The Wrap Up pt.2

When we arrived back in Germany the fun factor turned up a notch , pretty much immediately ! No offense to everyone else but i love Germany for some reason or other ...must be all the great beer . When we got off the plane Rainer received a text from Ralf Dreiseitel , they needed a goalie in Senden,Germany that same night . So we took train and jumped into the car and drove off to Senden without a second thought :) there we had a fun game with the Tussa Ice Eagles , after our skate Ralf welcomed me with food and lots of beer !!! I want to thank all the Ice Eagles but mainly Ralf , thanks for getting me on the ice in yet another city in Germany .


After Senden we went back to Aalen knowing we had to go back the next night basically near Senden in a town called Ulm . A friend of Rainers came to pick us up ... so i have to thank Robert Wittlich for letting me jam my huge goalie bag into his smaller car :) Robert didn't speak much English but we found a way to communicate regardless . After we went for McDonalds ( might have wrote that blog that night LOL ) At this ice time in Ulm i had a great time , the other 2 goalies were just great people .... Andreas Winter is the bigger goalie beside me and the super Leafs fan with the goalie gear is Tobbias Gobbel with Robert at the end . As usual i got along really well with all the guys and at the end i got asked a ton of questions just about hockey in general ...actually mostly about the Leafs from Tobbias ( he really is a super Leafs fan !) .Thanks for the great memories guys , i hope to see you all again in the future .

It is only natural that i thank the guys in Aalen for letting me play goal outdoors with this goalie that was unbeatable , he embarrassed me LOL !!!! I am really happy for you all having at least an outdoor arena to play hockey on , i hope someday you guys have an indoor rink to play in . I have stayed in Aalen twice before and this was my first time playing with these guys , i met some of them last time i was in Aalen . And stop picking on that young guy seen at the bottom right of the picture , he might lose his mind someday ;)

Not sure if i ever thanked my favorite bar in Germany to date !!! Coban's Irish Pub !!! Some of my most umm memorable??? nights have started at Coban's ...this year i got to meet the owner and let me tell ya this guy was a fun guy to hang out with . Servet you know i will be back ! Went there 2 times during my stay there this time and the last time was a wild one where i met all the crazy younger locals that frequent this pub . Freddy and Stephan ( whom i still can't find on Facebook , send me a request ) and the super drunk little guy who totally was my best friend for some reason LOL . Either way i want to thank all of you guys for a great last night in Aalen , my head was pounding the next day but i am still wondering how Stephan made out ? did he have a concussion ?

The next day i was in Regensburg , there are so many people to thank from there ... pt. 3 later on possibly...

The Wrap Up pt.1

So this is it , i have been home for a couple days now catching up on the blog . My trip is over and i am going through pictures now thinking of all the great people i met ! First thing is first i could not have done this trip without the help of my German brother seen above proudly wearing my club ( Ghetto Blasters ) tshirt on our first night together . Rainer makes these trips really happen , sometimes it is difficult to know or find out where we are sleeping the next night when we arrive in a new country LOL but he gets it done and he makes it as cheap as it can get where ever we are ! Thanks Kackvogel .

When we finally got to Tallinn , Estonia we were to meet these Estonian guys that were jumping onto our team to fill our roster . Artjom Trefov was the main contact that Rainer had never met , what a surprise it was when he brought us out to skate with his club team . I was singing he's got the moves like Jagr in my head , this kid could dance ! Artjom led the tournament in scoring :) and brought out 3 other great players . Urmas Rohtla,Argo Servet and Aleksei Fedorov ...without these guys and a few other fill ins that Artjom brought in when we had injuries we could not have won the championship trophy which i now have to repair :) 

Our team was truly international with Rainer (Germany) , Kalle Tahkaaho (Sweden) , Kalle Valitalo (Finland ) ,Christian Rautalin (Finland) , Vesa Torsti (Finland), Antoine Motte (France) , ME (Canada) and the Estonians/Russians i already mentioned LOL ! Aside from the hockey all the guys i just listed were really the reason i went to this tourney , i met both Kalles in Finland a couple years ago and i knew they would make this trip worth while ... it is too bad it was a short visit for us all , i hope you all consider coming to Iceland in October ! Valitalo your birthday was so much fun , the sauna with these guys was all jokes , it was a great honour to say i played with all of you guys and shared a championship !

