Londýn 2016: mesiac po (one month after)


At first, I thought that I would write few sentences in London every day just like in Kazan. However, in the end I am writing almost month after the European Championships :-( There was just too much to do during that week and after :-)

Every morning the swimming started at 10am but we had to be at the pool about an hour earlier. Before finals an hour and half was almost not enough. There were many people with cameras and if I did not catch a good spot at the beginning, it was too late later. Sometimes we were packed like sardines :-)


Pôvodne som si myslel, že podobne ako z Kazane, napíšem zopár viet každý deň aj z Londýna. No a nakoniec píšem skoro mesiac po skončení ME :-( Bolo toho skrátka za ten týždeň a po ňom viac než dosť :-)

Každé ráno sa začínalo plávať o 10-tej hodine, no pri bazéne bolo treba byť už asi o hodinu skôr. Na finále bola niekedy aj hodina a pol málo. Bolo nás tam s fotoaparátmi dosť a ak som si nechytil dobré miesto zavčasu, potom už bol problém. Niekedy sme boli naozaj ako sardinky :-)

We had two spots for taking photos, first right behind the starter near the starting blocks and second in the opposite corner of the pool, on the turn.

Again, they used the system of colourful bibs, 3 colours equalling 3 allowed areas of movement. Dark green was for broadcasters, the people involved in television somehow. For example the cameraman by the pool. These people had the biggest privileges. Dark blue and light blue were colours for the real photographers. People with the dark blue bibs could (besides mentioned spots for photographing) move freely at the pool except for the side behind starting blocks. From there were starting all disciplines with the exception of 50m disciplines that ended on this side of the pool and in that case there was no ban. Light blue bibs meant the smallest ‘freedom’. We had two spots for taking photos and it was possible to move around the pool, too, but only with special yellow belt. In the morning, they gave us quite a lot of them but during the finals, we rotated with only two. We could use the belt just for one discipline then we had to return it. Without yellow belt, we had to stay within restricted areas.

Easy, right? :-)

And, of course besides these ‘colour’ rules we had to abide by the standard rules for instance not getting into officials way and things like that. However, I must admit that officials were very helpful and mostly we could talk to them so they did not stand in our shots :-)

Na fotenie sme mali k dispozícii v podstate dve stále miesta, jedno za štartérom pri štartových blokoch a druhé v protiľahlom rohu bazéna, na obrátke.

Opäť tu fungoval systém farebných fotovést, 3 farby = 3 úrovne pohybu. Tmavozelená sa týkala broadcasterov, ľudí majúcich niečo do činenia s televíziou. Bol to napríklad kameraman pri bazéne. Najvyššie privilégiá. Tmavomodrá a svetlomodrá už boli farby naozaj pre fotografov. Tmavomodrí sa mohli okrem spomínaných fotopozícií pohybovať aj v podstate voľne okolo bazéna s výnimkou strany za štartovacími blokmi, kde sa štartovali všetky okrem 50-metrových disciplín. Tie sa na tejto strane dohmatávali a počas 50-tok tabu neplatilo. “Light blue bib” = najmenšia “sloboda”. K dispozícii 2 fotopozície a možnosť pohybovať sa aj okolo bazéna, ale iba s “yellow belt”, špeciálnym žltým pásom. Tých sa na doobedie vydávalo pomerne dosť, na finále sme si ale striedali tuším iba dva. Pás platil na jednu disciplínu a potom sa musel vrátiť. Bez pásu sa byť inde ako na vyhradených pozíciách nesmelo.

