Country #28 ... Serbia

Let's start my day at the bus terminal , it kinda sucked dragging my bag from hotel to the terminal which was across the street but it at least saved me a few bucks not having to take a taxi ... Especially now that I know that i actually got a good deal from that cabbie from the airport the other day . Taking a taxi in Belgrade is not cheap :( when I got to the bus I had to pay 40 dinars to put my bags in undercarriage ... Equivalent of 50 cents Canadian ;) the guy told me to take backpack on bus ! Big mistake as it was full and I had to ride the whole way with it on my lap :( 

One of the tournament organizers met me at the bus terminal and took me to arena to drop bags . If you need to know his name is Nebojsa Ivanov , very nice guy who is a goalie and an IIHF referee . Nebojsa was also kind enough to walk me to my hotel Fontana . When I got to the hotel my room wasn't ready so I had a beer with Nebojsa ... Well he had a coffee ;) there was a Slovenian old timers team there drinking beers so when Nebojsa left and I was all alone I decided to have another beer and realized it's so cheap and I should break the ice with the other guys . I ordered a round and sent it to there table and next thing you know they were all speaking English with me , playing music and were all around great guys . I had about 8 beers with them then decided I should take a nap . 

Went to sleep and overslept , woke up and started to make my way to the rink and of course I got lost ended up at the bus terminal and got a taxi to the rink LOL ! Barely made it to the rink on time half in the bag I rushed to get my gear on and stepped onto the ice . I'm playing for local club HK Gentlemans from Novi Sad ;) first game is vs. Blejski Vitesi from Slovenia . 

Obviously playing for new team you wanna play well and prove your worth especially when their real goalie is on ice refereeing ! We jumped out to a 3-0 lead and then I gave up a goal :( it wasn't my fault but I was disappointed in myself . The guys on the team were fine with it as I didn't let any more goals in the 2nd period . Tournament format has us playing two 20 minute run time periods which I didn't know about so after 2nd i was ready for more ;) we went on to win the game 6-1 then went to beer area and started to make more friends ;)

The beer pump broke and the mood changed so I asked one of my team mates Jovan where I could buy beer ? He took me to the store and I grabbed 10 big cans and handed them out at the rink (making more friends) I stuck around to watch Uros and Alex play their game . We met last week in Skopje . Uros was the Serbian National team captain a while ago ... Pretty cool eh ! Unfortunately they have a short bench with 8 skaters and lost a close game . After the game I went with Jovan to grab a bite to eat and we went to a bar playing hip hop which was totally cool . I started to get tired and got back to my room around. 2:30 am . Today I get to play my buddies from Belgrade ... I should leave early in case I get lost again LOL !