We took a bus to Riga from Tallinn that cost only 20 Euros for a 5 hour trip , when we got there we had nothing planned aside from an apartment to stay in and tickets to a KHL game . We got really lucky in Riga when we met Viktors Rozkalns on the road home from that amazing KHL game ! Viktors showed us how it really is to be a Latvian , showed us around the city , came out every night and stayed late knowing he had to work the next morning ... i think he was hungover all week at work because of us :) Viktors showed me the true heart of a Latvian ... a heart of gold . Tasted great food , learned about great music there , went to amazing bars and met some great people through him ...tell that politician i am still sorry for burning him LOL !   Viktors made Riga a place i want to go back to someday .

Viktors was not the only amazing Latvian person i met in Riga ... in fact without this next person we would have not had the chance to skate there . We had a contact but he wasn't replying and we couldn't wait for a call that might not happen . Rainer contacted this person named Zaya , she is a member of the Latvian Inline Roller Hockey Federation ...hope i got it right this time Zaya ??? LOL ... she got us onto the ice for a beginners lesson and there i met Toms and taught him some goaltending tips . They seemed to work :) Both of these great people came out to drink with us and were both very gracious hosts at the arena . Thank you both for being so awesome !

When we got to Sweden we were lost , no contacts replying to play hockey and when we got replies it was like they knew we had no chance to play . Rainer had never played here either so it was a MUST ! Good thing Jonas Rudberg replied :) it was really unfortunate that the skate was on our last night in Stockholm as it would have been great meeting these guys the night before at least ... Stockholm is expensive but i am sure these guys would have made it much cheaper for us as the locals always know where to go . They had 5 goalies and 1 of the guys decided to step aside to let me have more icetime ...Thomas Nylander i thanked you that night and i thank you again , that was a very classy move and i hope someday to have you visit Toronto . 

I am gonna finish my wrap up tomorrow , it might keep some of you reading this in limbo .... maybe it's a bit more interesting this way :) 

Should i Get onto this Plane?

Woke up REALLY late on the day i had to leave ... the night before i did not look at what time my flight was and basically went to be very late and woke up 3 hours before my flight departed ! Woke Rainer up and started to move as fast as we could .

Rainer dropped me off at the airport and we really did not say good-bye i just grabbed my bags and started to run ....nothing unusual as this seems to happen to us all the time ! i really have to start booking later flights home LOL ... when i got inside the lineups were jammed and i had 2 hours to get on the plane . I started thinking that there is no way i was going to get onto the plane as the people in front of me all had sporting equipment to check in and that was when i found out that i was on a plane with the Canadian Youth Olympic team that just competed in Innsbruck !!!

Wiping the alcohol filled sweat off my face i began to get more nervous .... when i finally got to the counter there was 20 minutes left to catch the plane and the lady at the desk did not even bother to charge me for my overweight and let me put an extra bag on the plane for free ... so i dodged 1 bullet by not paying but i still had to catch my plane !

Got to the plane with 1 minute until departure time :) then was harassed by police before boarding ...got the 20 questions as i guess i look like a terrorist or something ??? weird as i already cleared security but whatever  , got on the plane and sat down beside a girl that was on the Ski team ... she was a bit cranky so we didn't speak much . Then we sat on the plane for 3 or 4 hours !!! without leaving , i watched MoneyBall while we waited to leave then the announcement came that the flight was cancelled and we were taken off the plane and rushed to the service counter to get our hotel voucher , $100 discount off next flight , and 15 Euros coupon for food at airport .....