Jednoduché, že? :-)

No a samozrejme okrem tohto kolorytu bolo treba dodržiavať aj také tie štandardné pravidlá, ako napríklad nemotať sa rozhodcom popod nohy a podobne. Musím ale povedať, že rozhodcovia boli ústretoví a dalo sa s nimi väčšinou dohodnúť, aby sa nestavali do záberu :-)

After the end of the morning session I always got back to the hotel (except in one case) to work on my shots from morning. At first, I thought I could finish them before finals but that never happened :-) The finals were starting at 6pm and the end was usually about 8.30pm. I always got back to the hotel after 9pm. And that was the time for finishing the work on morning shots and working on photos from finals. I did not enjoy much sleep that week :-)

However, I had the satisfaction of seeing new articles from European Championships with my photos on SwimSwam.com and summersportsworld.sk as well as the reactions of members of SPF Facebook profile.

Po skončení doobedia som sa až na jednu výnimku vždy vracal na hotel, kde som rozrobil fotky z doobedia. Pôvodne som si myslel, že ich ešte pred finále stihnem aj spracovať, no ani raz sa mi to nepodarilo :-) Finále začínalo o šiestej večer a končilo približne o pol deviatej, na hotel som sa dostal vždy až po deviatej. A to bol ten správny čas na dokončenie fotiek z doobedia a spracovanie foto z finále. Moc som si za ten týždeň nepospal :-)

Zadosťučinením pre mňa bolo ale sledovať nové články z ME s mojimi fotografiami na portáloch SwimSwam.com a na summersportsworld.sk a tiež reakcie návštevníkov facebookového profilu SPF.

Because I am writing this almost month after the European Championships ended, I cannot keep a good track of what happened on which day. Nevertheless, I do remember a few interesting things :-)

It always surprised me how many taxis were queued up by the roadside and all of them without drivers. Hmm, they were sitting on the other side :-)

Grocery shops around the hotel were a bit weird. There was no baked goods no ham nor cheese or anything like that, everything packed. In addition, every night I had ‘healthy’ chicken burger, kebab or pizza, not the best choice :-) Besides the trip to the centre, I afforded a visit to the souvenir shop and enjoyed some ‘extra light meal’. Yummy, 12£ gone :-) But Stella in can cost 1£ and draft Guinness was 4£ :-)

Tým, že toto píšem skoro po mesiaci od ukončenia ME, už som stratil presný prehľad, čo sa v ktorý deň udialo. Zopár zaujímavých vecí ale ešte v pamäti mám :-)

Vždy ma prekvapilo, koľko taxíkov stojí pri ceste za sebou a všetky bez šoféra. Hm, sedeli na druhej strane :-)

Potraviny v okolí môjho hotela boli nejaké divné. Nikde žiadne pečivo, krájaná šunka, syry a podobne, všade len všetko balené. No a každý večer “zdravý” chicken burger, kebab alebo pizza? No nič moc :-) Okrem výletu do centra som si doprial ale ešte raz výlet do nejakého obchoďáku za suvenírmi a “extra light meal” bolo dobré. Mňam, 12 libier cink :-) Plechovková Stela bola ale v obchode za libru a za 4 sa dal kúpiť čapovaný Guiness :-)

I guess I had the best experience from travelling. I wrote one or two things about the tube so now I can mention something about typical red double-decker buses. Firstly, they were all red :-) However, the interesting thing was that normally the bus stopped, opened up the back door and people got off. Then according to the number of the people in the bus, the driver either opened or did not open the front door for people to get on. If the bus was full, he simply left. However, that was no tragedy because other bus came in no time. On the route I was taking, the interval between two buses was at any hour of the day 4-9 minutes. It happened more than once that right after one bus came another one going the same route. Ordinarily the drivers were black and you had to pay them for the ride electronically with contactless Oyster Card or as I did with contactless credit card. Inside of the bus there was a special area for luggage, also seats reserved for pregnant women, disabled persons, and the wheelchairs as well. I counted five cameras in every bus usually placed on the ceiling. In some vehicles, the video from cameras was directly projected on the screen. Buses did not stop at every stop you had to ring the driver. The stop buttons were placed on every stanchion. Stuff as LED panels that informed passengers about the next stop were necessity in every bus.

