July 31 Opening Ceremony Day

Okay so I felt like writing some more about my fabulous trip to Cologne.
July 31 - Early morning - I found a need to get to a photo shop and purchase some batteries for the Opening Ceremonies of Gay Games VII. I just did not want to run out of power while shooting the event. Last year I remembered a Nikon photo shop located at the Dom. By this time I had firmly established a flirtatious relationship with the Royal hotel owner Leo. He advised from the hotel take any of the Suburban trains going to the right (left is right in Germany. go figure.) A short walk from the hotel up the stairs and I was on the platform.

One stop and you are at the Dom. How convenient. Great. All of those words. Went in purchased a new lens, batteries, additional SD and Scan Disk cards and a filter for the new lens. All seemed to be reasonable pricing compared to US dollars. I returned to the Hotel with my new items.

Before the start of the Opening Ceremonies I was invited to attend a Scholarship Recipient reception followed by a VIP-Cologne reception, followed by the entry to RheinEnergieStadion Köln. I managed to get a shot of the crowd walking into the stadium. Quite an impressive view.

Gay Games VIII Koln Germany

Wow it is all over finally after all of these years. I am back home with Apollo and we have united wonderfully. He was so excited to see me when I walked in the door. I guess we were both excited to see each other. Did not see Tim until the next day though. Too tired and yet needed to remain awake to rid of the jet lag.

So you must be wondering what happened that I was not able to provide a point by point analysis of my Gay Games VIII experience. Guess I got all caught up in the moment. So I will try to do it here.

July 29
Arrived in Frankfort, Germany along with Bill, Bill and Joe. We did not sit together on the airplane. I saw them at the airport in Chicago O'Hare before boarding the flight. Once we landed we sought to find our luggage. I was trying to act like an experienced tourist in Frankfort having been the same route the prior year. Bill, Bill and my luggage were immediately transferred to the Lufthansa area where we retrieved our train tickets for the ICE to Koln. Joe did not purchase his trip the same way so he had to purchase a ticket at another area. When we got to the baggage claim area, retrieved our train ticket only to find our luggage not yet delivered. A short wait later our luggage arrived causing us to dash to the ICE for the trip to Koln. At the tracks we ran into Joe again. We were on the train in separate areas. I was in a car with the ladies from the Chosen Few women's soccer team. Did not recognize any of them as they were new to the team or did not get the opportunity to travel to Chicago in 2006 of be part of the exhibit when I visited Cape Town, South Africa. Another woman who was from Jamacia was also traveling on the same train. We arrived in Koln and scattered leaving me and the woman from Jamacia together. Her mission was to get to the registration area to get her documents and stippen from the scholarship program.

Stephen Kovacev

Sometime you get to meet real heros among us and we just have to celebrate their time here on the otherside. One such an occassion happened with me while "manning" the Federation of Gay Games booth at the Games Cologne VII village on August 2, 2010.

Steven and his friend approached the booth to find out what all of the excitement was about. In my usual manner I was again giving out materials of the Federation and somehow managed to attracted a large number of folks to the booth. His friend excitedly explamined how Steven was able to not only fit into his first Gay Games t-shirt, but that it was so preserved he was able to wear it into the Gay Games VII opening ceremonies. Steven participated in his first Gay Games five Games ago. He is writing a book about his story and was featured on the HBO special documentary "Rock the Boat". Definitely check him out.

Steven has a wonderful story and you can follow it by contacting him at rockovach@comcast.net.

The Games have began

I am in Cologne celebrating the Games Cologne VIII celebration of sports and culture participants, spectators and general community of Cologne. When I got to registration they gave me a pass which allowed me free transportation on their transit systems.

Overall the experience has been exceptional. There are some sinage around town to let people know we are in town. Mostly the city is quite aware of our presence as most of the participants are wearing their badges. They are on a rope with a plastic jacket to hold the cards. These get you in places and free rides on thew transit systems.

I am try to decide where to load many of th picture taken. I have seval options. Here, flickr.com, photos.gaygames.com or qubesport.net/photos. Someway I will get them out for viewing.