I took my coupons and went to get food as we were only given pretzels on the plane ... found a place with reasonable prices and food i could stomach and then i met Curtis Hunt . He looked as baffled as everyone else on the plane and we began chatting , then i asked him so i assume you are too old to compete are you a coach ? He replied yes , introduced himself as Curtis Hunt and told me he was 1 of the coaches for the Canadian Hockey Team !!!! WOW REALLY !!! of course i was in awe , we talked about the situation ordered our food then i began to try to figure out what the heck was going on .

We didn't have to gather our luggage which was great , as i did not want to have to pay for them now LOL . I found my way to the hotel shuttle and waited for it to arrive .... then this van showed up and the first group of us piled in . Got to the Holiday Inn Express which seems to be there just for these occasions ??? and checked into my room ... I should have looked up Curtis on HockeyDB but couldn't get online with no free wifi and only 1 working computer in lobby there was a lineup to use .

The next morning we had to catch shuttle at 5:45 AM !!! And our flight was supposed to leave at 8 AM , i woke up at 4 AM just in case , had some food which to this moment i still can not call breakfast LOL ... bread with meat and cheese is lunch :) Went to airport , everyone there was confused with our flight stubs as they told us to keep stubs from day before . Now i had time to get some booze at duty free . There was another traveller i met named Martin and we ended up sticking together as we were both travelling alone . At the airport i have a friend whom i won't name for security reasons :) he is a mechanic and he messaged me letting me know that my flight WILL BE DELAYED again ... i mentioned this to a couple people and for some reason we were rushed onto the plane again , where we sat for another couple hours then taken off AGAIN !!! apparently the part that was repaired was still broken ??? and apparently they don't test these things after they are fixed ??? Sounds safe ??? Well it got pretty crazy after this and there was little to no communication at the airport , we were taken by bus to the terminal again and everyone was running everywhere trying to get nowhere first !!!

We had to clear customs AGAIN and rush back to the same desk we were at the day before to rebook flights to come home .... some people were ahead of me and got re booked then i heard the rumour that the same plane was ready to go . Martin and myself said we just want to get home and we will risk losing our spot in line to get onto the plane . At this time i heard people that were nervous about taking this flight and were not going to get back on this plane , some people were re booked and stranded there and some people just wanted to keep trying to catch their other connections .

We got on the plane and finally we left !!! everyone was clapping yet nervous , thank goodness we all arrived safely . When we got to Pearson Airport i met up with Curtis and the future of hockey in Canada , got a couple pictures of some of the guys with their bronze medals as seen above . Didn't really want to cause a fuss but i was excited to meet these guys . Apparently they were just as excited to meet me . Curtis had some really kind words for me and i wished him the best ... i hope that you guys all got home safely , last i heard was that Curtis' connecting flight was already gone .

When i got home i looked up Curtis .... he won a Memorial Cup , was an assistant coach with the Ottawa Senators , had played with some amazing hockey players i grew up watching ... i wish i knew all this earlier but then again it might have made me less appealing to talk to as i probably would have acted like a kid in a candy store , then again it might have been right up his alley as he seemed to have good control over a bunch of young kids anyways ... good luck to all you guys i met , hope to hear of you all having successful careers in hockey . If you want to look up Curtis here is a link for his hockey data base

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=2417

So now i am safely home , jet lagged and today i should write to Air Canada ... 25 hour delays on flights with so many mistakes should get me more then just $100 off my next flight . At this point i am just glad to be home in 1 piece , unfortunately i can't say so much for my bags DOH ! 

