---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Andrew Hochstedler <ahochstedler@ gmail.com>
Date: Feb 8, 2008 12:34 AM
Subject: Turnuva Zamani!!!
To: ultimate_in_ istanbul@ yahoogroups. com



(seckin or Emrah or Gizem) could one of you translate this ASAP? I wanted a Turk to translate it to make sure that everything is clear and there are no mistakes),

Hey Everyone,

(Please respond to this email soon as the deadline for one of the tournaments below is February 13.)

Do you guys ever find yourselves wondering why you spend all of your free time with ultimate players, why you now "cut to" everything (quick, cut to that taxi!), why you have no work and you're fine with that, why your feet sweat whenever you dream of ultimate (okay maybe that's just me)?

You may wonder why all these crazy foreigners spend all of their time trying to teach a bunch of Turks to throw a flatball, and why a bunch of Turks are willing to keep showing up in cold and warm weather to yell things in English that they don't understand ("da skin," "the skin," no darn it, "disk in.").

My friends, the reason lies in the fact that there is far more to ultimate than what we have been doing here. At practices, scrimmages, fall league and our Istanbul tournaments you have caught just a tiny glimpse of what this sport is really about, but you sense that there is something more, and that "something more" keeps bringing you back.

The real joy of the sport comes at a tournament: two or three days of hard playing on beautiful grass or sand fields, against teams from all over Europe, enjoying the time with your friends and making lots of new friends in the process, partying at night and then waking up and doing it all over again the next day :-).

Below are two possible tournaments that we could go to, depending on how many people we have. I lay out the details below and then summarize my thoughts at the bottom

Sandsplash: Baden, Austria (April 26-27) (www.sandsplash. at)

This tournament is 5 on 5 in the sand, in a beautiful little Austrian town famous for it's baths. We play on beach volleyball courts at the town's "bath complex" (swimming pool etc...) with a castle on the forested hill above us.

Sandsplash consists of 7, 30 minute games, which is not a lot, so it's best if we have no more than 11 people go. The teams are a lot of fun and the atmosphere is great. It's a combination of experienced and new teams so we'd have quite a mix of competition.

We sleep in a gym with a bunch of other teams a short drive from the fields.

We would fly to Vienna on the evening of April 25 and the take the train directly to Baden. On Sunday evening April 27 we would return to Vienna by train and either get hostel rooms, or see if we can stay with a friend of mine. We'd fly back the next day at either 7 a.m. or 1:30 p.m. (your choice).

Cost/person
$289 flight
$45  tournament fee (includes 2 breakfasts, 1 dinner and sleeping arrangements in a gym)
$50-$100 food (2 dinners, 2 lunches, 1 breakfast)
$20 train
Total: $410-$460


Talampaya: Geneva, Switzerland (May 10-12) http://www.pixin. ch/talampaya/

This tournament is 7 on 7, played on beautiful grass fields in Geneva, Switzerland. Check out the video and pictures on the website. I don't know how many games you play but I'm assuming that it's not less than 8 since it takes place over 3 days. We would fly to Basel early early on the morning of May 9, spend the day traveling to Geneva, play ultimate on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, and then return to Basel and the Istanbul late on Monday night (May 12).

Because of longer games (I'm assuming at least 50 minutes), bigger fields, more players, more games etc... it would be good to take at least 13 people to this tournament (6 girls and 7 guys).

I don't know what the overall level of play is, but it's 32 teams so I'm assuming it's a wide variety of experienced players and beginners like us.

The cost below is an estimate, especially the train cost from Basel to Geneva and back is somewhat uncertain because some of us may be able to get rides with players from Basel instead of going on the train. We could also look into renting a van (always a good time :-). We will not pay more than $475-550.

$130 flight (Istanbul-Basel)
$120 tournament fee (3 breakfasts, 2 dinners, local transport, accommodations)
$75-$150 food (2 dinners, 4 lunches, 1 breakfast)
$150 (max.) train from Basel to Geneva and back
Total: $475-$550

Summary: I would say that I would prefer to go to the Geneva tournament, because it is not much more expensive, but there is more playing, we can take more people, and we might as well spend an extra day in Europe if we are going to go to all the effort of getting there.

That said, I don't think it would be very wise for us to go if we have less than 13 people. Any less than that and we will really wear ourselves out and have a difficult time hanging with our opponents. In the eventuality that we need more players for either tournament I know that we could check with Konstantin to see if he would join us, and possibly also with a couple of my other friends from Innsbruck, Austria who some of you met at the Austria tournament last year.

Still, I first would like to see us (you and me) make up the team and not be depending on "outsiders" to help us.

Please let me know as soon as you can which tournament you would be able to go to.

Peace,
Andrew

P.S. testimonial from Maria Salo at the Erlangen tournament last September. Those of you who know Maria know that she is a very earnest individual, so this comment meant a lot to me: "Turk Kasi is definitely the most fun team that I have ever played with."

You rock, Maria, please join us this time around as well :-).