Men's Handball EHF European Championship 2024 (Relegation Round, First Leg, Week 1)

Only WCh 2016 was worse than this one. I saw some great bouts but overall, this Ch was unnecessary.

There might be modern tracks for lots of sports in Ashgabat actually. They organised some Asian martial arts competition some time ago and for that they built all sort of megalomaniac infrastructures (you see the picture of the gigantic horse head? That’s part of the main stadium), all in white (there’s some rule from the president that everything needs to be white in that city), and all pretty much abandoned since that time.   According to the delusional/brainwashed local people we met, “all those investments are understandable because Ashgabat will organize the Olympic very soon”.    That’s because the dictator is obsessed with huge buildings, if you see my third last photo, that is actually an indoor ferry wheel (yes, it’s a thing apparently), the largest one in the world (Guiness world record), and it looked really abandoned. Me and my wife were the only ones going on it.   Everything in that country (but especially in Ashgabat) is bizarre.

Baku is a large resort. There is a modern track in cycling in Ashgabat. The World Championships were supposed to be held some years ago.

There are some government allowed routes that go to the West, but the usual one is just around the two main cities (Ashgabat and Mary) and then crossing the desert to that gas fire crater.   thats what I did, entered from the east from Bukhara (Uzbekistan) and left again to Uzbekistan but in the Khiva border.   Not sure how’s the caspian sea there, but the only time I saw it , in Azerbaijan, didn’t look very clean to swim.

...and this is how I learned Costco sells poutine in Canada    Is it a food court item there, or something you buy and prepare at home?