Once I met an inspector. He had some kind of device where you put your card (in my case the Slovak credit card) and he immediately knew if everything was all right.
And it was :-)

Cestovanie, z toho mám asi zážitok najväčší. O metre som už trochu písal, tak teraz skúsim zopár vecí o tradičných červených double deckroch. No ako prvé asi to, že boli všetky červené :-) Zaujímavé bolo ale napríklad aj to, že štandardne autobus zastal a otvoril zadné dvere. Ľudia vystúpili. Podľa toho, koľko ich vnútri zostalo, šofér buď otvoril alebo neotvoril predné dvere, ktorými sa nastupovalo. Ak bol plný, jednoducho odišiel preč. Nebola to ale žiadna tragédia, za chvíľu išiel ďalší. Na trase, kde som sa pohyboval ja, bol interval medzi dvomi autobusmi v akúkoľvek hodinu 4-9 minút. Viackrát sa stalo, že jeden autobus odchádzal a už prichádzal ďalší na rovnakej linke. Šoférovali ich spravidla černosi, platilo sa pri šoférovi. Samozrejme elektronicky, bezkontaktne, priložením Oyster Card alebo ako ja pomocou contactless platobnej karty. Vnútri bol vyhradený priestor na batožinu, takisto miesta na sedenie pre tehotné ženy a invalidov a tiež aj vyhradený priestor pre invalidný vozík. V každom autobuse som napočítal 5 kamier umiestnených väčšinou na strope, v niektorých autobusoch sa aj obraz z nich rovno premietal na monitor. Autobusy nestáli na každej stanici, bolo treba zazvoniť šoférovi. Tlačidlá na zazvonenie boli na každej zvislej tyči slúžiacej na pridržiavanie sa pasažierov počas jazdy. No a také veci ako LED panel, ktorý informuje o ďalšej zastávke, bol samozrejmosťou všade.

Raz som zažil aj revízora. Bezkontaktná krabička, každý priložil svoju kartu (ja tú svoju slovenskú platobnú) a revízor hneď zistil, či je všetko ok.
Bolo :-)

Nevertheless, one more thing from the tube… you can see even this in there…
Z metra ale predsa len ešte niečo… Aj toto sa v ňom dá vidieť…

 

One day it rained. I guess quite untypical for London that it rained so little in one week. Still I got wet pretty badly and from that day I started to call my horrible hotel a den :-) Besides every day washed clothes I had to dry also the wet ones. It turned out to be a bit of a problem :-(
Jeden deň pršalo. Na Londýn asi nezvyk, že za týždeň tak málo. Zmokol som ale kvalitne a od tohto dňa som svoj horrible hotel začal nazývať brlohom :-) Okrem každý deň praných vecí bolo treba sušiť aj veci zmoknuté. Hm, vcelku problém :-(

One morning I walked to the Aquatics Centre from the bus stop with Katarina Listopadova. I got to know two Czech officials and photographer Andrea Staciolli, too. On European Championships, there was also Tino Henschel with whom I had talked already during ISM in Berlin.
Jedno ráno som si zo zastávky autobusu odkráčal cestu k Aquatics centru s Katkou Listopadovou. Zoznámil som sa tiež s dvomi českými rozhodcami a s fotografom Andreom Stacciolim. No a na ME bol aj Tino Henschel, s ktorým sme sa dali do reči ešte počas ISM v Berlíne.

There seem to be certain swimmers whom the audience like more than others. With the regard for the home swimmers that get the biggest applaud and cheering, I noticed that the audience paid more attention to Cameron van den Burgh in Kazan and in London to Sarah Sjoestroem. Maybe it was because of her cheerful personality. For example, Laszlo Cseh was also very popular.
Niektorých plavcov má publikum obzvlášť rado. Keď odhliadnem od toho, že najviac potlesku, výskotu a povzbudzovania vždy dostanú domáci pretekári, tak v Kazani som si toto všimol u Camerona van der Burgha, v Londýne u Sarah Sjoestroem. Možno to bude jej veselou povahou. Dosť obľúbený je ale napríklad aj Laszlo Cseh.