Last day of Trip :(

Woke up totally hung over after a night of dancing on tables in a Mexican bar . Met up with Jason and went to the market near his house and bought some gifts . Then went back to Jasons to meet Sabrina to go to Kullmans Diner for some breakfast where we met Alex ate then i had to say my good byes . Alex and myself headed to Munchen to meet the rest of my German hockey friends ( seen above )

I didn't watch much of the game between EHC Munchen and DEG Metro Stars . I was too busy celebrating my last day of my trip with copious amounts of beer :) Our tickets were reserved by the starting goalie for EHC Munchen Joechem Reimer whom we all had the pleasure of meeting after the game , he was really nice took some pictures with us and gave us some signed memorabilia . Spoke with him for a few minutes as he was busy play fighting with Rainer who had some crazy stories about how they met . It was a great experience! Reimer is at the moment the second best goalie in the DEL and his club is in 7th spot which goes to show you how good he is !!!

After the game the whole gang went to an Italian restaurant around the corner from the arena and i had to say my good-byes again ... this was really hard for me as i was doing my best to fight back the tears . The reality was kicking in that i had to go home and i was already missing all my friends before i said bye :( You guys all mean so much to me , there is a spot in my heart for Germany because of all of you  . Sorry i was such a wimp when i almost broke down . I try not to show people these emotions too often ....

 After we said our byes Rainer and myself got onto the transit (without paying LOL ) and went back into the centrum to do some evening sightseeing and some more drinking , with no regard to the fact i had to wake up early :) I have been to Munich before but have never seen the amazing architecture that i saw on this evening . The first bar we went to was the famous Hofbrauhaus which is basically Oktoberfest at a bar , with polka music playing , old couples dancing and lots of great beer ! Funny thing , there was this really old guy that was a pimp LOL he asked every girl at the bar to dance , young and old . Even funnier was that the group behind me saw my Rainman Allstars shirt which says Shithawk on the back and got a kick out of it ....ends up they were the parents of the kids on the Canadian National Youth Hockey Team which were at the first ever Youth Olympics in Innsbruck . 

After we went to another couple bars , met some Scottish kids looking for drinks but really the rest of the evening is a blur . I think i went to sleep at around 4 AM and had to be up at 8 ...lets see how that works ?

Mmm Bacon

Great day again yesterday! I don't have anything negative at all to say about Regensburg ;)I am going to really miss it here . The day started with me meeting up with Jason for a coffee and he took me to the local farmers market , which was small and not touristy at all which I prefer . I rather be with the locals over being in tourist areas as I want to know how it feels to be living here .

Alex was waiting at Jasons place so we went back and we were then on our way to this American diner here to have some breakfast , I was craving bacon Lol. The place was called Sam Kullmans and the food was pretty good but to be honest bacon is just not the same as it is back home in Canada ;) After breakfast we went for a drive to see more sights.

Walhalla was the sight we went too ... This place was AWESOME !!! Basically it is this ginormous building at the top of this hill . It looks like the Parthenon in Greece , wish I could post the pics to show you all . If you ever visit Regensburg make sure to visit Walhalla . There was snow everywhere and no tourists , which is also great . Alex told me he had never been there in the winter and was surprised that it was so quiet there . Apparently people go there to have picnics , the view from up there is breath taking .

So we worked off our breakfast and needed the pre game nap so we went to Alex's and chilled out . His work team ( Krones)had a big game and needed to win to tie up the best of 3 series . There were 2 goalies so I took the second half . We were winning 5-0 when I came in ... First shot was a breakaway which I stopped , second shot I mishandled and went in , I was pissed ...we went into 3 rd with 6-1 lead and the other team came out swinging really controlling most of the last period taking a lot of shots on me ! I stood my ground and I am pretty sure most of the guys were impressed with my play ... We celebrated after going to this Mexican bar !

We missed the kitchen as it closed so we had nachos and began drinking , then we were told that if we dance on the table that we will get a free bottle of tequila , so I got up and danced on the table , my memory is quite fuzzy after that hahaha .

I should get going now as I have to go to Munich today to meet friends to see DEL game , adios Regensburg I love you :) and I will be back ... Servus!

