternoon. There was a famous match Estonia v Scotland a few years back at this place where the Scots and 2,000 fans showed up but not the Estonians- a dispute over the time. It had to be played again a few days later.
FC Levadia Tallinn in first place, running away with the title, 9 points ahead of JK Sillamae Kalev and 2 games in hand. Opponents were JK Trans Narva from 300 km east on the Russian border. 1-1 was the final score but Sergie and I were cold with temp. 6 C and there were about 80 fans, plus 4 officials, 6 security guys and 8 ball boys, maybe 100 all told. Avik picked us up early after 60 minutes and dropped me off at the bus station 3 minutes before the next bus, 2 hours to Tartu, the second city and its famous university.
Last Updated (Tuesday, 30 November 1999 00:00) Written by Ron Monday, 09 November 2009 15:44
My last day in Baku, Azerbaijan was relaxed, with a stroll down the magnificent 100 metre wide boulevard with its many trees and bushes. Azerbaijan is a great example of a The Green Initiative and they are busy planting 3 million new trees. The ones by the sea are specially designed to give shade, and resist the strong wind, salt air and hot sun.
You may not know, but Baku was a contender of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, won this week by Rio de Janeiro. It fell at the first hurdle with little experience and some strong and formidable contenders, but it is a really super city on a long bay. Next stop if you go by freight ship with a few passengers is the port of Turmkmanbashi on The Caspian`s Eastern shore. it`s about 12-16 hour journey and Turkmenistan is finally opening up after the death of their weird President for Life who named the days of the week and months after his family members.
Azerbaijan has no state religion and you don´t see may women with headscarves, even though 90% of the people are Sunni Muslim. ''Beer drinking Muslims'' ,said one observer. On Sunday afternoon, well into the evening, GMT+4 hours, the shops that you might see in Paris, Milan and Los Angeles were open. Bvlgari, Harry Winston,Tommy Hilfiger, Adidas, Cartier, Salvatore Ferragamo, Yves Saint Laurent, Lacoste, Tiffany & Co, Gucci, Emporo Armani..... there were also the street stalls selling tacky souvenirs, plus kebabs, soft drinks, candy.
In the evening I went to my favourite outdoor cafe, CAFE ARAZ near Fountain Square, and watched some soccer on the small TV, Everton v Stoke City, Arsenal v Blackburn Rovers, Villareal v Espanyol with a table full of law students from Baku State University. I enjoyed a pot of green tea.
5.00am I slipped past the sleeping night clerk at my hotel in the Old City and wheeled by bag through the cobbled streets and the ancient gate in the walls, to where I thought there would be taxis outside the handsome Nizami Museum of Azerbaijan Literature. I woke up a sleeping policeman in his car and he called for a taxi. There cannot be a more impressive airport drive than the 8 lane Heydar Allyev Boulevard to the Heydar Allyev Airport, which has 2 terminals.On December 23rd, 2005 an Azerbaijan Airlines Analov aircraft plunged into the Caspian Sea 20 kms from the airport with the loss of all 23 passengers and crew. Fortunately I was flying Air Baltic, 4 1/2 hours over Russia and Belarus to Riga, Latvia, which was uneventful.
At Riga bus station I bumped into an American from Mayberry, NC, of The Andy Griffith Show,and who was the only American working in the Latvian Prison system. It`s a ficticious place but he said his town was the one used in the filming. He was looking for a bus to some market town in Lithuania, but I caught the ECOLINES bus to Tallinn, Estonia, 3 latis cheaper than EUROLINES -and my next story.
Last Updated (Tuesday, 30 November 1999 00:00) Written by Ron Monday, 09 November 2009 15:40
I was there and remember the day very well. It was the 8th World Cup Final, 30th July, 1966. It rained in the morning. England had been taken to extra time at Wembley 2-2 but in ovrtime Geoff Hurst belted the ball against the West German cross bar and it dropped down on the line and went back into play. Referee Gottfried Dienst looked to his right and 'The Russian Linesman' of folk lore. He went over and he nodded his head and Dienst pointed to the centre circle. GOAL!!! England 3 v West Germany 2. In those days the referee and linesmen had no common language. Today they must all speak English.
In fact,that infamous linesman was then a citizen of the SSRA -The Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan, from Baku. He looked like Stalin, with a large head of hair and a similar bushey moustache, but taller. (Stalin was small but nobody told him that). The man's name was TOFIK BAKHRAMOV and he later became the Secretary General of the AFFA the Azeri Football Federation and he died on October 12th 1993 aged 66! Of course Geoff Hurst completed his hat trick to make it 4-2 and fans ran on the field. 'They thinks it's all over, well it is now, four goals' were the immortal words of BBC TV commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme.
I wanted to visit the Republika Stadion in Baku now named the Tofik Bakhramov Stadium and see the huge statue in the forecourt just outside the Ganclik Metro station. I bought an oyster card, similar to the London underground for 3 manats, which gave me 10 trips, about 30 cents each, and went the 3 stops. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon and I got my photos in and out of the Stalin style stadium, and of the statue, and the kids playing in a league in the small artificial turf field next door.
