Memmingen Deutsche Pokal Champs to Visiting Family in Sweden

2009 makes history as the first time ever for a German womens team to win both the German Championship as well as the German Cup and I was lucky to be a part of it.  I went from a season back home where I didn’t win a single game (but loved every second of it, why wouldn’t I??  And for anyone who knows me, you know I am dead serious), to making history!!  How fun is that??  Was pretty special too as Aiden was there in Berlin for our last game and he got to watch us guarantee ourselves the German Championship after the scores were already in from Planneg’s game we ended up winning 9-0 to solidify the title by 6 goals I believe. 

The celebrating started by champagne on the ice (which to be honest I really didn’t know how to celebrate, you might think that sounds weird but I am completely serious, I felt weird, happy but weird).  So pictures, champagne, crazy German songs, pictures, more champagne and more crazy German songs which lead us to the dressing room for more pictures, champagne and crazy German songs.  Let me catch you up to where I was at this point.  I ate dinner about 3 hours before the game, maybe a small snack leading up and then onto the ice for 3 hours of hockey and then right into the booze.  Ya… you see where this is going, also for anyone who knows me I am a bit of lightweight.  So in goes the champagne, shots, beer, shots, shots, more shots, a couple more beer and well about 8 more shots.  Germany is the devil with their little bottles of alcohol, no joke even typing that was difficult for me as I get the mental image and clear smell of what I consumed that night (and that was over a month ago). I might have also had a bite of someone’s burger but no more then 2 bites tops.  All night I sort of felt like I had a good angel in one ear telling me not to drink too much, to stop with the shots and in the other ear someone handing me more and more and more of those bottles of awfulness.  Turns out the good angel was Aiden and the bad was Steffi and Sandra (and likely the rest of my team as well). I am told that I was outside waiting for the cab to pick us up and I would finish a shot and smash the tiny glass bottle on the ground (also extremely out of character as I am often the person picking up random pieces of garbage on the ground as I can’t understand how people can’t hold onto it for at most 5 minutes before seeing a garbage to put it in… whoops).  Night didn’t last long, took cab to the bar, threw up when we got there but in the cab and Ms. Jenny Gartner, incredibly kind person, cleaned up the cab and saved me from the fine.  Then Aiden had to take me home, just keeping in line with the majority of our family trips.  I think it is (well my excuse is) that when I have someone there I know will take care of me I sort of turn off completely.  ….not a great idea.  (Cuba, Vegas and Berlin, just ask one of my brothers).

We had a weekend off before heading for Memmingen to win the German Cup and my cousin Kelly arrived in this time, also an interesting story which will be more funny for all parties in about 3. 5 years.  One sentence version is that we don’t really like Italy, their dogs and their unacceptance of codeine and other doctor prescribed medication, or was it milk bones??  Onto brighter times, Aiden was also in Memmingen to watch us win the cup then we were back in Berlin with our skates hung up for the season.  Crazy how fast the season went by, from my first game over here in Prague to Memmingen, on one hand feels like maybe 2 months, and on the other I feel like I have done soooo much that could have been here 3 years. 

Shortly after my return to Berlin and a bit of celebrating with Nina, Kelly’s friend Tara arrived and we instantly adopted her into our family as our cousin and looking back now even after traveling together we would like to keep her in the family.  (What can we say, she’s a great cook!!  Kidding, well actually she is a great cook but we’d keep her anyways).

Aiden, Tara and I flew to Stockholm to, re-meet in my case and meet in Aiden and Tara’s case, the family.  Anders, being the unbelievably kind person that he is came and met us at the airport that is at least an hour out of Stockholm and once again welcomed us wholeheartedly with Bodiel and Philip into their home.  What an amazing 5 days we had there, so much visiting, cooking, huge meals, suffle and lots of wine.  We enjoyed our time with them soo much, could have sat at the dinner table for hours (actually we did) just talking and bantering, we cannot wait to have them in Canada so we can even somewhat repay their great hospitality.  We also got to meet one of Bodiel;s brother and his partner.  They were such a blast as well, and their beautiful dog Snow White!!  Also need to note that Aiden, Tara and I spent the good part of a day in Ikea but not just Ikea, THE Ikea, the first Ikea, the head office of Ikea.  Pretty cool, we know!