Somehow, the week was over and suddenly it was Friday’s evening, the last day. I started to plan my journey home. Departure at 10.10? I should be at the airport 2 hours before, 2 hours to get there and leave a spare hour just for case. Wow, it seems that I have to leave from the hotel at 5.10. Ouch :-) I should walk in the dark in I think quite dangerous neighbourhood and get the tube. I was not sure about this plan. Therefore, I ordered a taxi to the hotel in the morning and got off at Stratford station.

I quickly managed to fulfil one of my resolution I stepped on the prime meridian :-)

A tak nejako ten týždeň prešiel a zrazu tu bol posledný piatkový večer a ja som začal plánovať cestu domov. Odlet o 10,10? 2 hodiny predtým treba byť na letisku, 2 hodiny na dopravu, hodina rezerva. Wau, treba mi z hotela odísť o 5,10! Vrrr :-( V noci peši potme po na môj vkus nie vcelku bezpečnej štvrti a potom metro? No, nebolo mi všetko jedno. K hotelu som si objednal na ráno taxík a nechal sa odviesť na Stratford station.

Splnil som si ešte narýchlo jedno predsavzatie, “pošliapať” nultý poludník :-)

As I walked into the station, I found out that there is some kind of trouble with my scheduled line. I took out my phone and removed that line from the lines for route scheduling. Within minutes, I moved a bit further and got on different line with the same destination, Heathrow airport. The tube was clean, well lit, with no worries about safety. There were two girls in the carriage with me. They still had a paper strip around their wrists, probably a ticket from some party :-)
Vchádzam do stanice a vidím, že moja naplánovaná linka metra má nejakú poruchu. Vyberám mobil, linku odoberiem z výberu liniek pre plánovanie trasy a behom chvíle sa už presúvam kúsok ďalej a nasadám na inú linku s rovnakým cieľom, letisko Heathrow. Metro čisté, vysvietené, žiadne obavy o bezpečnosť. Vo vagóne idú ešte dve dievčatá, na ruke majú ešte papierový pásik, zrejme vstupenku zo žúrky :-)

I got to the airport ok. I did a self-checking and found out that it is not possible to print my plane ticket. I was supposed to contact the airline management. Houston, we have a problem! I was feeling my adrenaline going as an employee of the British airways was trying to explain to me that they sold more tickets than the number of seats in the plane and that he was going to solve the problem :-) In turn, I was explaining him that I wanted to take this plane because my journey did not end in Vienna. Eventually I sat before the desk for half an hour and then the employee informed me with a smile that everything was all right and I had the ticket. Even though the seat was in the last row before the toilets next to the aisle, the guy was a small hero for me at that time :-)
Na letisko prichádzam v poriadku. Robím si self checkin a dozvedám sa, že pre mňa nie je možné vytlačiť letenku, “kontaktujte manažment leteckej spoločnosti”. Houstone, máme problém. Cítim ako mi stúpa adrenalín, keď sa mi pracovník British airways snaží vysvetliť, že predali viac leteniek, než je miest v lietadle a že sa pokúsi situáciu vyriešiť :-) Ja na oplátku vysvetľujem, že týmto letom letieť chcem, lebo vo Viedni moja cesta nekončí. Nakoniec sedím pred prepážkou približne pol hodiny, keď na mňa pracovník zavolá a s úsmevom mi oznámi, že je všetko v poriadku a letenku mám. Hoci je to do poslednej rady pred toaletami a pri uličke, ale je v tom momente pre mňa malým hrdinom :-)

I moved further, bought some presents, boarded the plane and then safely landed in Vienna. I got on the bus to Bratislava and continued in traveling. In Bratislava, I got off on the same dirty, ‘sweet-smelling’ bus station Mlynske Nivy as few days before. I approached a taxi driver before the station and asked him how much would cost a ride to the main railway station. ’20€.’ I pointed out that it is a bit expansive and got a choice to take it or leave it. Hmm, I was already in Slovakia. I called a VB taxi and paid 3,90€.