Practice with EHC Regensburg Spiders

Yesterday was a great day ! Woke up and went for breakfast then met up with Jason ( he lives across the street ) got there and we decided to walk into the old city here . Regensburg is much bigger then I thought it was with a population of like 160,000 it has a university so there is a lot of younger people here !

Jason took me to see the Donau River and the cathedral which they call a dome here even though there is no domed part of the structure ??? Anyways he filled me in on some folklore , apparently the bridge over Donau and dome were being built around same time and the 2 builders were in competition to finish their structures first . The bridge builder won and because of this the devil put a hunch on the bridge . That is what I understood to be the story ;)

We had a couple coffees at some cafe's and had a great chat mostly about history , then went to meet Alex , Stephanie and Sabrina ... Stephanie is Alex's girlfriend and Sabrina is Jason's girlfriend they are both great gals ! We all met at Nico's restaurant for some more amazing fresh cooked pasta ... I scarfed down my gnocchi it was perfect !

After we ate we dropped off Jason and Sabrina and went to Alex's place which is near the Donau Arena . Hung out for a bit then headed to practice with Alex's team ... EHC Regensburg Spiders are a 5th division club . Unfortunately they are coming off a huge loss that was basically the battle for 1st place , so their spirits were not so high . The practice was more like a scrimmage with us playing 2 on 2 first with nets on blue lines then put nets in same zone and played sideways for 3 on 3 with the last 15 minutes playing full rink 5 on 5 ... Had to do this as only 10 skaters showed with 3 goalies , Ziggy is their starting goalie and he was still bothered by their last loss and really had no interest in practicing .

On a personal note I felt good , much much better then the day before !!! At the end of the practice one of the guys was given a penalty shot against me and I stopped him with a splits save... I enjoyed practicing with the guys and hope to do it again in the future , thanks guys !

The first team in Regensburg had a game so we snuck in to watch a bit , they are in German 3rd division and to my surprise had a familiar hockey player on their team . Former Toronto Maple Leafs player Martin Prochazka , so I was pleased to watch him play a couple shifts but we had to go to Stephanie's flat mates bday party . It was a small party but was a lot of fun hearing everyone singing in German while drinking some great beer ! I didn't mix alcohol or go overboard as I have a game today for Krones team ( Alex's work team) ....

My trip is winding down now and I am beginning to get sad as the worst part of travelling is saying bye :( going to try to make the most of my next couple days before I leave , so on that note I should get out of bed and go eat something ... Servus ;)

Shitting The Bed

Don't take the title so literally ! I did not shit in my bed nor have I shit anywhere else aside from the toilet ;)

After something like 3 hours of sleep I woke up late jumped into shower woke Rainer up and left to head to a train station in another town .It would have cost me double to take the train from Aalen and was only €20 to drive 20 minutes to the next town over . Now remember we were probably stil half in the bag from the night before .the shittiest part was that I had to stay awake for the train ride as I had to switch trains in 2 different cities so I really had to pay attention to where I was .

There was nowhere to eat and even worse was that I had to play hockey immediately upon arrival in Regensburg . A friend of Alex's named Jason Guttierez picked me up at the train station and I ate Burger King there just to get some food in me . You are wondering if Guttierez is a traditional German name ? Umm I don't think so but he is born in Germany ! As soon as I met Jason I knew we would get along....after eating he drove me to the rink.

When I got to the arena I told Jason that I hope I don't shit the bed and he asked what that meant and I explained that shitting the bed means that I hope I don't embarrass myself in the ice . Everyone laughed at this term when they heard it . So lack of sleep hungover ( really bad)and crappy food In belly , I got on the ice hesitantly knowing that I might not play up to par .... Let's just say i shit the bed :(

Pretty sure I was seeing double and was reaching for the wrong puck most of the time , had a bad belly ache to from shitty BK. still I tries my best to impress as my friend Alex ran the practice for his work team which has a big game that I am acting in on Saturday ... Best of 3 series and down 0 games to 1 ... For now ;)

After my craptice LOL we went out for Italian food where we had home made pasta that was freshly made noodles with all kinds of good veg and home made sausage , with a Bruscetta starter and a salad this meal was fit for a king ... Going there for lunch today can 't wait to try the Gnocchi mmmmm!