I sat in the empty press section and took photos of the all seated stadium. Next door was a small cafe and I had a pot of tea and talked with the guys who were playing on the 4 NARD boards laid out on shady tables. In 2004 England paid a visit for a World Cup match and on October 12th, the day before the match, 16 years to the day after his death, Bahram Bahramov, his son, lined up with Geoff Hurst, Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini for a photo by the statue, which was then unveiled. England fans in red T shirts with a large 'Bahramov 66' on the front had their photo with the son, and also visited his grave to lay wreaths.
Normally the referee of the World Cup final is presented with a golden whistle, but on this occasion Queen Elizabeth II presented 3 such whistles. The other linesman was Dr. Karol Galba of Czechoslovakia, but nobody remembers him. On his death bed when asked was it a goal or not Tofik was alleged to have said one word-STALINGRAD!.
Last Updated (Monday, 09 November 2009 15:38) Written by Ron Monday, 09 November 2009 15:33
Three-thirty in the morning and I wake up to the noise of 17 Dutch tourists arriving in the middle of the night. Why must they wear clogs and have a herd of elephants with them? 7.00am and I catch the airport bus, only US 20 cents. On board are boxes of grapes, tomatoes, pears and 36" Osrama fluerescent strip lights, plus passengers on the way to work, packed like sardines getting on and off the whole 30 minute journey.
Not much action at the airport. I look at the departures board and only 6 flights daily in a space age building. I take the Air Azerbaijan prop plane 70 minutes to Baku, Azerbaijan the oil boom town on the Caspian Sea. No airline magazine-they only have one plane, so I try and read Isvestia, the Moscow newspaper, a day old. On the left are the High Caucasus mountains bordering Russia and snow capped. Across from me is Faye from La Jolla, who lives down the same street from Mary and Derek Armstrong, my friends.
Next to me is a talkative Azer businessman for Anglo-American Tobacco educated at Univ of Maine and Yale Business school. VERY helpful. After I pay $100.00 for a visa at the Heyda Aliyen International Airport he bargains for a taxi to town for the 3 of us and the driver finds a nice 8 room family run hotel in the walled Old City, Guest House Inn, 200 metres from the Caspian Sea and 100 metres from the Maiden Tower, the centre of old town, and near the Hungarian Embassy. We are welcomed with a pot of tea, which is a nice thought. The Azer language is very similar to Turkish and is in the Latin script, and easier to read after the flowery Georgian script.
We stroll along the promenade which is about 100 metres wide with gardens, photographers, kids on plastic mini cars, cafes, souvenir sellers and fishermen on the piers. There is the giant wedding cake style Dom Soviet or Government House with a huge parade square that can be lit up by the 4 giant floodlights. Everywhere huge new gleaming buildings, convention centres, western hotels, apartment blocks, and on the streets, exchange shops and cell phone stores.
One side street of less then 100 metres I count 24 stores and 22 of them are different cell phone companies and the other exchange places. The local money, manat, has been changed 4 years ago by a factor of 5,000 so you don''t need a wheel barrow to carry cash for a cup of tea. 100 manats divided into 100 qapiqs. Now you know.
In 1905, 50% of world oil was from Baku and the Germans tried to take the city during WW II. No chance, but they do have a German, Bertie Vogts, as national soccer coach. I call Orkhan at the AFFA soccer federation but the team is training in Germany for the big home match on Oct 14 v Andriy Arshevin and Russia, and all top league matches for the weekend are cancelled.
In the shade of plane trees old guys are playing NARD, an Azeri form of backgammon, and hanging on walls are silk scarves and carpets for sale, and those bushy Caucasian white or brown long fur hats. Everywhere there are statues and buildings commemorating the great leader, Heydar Alyev although he died 5 years ago. He rose from running the local KGB in Soviet times and was the first and only Azeri to serve in The Politburo. He became an autocratic President of a new, independent country, and after passing along to ''The Great Kremlin in the Sky'', his son Ilham is in charge, plus his gorgeous wife Mehriba, a sort of Eva Peron with money from her foundation to hand out across the land.
I take the No 20 bus for 30 cents, half an hour south along the coast road, on the way to Iran, and stop to take photos of theoff shore oil wells, which featured in the opening scenes of ''THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH'', the James Bond movie of 1999 with Pierce Brosman, Robert Carlyle, Robbie Coltrane etc. Further off the coast 15 minutes by helicopter and 6 hours by sea is a whole city of oil platforms, elevated roads and a semi-permanent population of about 350, also featured in the same movie.
Last Updated (Monday, 09 November 2009 15:38) Written by Ron Monday, 09 November 2009 15:25
The restaurant in Old Town was recommended and it was amost empty, with 5 people on 2 tables and 2 guys about to sing on stage very loud. However the value meal was good. A plate of cheeses, a salad, potatos, some skewer of lamb, a basket full of chewy Georgian bread, and half a carafe of wine. About $3.00 US. Not a bad deal.