After Stockholm Aiden and I took a train down to Malmo and Tara was off to Prague where her family comes from.  A funny story, well funny for you and not so much for Aiden and I, while waiting for our train to Malmo we are on the platform and all we hear is this poor cat in it’s cage meowing and meowing, I can’t possibly put into written words the sound this cat was making.  It was a mix between a 2 year old girl’s scream and the noise Jim Carrey makes as the most annoying noise in the world on Dumb and Dumber.  Take the time to think about this… mix them… really get this in your head.  K, so this cat, Aiden and I look at eachother praying that the cat is NOWHERE near where we are sitting on the train and well as the Law of Attraction proves the cat was right beside us, right across the isle and she did not stop for the ENTIRE trip to Malmo, they got off a stop before we did… it’s a 4 hour train approximately.  So not only that we realize that hmm that’s weird there seems to be a lot of dogs in our cabin of the train.  Ya… they put us in the animal section of the train, honestly I think there were 6 dogs and THE cat, maybe more and I am not exaggerating at all.  Well animal cart aside we arrived to more open arms at the train station.  Johan met us there and took us back to their beautiful apartment in the downtown of Malmo.  We met the rest of the family and were taken to our own apartment that they had arranged for us through Asa’s dance company.  Again, so nice of them. 

We had a fun and tasty pizza dinner with the whole family, met Markus for the first time and Aiden got to meet Holger and Kirsten (what beautiful people).  Went for a nice walk through the city and the parks and learned about lighting, which I now find fascinating as I probably have never stopped to think how a building or street or city or performance was lit and the design behind it. The next day Johan was again an incredible tour guide for us and took us all throughout Malmo, we finished our tour at the Dance studio/company where we were celebrating Asa’s 50^th Birthday, pretty cool there were a lot of important people there and funny cuz each time one of them came in they would tell me in a sort of joking tone that “oh, those people over there are very important” but sort of felt like everyone there was and they all just were pretty down to earth.  We ate about 3 pieces too many of the great cakes that were provided and then found out later there were more for her to take home which we also got to divulge in later that evening.  Choosing a highlight is difficult but for me and Aiden to get to sit in on a dance rehearsal for one of their performances was soooo cool.  We were sitting at the front with the rehearsal manager and got to watch and then hear the breakdown and comments afterwards.  I found it very interesting as within any sport or team there are people who can take criticism well and others who bite back immediately and refuse to believe that what someone saw from the front watching the entire performance was correct.  I know we all have our days but just found it interesting and very fun. 

We stopped by to say our goodbyes and once again were given breakfast (we ate way too much of their food and they were too generous).  Saying goodbye to Holger and Kirsten was pretty special.  Holger made sure that I knew to send all his love to my parents and family back home, and saying how special they are and to make sure to give his love to them.  And also very special Kirsten wanted to make sure that Aiden sent a wedding picture to them after his and Jason’s wedding this summer.  Pretty cool J , still makes me smile and tear up all at the same time.

They walked us to the train station, said our quick good-byes and we were off to Copenhagen for the day.  Going to end this blog here as the scenery in Croatia is too beautiful to be spending my time on the computer.  More to come soon!!!

Croatian Adventure April 2009

So I arrived in Berlin to play my first year of pro hockey about 8 months ago and well that is about how far behind I am on my blog… Well, not that bad but pretty close.  J  Right now I am on a bus from Plitvice to Split, in Croatia.  I just spent the last 4 hours walking through Plitvice Javara National Park and it is quite possibly one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, seen and could have dreamed. To another’s eye it might have looked like a gloomy, rainy somewhat cold day, to me the moment I stepped into the park I couldn’t stop smiling.  I think the only time the smile came off my face was for about 15 seconds when I realized the battery in my camera had died.  After a full 15 seconds of sulking I put the camera away and realized this just allowed me to really enjoy the full beauty of the rest of the park, and that there was no way the images and georgeousness would be forgotten (plus the probably 400 pictures I had already taken helped ease the pain as well).  Something to note, about 3 weeks ago I was in Berlin touring around a bit with my brother Aiden and I put my stuff down as I had offered to take a photo for a German couple who were obviously going to go throughout most of their trip with one photo of him, and one photo of her, this might be my 3^rd favourite thing ever to do.  Anyhow, so after taking the pictures making sure they were happy with them I picked up my stuff to hear my camera hit the ground.  Not completely concerned as this might possibly not be the first time I have dropped my camera, maybe once in a disco… So the bad news here was that the screen had cracked on the inside, the even worse news was that there wasn’t any old school peep hole to see what you take your pictures of but the good news (there usually is good news if you just look for it) was that the camera could still take pictures, and the even better news is that I have been in training for the past 4 years taking nearly 1000 pictures a month so I know my camera pretty well and have a good idea of which buttons to press how many times on which settings in order to have the camera on the option I would like to use.