We then went back to Jasons apartment and figured its best If I stay in hotel next to his house , nice room no free wifi ( had to pay for this hotspot shit ) and to top it off I was woken up by my neighbors moaning from a good romp in the bed in the middle of the night, I am staying at the Stadthotel Regensburg ... For € 60 a night I would reccomend it , just hope my neighbors can keep it more quiet tonight ... Omg they are at it again ! I gotta get out of here Lol , time for breakfast. I have a practice today with a 5 th division club here called the Spiders , hopefully I can get my shit together.

Aalen

Yesterday I was still in one of my favorite small cities in Germany , my good friend Rainer lives there and I have been there 3 times now in the last 6 years . It's like a second home I always feel so welcomed there by Rainers family and friends ;)

This time was the first time that I got to see a bit more then just the bars LOL ! Went to the city center and Rainer filled me in on some history of the city , wish I had laptop to post pics:( if you want you can look up the story about the spy of Aalen , quite interesting . But really that wasn't why I was there ! Finally I had the opportunity to play hockey there .

Aalen lost its arena when there was that tragic accident with the roof collapsing ( in another city ) and all those children died. A lot of obsolete arenas were torn down in Germany after this tragedy .... Aalens rink was one of them unfortunately , city council has not wanted to build another one there but they still have their hockey club playing in other cities or holding other fun events amongst themselves . They have a small "mobile" rink but this year they decided to make an outdoor rink !

The ice surface was not exactly level and the lighting situation could be better but it's better then nothing. It was a thrill for me to play there and usually I don't do outdoors games but this I couldn't turn down ;)had a great time there even though I was the only goalie . I think we were on for 1.5 hours and afterwards we began drinking ...

I had about 4 beers in the room and was feeling good , it was my last night with Rainer do it was a good excuse to get our drink on , so we went to the Irish pub . They had this special where you roll dice for free drinks that night and let's just say Rainer won a couple that turned into Jagermeister ( uh oh ). We met a couple guys there named Stefan and Freddy and next thing you know we were on way to another bar.

That walk to thebar was dangerous as it began to rain and freeze ( freezing rain) and on cobblestone roads it's almost impossible not to fall , we all fell at least twice each ... At one point Rainer fell and Stefan went to help and wiped out banging his head on the road really hard , I still think he got a concussion and he was the first to go home apparently barfing when on his way, that is a bad sign ! If you read this let me know if you are alright man !

I think it was like 430am when we got back to Rainers house totally molested drunk .. Yeah haha then but ouch the next morning when I had to be up at 8 am ! Will tell you the rest tomorrow I need some sleep ...zzzz

Wanna Eat @ McDonald's After Hockey ?

Being back in Germany means i got drunk , i am telling you that Jaegermeister shit is filled with evil demons . I had 1 shot of it and it just kicked my ass .... so when i woke up yesterday i felt like a punching bag , really needed to eat and here in Aalen is 1 of my favorite places to eat Kebab in the whole wide world ! I have been to Aalen twice before and i have always enjoyed eating at Duran :) the meal i had was huge with kebab, salad and fries on the plate ... it is always filling .

After our meal we headed back to Rainers place to relax before we had ice time in Ulm .Ulm is about a 1 hour drive from here and 1 of Rainers buddies picked us up and we jammed our bags into his car which on the way i was totally falling asleep ... zzzzz when i got to the rink we were in a rush to dress and i met a couple guys quite briefly .

Got my gear on quickly and properly and went out to the rink which is quite nice as you can see in the picture above :) the ice was really good , much better then the ice i played on in Senden which had dead boards ( dead boards meaning the puck hits the boards and just stops LOL ) .

