Central Asia Adventure

A few months back I began looking for an interesting adventure to join after I was left behind by the team I used to travel with (long story) .... regardless I was looking for another group to begin travelling with and contacted a company called Howe Friendship Hockey League . I don’t have any links as I’m writing this in the airport as I await my first flight which is to Zagreb from Toronto . I’m already drifting off trek , excuse me as I have not wrote anything in quite some time . Let me get back on trek 😝 ! So I saw that they were planning a trip to Turkmenistan 🇹🇲 and that is very appealing as I heard from others who have done this trip that it’s a fantastic place to visit . Turkmenistan is the least visited country in the planet .... North Korea and Afghanistan have more visitors apparently . The whole mission of the trip is to bridge barriers in other countries and make friends that play hockey and bring donations to help their program hopefully grow and we will have the opportunity to play a professional club there called HC Galkan and they make up a good 90% of their national team squad so it will be a challenge and an adventure . Before I gave the green light that I was coming I had talked to my buddy The Tanzmanian Devil aka Andi Tanzer and he said he wanted to do the same trip so we began planning our adventure together . 

We both felt as though we didn’t need to do the pre or post portion of this trip so we both opted for the basic trip and figured the best route to Ashgabat would be through Istanbul and since neither of us have ever been there we decided to plan to play hockey and spend the weekend there before flying to Ashgabat . Finding ice time was a bit tough for Istanbul but my contact Tarik Gocmen came through and hooked us up with a friend of his named Attila (don’t know surname) but Attila is hooked up with a pro club in Istanbul named Buz Adam , this team ended up second in their pro league with the winner competing in the IIHF Continental Cup which happened last week . Our timing is good and when we land we get to practise with these guys which works well as we have a few days to dry our gear which saves us money on baggage weight .... unfortunately sweat gets counted even though it dries out as the flight occurs lol ! This portion of the trip came together really well as we have also booked tickets to see one of the deadliest football derby matches on the planet with Galatasaray playing Fenerbahce on Saturday leaving us Sunday and Monday to be tourists then fly off to Ashgabat .....

Now that was the plan but as I’m sitting in Pearson Airport , right now I’m not sure where I will be on Monday as our letter of invitation has not come through and without this we can not get a visa which means we can’t enter the country ! Howe Friendship League has not pulled the plug yet but the threat is definitely there which will leave us in limbo and will mean we lose money on the flights we have booked to and from Ashgabat . Here’s the kicker .... I would have to fly back to Istanbul to get my flight for the next leg of my trip which takes me to Almaty , Kazakhstan for the Fox Cup Tournament which is on my birthday 🎂 I will be flying there alone as Andi goes back home and I don’t know anyone there which makes it more exciting and challenging if nobody speaks English but I’m up for it . So here I am trying to decide where to go if this all falls apart .... do I stay in Turkey ? Do I go somewhere else ? Wtf ! Today was pretty stressful as I waited and prepared for this trip as I packed and unpacked gear before I left my house ... will I end up somewhere cold or warm ? It is what it is now eh ! If I’m cold I will buy a jacket and if I’m warm I will wear shorts 🥳

Getting into the airport today was fun as usual with my gear in tow . First air canada agent I ran into told me even though I checked in I must go to another line , and at that line they told me to go to another line and finally when I got to the counter my bag was a kilo overweight which really kills me as it’s just goalie gear and nothing else ! Good thing I’ve done this before and know to pack a bag inside of my bag and all I have to do is pull out that bag and carry it on . It’s either that or I’m paying extra baggage fees and that’s something I’m not interested in doing . 

Anyways it’s time to board and I will try to write more when I arrive in Istanbul and I will try to post daily blogs on my adventures .