Alright, so quite the side note but it was a traumatic and memorable moment I wanted to share.  Aiden had to deal with me being in a pissy mood for about 18 minutes but I slowly came around after realizing there really wasn’t anything I could do at that point to change the situation, except for get back at taking too many pictures the way I lived my life 18 minutes ago. 

So, back to Plitvice and the 400 pictures I had already taken of this absolutely astonishing National Park and it didn’t matter for a second whether I could see what I was taking or not as the entirety of the park was breath taking.  Now I sit here wishing I hadn’t packed the camera adapter under the bus otherwise I would be going through the photos and seeing how they turned out.  But again, on the positive side I am catching up a bit on my blog. 

Prior to Plitvice I had been in Zagreb for one day, 2 nights.  I had my very first couchsurfing experience and it turned out great, stayed with 2 young guys from Zagreb and they were super helpful, Marin picked me up at the train station, offered to carry my stuff and we arrived back at his place to a Champions League Soc… I mean Football game (which I have somehow grown to really enjoy until I either get bored cuz there is no goals or til I throw something at the TV due to the frustrating and embarrassing dives the players take), so football game, pizza and beer.  Boy did they choose the right girl, not much more you could ask for, Beer, Pizza and sports.  So needless to say I knew this situation was going to work out just fine.  I crashed on their couch that night then had a decent sleep in and did 2 walking tours, one around the old town and one around the lower town I believe it is called.  From my 3 days of experience Croatians are incredibly nice and very helpful people.  I enjoyed touring myself around Zagreb with a book that gave me the route, a map and then information and history at each stop point.  Was a nice way to see a city, it was completely at my own pace and if I wanted to wander down some random street or into a different church I wasn’t holding anyone up and I could stop for food or to take others pictures anytime I liked.  **Side note to the side note, the breaking of my camera while helping others with a photo has not deterred me from continuing this passion of mine**.  After the tours I dropped by where Tomislav works “Cyber Funk Café” great place and one of the only juice bars in Zagreb right now, he told me when things happen in westernized countries they usually take a few years and make their way over to them.  So always smart to travel, see what’s cool and working and get a head start on everyone back in Croatia.  Jumping ahead to our evening, we decided to stay in watch TV, order some more Pizza and just hang out.  Was really nice and turned out to be a great decision as the weather turned to lightning and thunder storms. 

So Marin, Tomislav and his girlfriend Sandra (who I only got to meet for maybe 10 minutes but she is such a sweetheart) were great hosts and also got to meet some of their other friends too.  I highly suggest this form of travel to anyone and EVERYONE.  If you have heard of couchsurfing then skip this next paragraph, I am going to try and give a Coles notes version of what I understand of it so far cuz I think everyone should be involved even on a small scale if possible:

Couchsurfing.com a program started by someone either in Canada or the States (I told you I don’t know a lot yet) and it allows people all over the world to have a profile, share what they would like about themselves and get to know and experience other people from every walk of life imaginable.  So some of the ways you can be involved is to host people at your home, you say how many you can have, if you are currently available to host someone and what your home is like (ie: pets, non-smokers etc. etc.) and then people can check you out, see if you are a good match and then you do the same to see if the person requesting a couch is someone you would like in your home or not.  You can also be that person looking for a couch to sleep on, so you contact whom you’d like and share a bit about you and why you would like to stay with them (obvious shit reason.. cuz it’s free, really helps to take the time to read through profiles and what others have said about them and their experiences couchsurfing with them).  Or you can also just be available to meet for coffee and give some advice of what to do in your city.  Things like that, so super short version but likely noone got this far anyhow.

Hello everyone who either just woke up from my last paragraph or who skipped it entirely.  To complete my update of Croatia thur far, I am now headed to Split where a really nice PHD student has offered to take me into her home for a few days, she is supposed to be coming to BC (Sydney) to do some research for 6 months, not sure when though.  Anyhow, the drive has been beautiful and I am extremely happy that I chose to sit on the right side of the bus from Plitvice to wherever we are now as the cliffs and heights are not my favourite.  But if you love the view and are tougher then I am take the left side.  Helpful random tips for traveling in Croatia.  That wraps up this portion of my blog and I will working my way backwards to attempt to catch up on highlights.  Thanks for tuning in and back on home soil in less than 2 weeks!!  CRAZY!!!