The Maritim Hotel was completely covered in European Federation Final Four paraphernalia when we arrived.  It seemed every corner we turned showed us a bigger EHF Final Four poster.  We decided to hit up the information desk to figure out where we should be to see all the sights and sounds that come with the Final Four and perhaps test our grasp of the German language a bit.

Upon arriving at the information desk, I realized how illfully prepared for this event I am.  I wasn’t dressed in a suit, for one; additionally, I just wasn’t prepared for the overwhelming spectacle and intensity of an event like this.  This is the Final Four!  In Europe!  Of European Handball!  The FC Barcelona team walked by me in their fluorescent yellow polos and it seemed like they were all 7 feet tall.  (I am not entirely sure why they had such a safety yellow color on; especially as the team colors appear actually to be blue and red.  Perhaps they were telling other teams to watch out: destruction was near.  Perhaps they had problems with cars not seeing them.  Perhaps it was for the coaches  to know where the players were at all times. Difficult to say, but I will explore more tomorrow).  I was like a deer in the headlights, taking in the sights and sounds.  Jeremy, my photographer, led me into the information room where I talked to Susan, a representative from the Final Four.

I told Susan who I was and explained that we were here representing the United States as bloggers for the website.  She looked at us, skeptical at best.   

“You are here as what?” she inquired.

“Bloggers.  We were told we could walk around here at the hotel and check out the press events…something about press conferences after the respective training events.”

“Walk around?” she again skeptically inquired.   She didn’t seem to believe that we were supposed to be there one bit, not one bit at all.  She was probably about to call security to get these two crazy Americans out when I interrupted her thoughts with:

“Yeah…JJ told us to come here and see what we could find.”

Apparently those were the magic words; she then understood. Now I haven’t met JJ, but I was pretty stoked I was able to name-drop the right person to get us in.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t good enough to get us press credentials, which we weren’t really expecting to get, but it gave us some legitimacy that we sure weren’t going to get from our knowledge of the sport or teams.

Meanwhile, the other woman working the desk seemed to recognize my name when I walked in and was searching for our tickets.  As soon as she gave us our tickets, Susan realized we were pretty valid, not some bums of the street.  She told us to head downstairs to the negative two level (-2) for more press information.  When we went down there, it was pretty clear we would be unable to get press passes for the games tomorrow.

So we were able to gather up our tickets.  Next stop before wandering around Koln and attempting our terrible German was to check out the arena.  In American sporting events, I feel like there are vendors everywhere selling merchandise of the teams in the finals.  However, at neither the hotel nor the arena was there any vendors.  I couldn’t have found somewhere to buy a t-shirt if I wanted to.  They were setting up for the tournament at the arena when we got there, so we weren’t allowed in, but it looked like there were spaces for the vendors tomorrow (there is hope!) and we got a pretty good idea of what would be going on tomorrow.

All in all, it was a good day of preparation.  We shall see what tomorrow has to bring for us.  I am very excited now that we are here and seeing the people, the players and the fans and am eager to see what European Handball in Europe is all about.

12:21

Team Handball really seems to be a people’s sport.  The players are just larger, more muscular versions of you and me…and they have more facial hair.  As we walked across the plaza outside our hotel this morning, we saw members of the German THW Kiel as well as members from Ciudad Real.  Now these two teams played each other in the finals of last year and meet up later this afternoon for a semifinal rematch.  Passions will be flying high.

I half expected a Westside Story moment as the players of the two teams met each other in the plaza center.  There were only a few players from each outside wandering around, but I figured they would break out in song and their teammates would come from the surrounding buildings to back up the originals.  I swear I heard snapping coming from somewhere.    But as I watched, nothing out of the ordinary happened.  Some players posed for pictures with fans and then returned to lunch with their families.  There seems to be a respect amongst the Handball community for one another,  but then again, they aren’t playing yet.  I would imagine this will be quite a bout of Handball later in the day. 

There are fans all over the hotel area and arena area.  Most are for THW Kiel, the German team.  I am anxious to find out how much a “home field advantage” will come into play in Handball.  We are headed over to the games right now.