I could not decide which station is more ‘beautiful’. The main railway station or the bus station Mlynske Nivy. I guess they can easily compete. I was looking forward to having lunch at the station but after I entered the station restaurant, I minimised it to one beer and as little time as possible. In the waiting room, I was estimating how long it would take someone to ask me something like ‘What’s up, buddy?’. After about five minutes, I heard: ‘How are we, boss?’ :-)

The last public means of transport of my return journey was the Regiojet train, the business class. My impression improved a bit. During the ride there was just one ‘restart’ of the locomotive and with a little delay, we got to Zilina. Taxi, tube, plane, bus, taxi again, train and finally my own car – is there anything left? :-)

Presúvam sa ďalej, kupujem posledné darčeky, nasadáme do lietadla a v poriadku prilietame do Viedne. Presúvam sa k autobusu do Bratislavy a cestujem ďalej. V Bratislave vystupujem na rovnako špinavých a “voňavých” Mlynských Nivách ako pred pár dňami. Oslovujem taxikára pred stanicou a pýtam sa na cenu cesty na hlavnú železničnú stanicu. “20 eur”. Odpovedám, že to je vcelku dosť a dostávam na výber “chceš, alebo nechceš?” Hm, už som na Slovensku. Volám si VB taxi a platím 3,90€.

Ktorá stanica je krajšia? Železničná hlavná alebo autobusová na Nivách? No, myslím, že si nemajú čo vyčítať. Teším sa, že si dám na stanici obed. Po vkročení do staničnej reštaurácie to minimalizujem len na jedno pivo a minimum času. V čakárni odhadujem, za aký čas budem oslovený vetou typu “no ako vedúci?” Minút prešlo nakoniec asi 5 a veta “ako sa máme, šéfko?” :-)

Posledný verejný dopravný prostriedok spiatočnej cesty je vlak RegioJet, business trieda. Trošku sa mi dojem napráva, cestou len 1x “reštartujeme” rušeň a s malým oneskorením pristávame v Žiline. Taxík, metro, lietadlo, autobus, znova taxík, vlak a nakoniec vlastné auto – čo je ešte dnes v ponuke? :-)

During the return journey, I found out about the silver medal that Riso Nagy managed to win. I was glad to hear that but why did he have to wait until Sunday? :-) At least I sent one early photo for the article to SwimSwam, which they are already writing…
Počas spiatočnej cesty zisťujem, že Rišo Nagy zaplával striebro. Teším sa, no musel s tým čakať až do nedele? :-) Tak posielam aspoň jedno skoršie foto pre článok do SwimSwam, ktorý sa už píše…

What more to say?
Maybe the next year I will visit Budapest :-)
A čo povedať na záver?
Budúci rok Budapešť? :-)

Neverthless, I have to mention this – thanks to Riso and his silver medal my photos appeared for the first time in televison broadcasting. It was broadcasted on 7th of June 2016 on television channel TV JOJ in the proramme called ‘Noviny o 12:00′ in which you can see more than 7-minue long interview with him.

Thank you, Riso :-)

No a ešte predsa len jedna poznámka – vďaka Rišovi a jeho striebru sa moje fotografie objavili po prvýkrát aj v televíznom vysielaní. Bolo to 7.6.2016 na TV JOJ v relácii “Noviny o 12:00″, v ktorej bol s ním odvysielaný viac ako 7-minútový rozhovor.

Ďakujem Rišo :-)

1 Comment

  1. Somebody
    22. september 2016 at 3:53 — Odpovedať

    Your page is so fantastic! You sure do know how to keep your audience entertained. Im so glad that I took the time to look at this blog, because let me tell you. Not a lot of people know how to balance knowledge of a subject and content. The videos are perfect!

Pridaj komentár

Copyright © 2015-2024 Peter Sukenik