Today was the official Start ceremony at Molos promenade. The organization was horrible. The biggest problem was the total darkness. There were a few lights covering the podium, but the the rest of the alleys were really dark. As a result, it was practically impossible for the people to see the cars in the queue and chat with drivers. Photography was out of the question, unless a powerful flash unit could be used. I didn’t have one, so I made just a few pictures and most of them screwed anyway.
Hosts were the same as previous years – loud and boring. Especially the lady. She was asking stupid questions, confusing drivers with co-drivers (!!!) and performing other nonsense. She also tried to move the crowd. For the third or so year in a row. And for the third or so year in a row the crowd stayed and laughed at her. I am puzzled with how organizers don’t notice this…
Some teams had their kiosks selling merchandise. As usual, Olga and I went to Subaru. While the products are nice, the prices were a bit too high. And the queue processing was very slow. The lady who was selling goods, was unpacking each item, showing it to the buyer, than packing it back, than bringing change all the way from the cashier machine… I was third in the queue and it took her about 20 minutes to get to me. This begs for some speedups and optimizations.
Anyway, Olga and I left the ceremony without waiting for the end. Boring. Hazard should have it mostly covered on video anyway.
Album location: /photos/2005/2005-05_Cyprus_Rally/2005-05-12_Start_ceremony