I am writing on Monday lunchtime and we have arrived safe and sound in Baku. We took in a quick stopover at Istanbul en route, followed by a short stop in Tbilisi where we were able to steal about three hours of sleep before heading onto Azerbaijan. As soon as you progress through arrivals, you are greeted with the visage of Mesut Ozil staring back at you. There are posters for the final all over the city and we drove past the stadium and the fan parks on the way to our hotel. It is clear that this is a big event here. Our check-in was a bit of a heart stopping venture, where the tenants initially seemed to baulk at the idea that this was a hotel at all, let alone that they were expecting...
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