Last night at The Georgia House we had a little celebration. Andro, who is half Ukranian, and works the front desk, and his Georgian fiance Annano, decided to fix dinner to celebrate the birth of little 2 week old OT, a Catalonian baby for Anna Maria and Josef from near Barcelona who had been waiting 3 weeks after the Georgian surrogate mother gave birth. It looks as if the Spanish visa is on it's way from Moscow, the nearest Spanish embassy, and the 3 of them can fly home in a couple of days. "OT cost us more than a Mercedes," says Josef.
Andro fixes us plates of fish and salad, I think it is catfish, plus some nice boiled and buttered potatos and a huge bottle of the beer that sponsors the GFF Georgian Football Federation, Natakhtari, plus a bottle of plum schnapps and some home made grape juice, plus loads of bread and followed by chocolates. Welcome to this world little OT (which is evidently a very Catalan name).
Earlier I had got a hair cut for $4.00. a snack of 2 sandwiches and a bottle of orange for $1.50 and 2 passport photos for my Azerbaijan visa for $1.50.' all in 30 minutes or so. I also caught the marshrutka shared mini bus for 50 cents,35 kms to Myskheta, with a Finnish tourist. The Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, 11th century, is worth a quick visit. Lots of pious visitors and supposedly Christ's robe is buried there. Another hour away is Gori, famous for one man, Josef Jughashvili later feared all over as Joseph Stalin. Here he was born and went to school. The main street is Stalin Avenue, There is Stalin Square with his statue, and the Stalin Museum, about the Gori cobbler's son who ruled the Soviet Union for 25 years and helped win the war for The Allies and who travelled by train to Yalta on the Black Sea to carve up the world with Roosevelt and Churchill in 1945.
Last Updated (Monday, 09 November 2009 15:38) Written by Ron Monday, 09 November 2009 15:18
It's one thirty in the morning and I am at the mercy of a hoard of taxi drivers at Tbilisi's new airport and I don't have a hotel reservation.
I negotiate a price and off we go down the George Bush Highway to the Rose Revolution in Georgia's capital city. We rumble over cobbled strrets in the Old Town until a sign, 'Georgia House' catches my eye. I say "STOP!" We ring a bell outside the huge gates and are buzzed in. There is a room available at this 8 room family run guest house. At 8.00am I am awake and walk up the hill 100 metres to the new Tsminda Sameb Holy Trinity orthodox cathedral which is floodlit at night, and can see out of my bedroom window. I stroll the rose garden and walk by the pond with 6 white swans and then back for breakfast. I meet other guests including a happy couple from Barcelona who have a two week baby via a Georgian surrogate mother, and a Finn and a German guest.
Georgia still has a big problem with Russia, which has annexed part of it's territory, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. ' Europe Started Here' says the tourist information, and over the centuries many armies have plundered. The Persians didn't leave anything standing in 1795 and in 1989 Soviet troops murdered 20 hunger strikers outside Parliament. Two years later Georgia declared its independence and former Soviet diplomat Edvard Shevardnadze was sworn in as President.
A few coups later and we had the Rose Revolution of November 2003. Last week the controversial President Saakashviki denounced Russia at the United Nations in NYC and was supported by USA, who have decided to move their proposed defence shield from Eastern Europe to the Caucasas. One of a number of free English language newspapers, 'Georgian Times' declares President Saakashvili talks 'War, Peace and Body Parts' at the UN General Assembly last week.. Meanwhile Russia has half a dozen of its naval warships off the west coast of Georgia in the Black Sea
I am in FREEDOM SQUARE, across the Mtkvari River where the last remaining Lenin statue in the country was brought crashing down and now there is a huge gold statue of St. George, the patron saint, slaying the dragon in its place. I visit the splendid new Tourist Office in the City Hall on the square for good brochures and free interne, and help from Tamunia and Georgi. www.georgia.travel.com
At the Georgian Football Federation office near Lokomotiv Stadium www.gff.ge I chat with assistant General Secretary Tamara and International teams secretary Levan and find out about local matches. There is one first division www.psl.ge tonight. FC Gagna v Sioni . It takes 45 minutes by taxi and the driver stops at least 8 times as he hasn't a clue. Finally, half an hour late for the 4.00pm match I find the tiny stadium with rickety seats five deep the length of one side of the pitch. It is on the outskirts in the grounds of a run down Olympic training complex with dormitories set in pine trees.
It's not a bad top league match in front of about 800 fans, and the referee has a FIFA badge. No programmes, and a team sheet for a few people in the wonderful flowery Georgian script. This script reminds me of somebody with one of those tubes of icing squeezing it on a birthday cake, but totally unreadable to Western eyes. I THINK it is a 1-0 win for the home team all in blue. The players look an average of 21 years old. Going back its much simpler and over 20 times cheaper, with a shared marshrutka, a Ford transit van with about 24 seats. 0.40 Gel to the nearest Metro stop at Didube and then I purchase a 0.50 GEL token about 50 US cents) for a 6 stop train journey.
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