Part 4 : The Tournament

Another day another tournament :)  On this day i was still hungover ( alcohol poisoning ) and felt like total ass times 2 . Our first game of the day was vs. Augsburg Woodstocks , and we already had a feeling that the divisions were stacked and we were on the wrong side of the stack . Before we went to the rink i wandered around and drank as much cafe americanos as possible out of the vending machine in the hall of our hostel . Bolzano was not some huge bustling town and we had to get to our game , the arena was not quite around the corner ...more like a 20 min drive . We drove to the rink , which we popped by the night before to drop off our equipment but never really saw anything as it was pitch black .

Not quite sure what the name of this arena was ....but i can say the view was magnificent as it was up in the mountains and right near it there was a waterfall , and it was one of the best rinks i have played on outside of Canada . Our first game was early so we crammed into our room and got dressed and ready for our game vs. Augsburg ( Germany ) . We came out fast and went up quickly 2-0 , i did not have to do much and still was feeling awful ....pretty sure they scored on one of their first shots and we were up 2-1 when we widened the spread winning the game 6-3 .

After the game we had some time to go back into the city centre and we did , and unfortunately i could not stomach any food so i did what i had to do . GET THE EVIL out of me ! Gently touching the back of my throat in my rooms bathroom i threw up , unfortunately in the bidet :) One of my roommates suggested that it would not burn so much if i ate a banana and did the same thing so i did . To my surprise it actually did help . So now i can try eating again .....we went to this cafe to get some food . I actually got it down . And now i am feeling better and we have our big showdown game coming up .


The next game was vs.Slovakia Old Boys , now i am pretty sure some of these guys played for their national team as they had full gear . The Czech guys on our team really wanted to beat these guys and were so focused to win . The tournament setup was 6 teams , 3 in each group , 2 round robin games , everyone gets crossover ...so first in our group plays first in the other group . So basically the winner of this game goes to the final and the loser goes to 3rd place game . Unfortunately this game was not going to go our way .....our Czech guys just could not produce as the Slovaks really played amazing position hockey in their own zone , and their goalie was ridiculous . On the other hand our luck was totally in the toilet as Rudi scored a goal on me with a 1-1 tie giving them a 2-1 lead ( our only goal coming from Rainer ) . These Slovak guys were good even though they played with 7 skaters and a goalie . As you can predict we ended up losing the game 3-1 ,dejected we all head back to our rooms.

Feeling better we head out to dinner as a team and then out to the city centre for drinks ....yes drinks! Basically it was Rainer , Timo, Rob, Paul , Daz and myself ( the Czechs did their own thing ) that went out and got our drink on . We went to the first bar and basically started drinking casually outside and then a woman came by with a basket full of beer to sell....much cheaper than beer inside so we buy the whole basket ( which i kept a few of and dragged all the way home ) next thing you know we run into some of the Augsburg players and head off to another steamy bar with live music . It was in a basement or something and basically everyone had their shirts off and were plastered drunk . I am sure we were there for quite some time and most of our guys took off and went back to the hostel as their is a CURFEW !

Rainer and myself stayed at this bar , basically i remember drinking there and all the windows were closed and they were really paranoid about something or other so we left and ended up in some other disco . Well at this disco we grabbed a couple drinks. The floor was totally covered in broken glass , and the crowd was ALL MEN ....looking at Rainer i said " Rainer i think this is a gay bar " , " no its not " . Grabbing him i stopped him from bopping around dancing and said "look around , do you see women ?" after this he finished his drink slammed it down and we left . With no clue where we were and knowing we were out past curfew we wandered the streets of Bolzano ....even asking other drunken strangers for directions ( they were lost too ) somehow we show up at the hostel and of course the automatic door is not opening . Rainer looks at me and says we can sleep in his car , i was not having that so i pryed my fingers in between the doors and forced my way in LOL. There is another door and it is a swing door with a lock , no way i am prying my way into this :( so i just start banging on the glass . We were lucky the security guard let us in with the promise of being quiet . Yeah right , getting off the elevator we decided to wake up our neighbours before going to sleep ....shit i forgot my key ! Thanks for opening the door guys :)