As soon as i got to the bench i got to meet Andreas Winter , he is the big goalie beside me ! He was a really good goalie , we spoke about a few things like travelling etc.. great guy , we had 3 goalies out  so i asked him how they like to handle things as i am a guest i don't like to push my way around , every 10 minutes or so we would switch but it seemed like less and the icetime was organized quite well with both teams being evenly matched . The smaller goalie in the picture is Tobias Gobbel , he is a true blue Leafs fan .... we really got along quite well !!! I hope he decides to visit Toronto AGAIN in the near future .... he really surprised me having mentioned a fellow travelling writer by the name of Dave Bidini . He really enjoys his books and if he comes to Toronto i should be sure to take him to watch him perform live ( Dave is in a band called BidiniBand ) . I really really enjoyed chatting with both of these goalies and was actually dragged away from them as we probably would have sat for hours talking about hockey ..... it was my pleasure meeting you Tobias and Andreas . PS Andreas i found you on my Travelling Goalie page on Facebook but your settings are SO PRIVATE that i can't add you LOL .

Now here is the title story ok ... no matter where i am in the world it always seems that whoever is driving is more then willing to go eat at McDonalds after hockey LOL last night was not an exception , our driver Robert ( seen below with myelf and Rainer ) took us there and we had some McNuggets and Big Macs ... still can't believe they have the McRib here , it was awful back home so i am not really interested in trying it here . I don't ever remember visiting a country and not eating McD's .... almost defeats the purpose of going out to get some exercise doesn't it ? I guess the beers after isn't the healthy choice either but you know what they say ....when in France do as the French do , something like that . Or in Asia , same same but different .

Today is my last day in Aalen and i am gonna miss it here :( i finally get the chance tonight to play hockey hockey here ... OUTDOORS !!! should be alot of fun i can't wait ... tomorrow i will be probably blogging on my Ipod again :( while on a train .... have to get up really early to go to Regensburg  . Ciao for now

Pictures

Here are just a few pics from the last couple weeks of travelling , hope you enjoy them as much as i enjoyed experiencing them ...

Ferry we took from Stockholm to Tallinn

Rainer isn't it a bit cold ?

First icetime on this trip in Tallinn where we met our Estonian teammates

7 x 7 ft hostel room which we totally stunk up :)

Kill 'em ....pregame hype!

Sauna night with my awesome friends

me and my brother Rainer posing in dressing room in Tallinn

Christian Rautalin and myself posing in front of arena in Tallinn

this arena used to be a Soviet missile factory

Kalle Vaalitalo posing with championship trophy

at the Christmas market in Tallinn

Self service beer station , gotta love it !

Dinamo Riga KHL game vs. Dinamo Moscow

met Viktors Rozkalns on the way home from KHL game , we were lucky to meet him

outside the arena we practised in Riga

posing in front of monument in Riga

gave Viktor my scarf , he wore it with pride that evening

Ineta Jansone ( Zaya ) she got us on the ice in Riga , member of Latvian Womens Inline Federation

taught Toms a few goalie lessons with beer

if you get married in Riga you put a lock on this bridge , what happens when you divorce ? Bolt cutters rented down the road LOL

our cabin on ferry back to Stockholm from Riga

i hate being on boats , water is much better when frozen

the trophy currently is in 3 pieces , hoping to repair it with some hockey tape when i get home

world famous arena in Stockholm

at the SEL game AIK vs. Modo

lots of goals kept the game interesting

Hovet Arena is where the game was held , just across road from Globe Arena which is used for more important games

this is where we played hockey in Sweden

Jonas Rudberg arranged for us to play in Stockholm

3 crazy goalies in Stockholm

Ralf Dreiseitel arranged for us to play in Senden , Germany

too dark for picture of arena :( they closed after we got off the ice ...