Day 13: Messing Up the Days

Woke up on Monday in Valkeakoski, Finland ....actually i had a tough time sleeping as i was super duper excited to be playing hockey that morning . I basically woke up at 5 AM for my icetime which was at 8:15 AM in Tampere ( at the main arena were 2 Sm-liga teams share the ice Ilves & Tappara ) . Petri woke up next and basically was not really interested in driving to Tampere and handed me the keys to the car , set up the GPS and Rainer and myself were on our way .

I was driving and obviously i made a mistake and missed the off route to the arena LOL! so it took and extra 10 minutes or so to get to the rink to meet Jari , whom is lending me his equipment to play . Tampere is about a half an hour drive from Valkeakoski and i was supposed to be there at 730 AM but showed up at more like 745 or 750 ish , so i am sure that Jari was calling Petri to see where we were . Safe and sound we get to the rink and Jari gets me into the dressing room and warns me about some of his gear .....now for most of you that are goalies you will know that wearing new ( or someone else's ) gear really is never too comfortable . But at this point all i want to do is earn that Finnish flag for my stick bag and play some hockey !

So the big walk onto the ice and off i go ...ouch, skates are too sharp, and too small . I feel like some asian woman with bonded feet skating basically on my heels . Damn chest protector , the elbow protection keeps sliding out of position . These friggin suspenders are sliding off my shoulder too , should have crossed them but regardless this is not my gear so i will give it my best . This ice time is for Ilves' former players and people somehow related to the team so there are some older fellows skating around tossing bullets at me . My comfort level has never been so low on the ice but i muster up the brain power to struggle on :)

At first i was the only goalie and then blam someone shows up in Ilves gear ....later on i find out that this is Jari , whom went into their dressing room and "borrowed" their equipment . I kinda wish i borrowed that gear HA . Just want to point out to Jari that i am not complaining , rather just explaining :) The ice there was big and very beautiful , what a great experience . Happier than a pig in shit ( with sore feet ) i head back to the room and there is this big guy sitting in my stall and i sit beside him ....he asks me where i am from in Canada and i reply Toronto , he then introduces himself ....oh by the way i am Jyrki , i reply to him that i already know who he is : Jyrki Lumme ! We must have sat around for a good 20 minutes chatting about his career and people he may know that i know ( Tony Tanti , Jeff Marek ) and then he begins to ask about my travels , and tells me what i am doing is really cool ! For me this was a compliment as this guy had a totally amazing hockey career and i thought what he has done was super cool , i mean he played in the NHL how can i top that ? Anyways i just want to mention that he was really nice and i am glad i had the chance to play a friendly game with him , all thanks to Jari !!!

After saying my goodbye to my favorite Finnish goalie ( Jari ) Rainer drives and we are back to Valkeakoski to pack up and leave ....the cool part about this trip is that we will see Petri again in 1 week for our tournament in Cortina D'Ampezzo , Italy , so saying bye is not so hard. Petri took top notch care of us and is A++++ in my books . He drops us off in Tampere at the train station where our Ryanair bus to the airport will pick us up , we have some time to kill so i take the advice of Dave Bidini's ( my hockey travelling mentor ) to go to Tekkala which is a bar that he played a gig at in Tampere . Nice big place we walk in after wandering around for 20 minutes looking for it , while it is right under our noses LOL ! Sitting down we order a Kebab , but it comes on a plate as a dish ...totally delicious but i still can't get over the prices of food in Finland ! Basically that dish with a cola cost us nearly 12 Euros !!!!

A bus ride to the airport and we wait for our plane ....now i am gonna moan abit , people that fly Ryanair must be retarded or something! For some stupid reason everyone stands up and rushes for the gate about 45 minutes before boarding as if they are not going to get on the plane or something . This is not something new as i experienced it last time i flew with this budget airline too . Funny thing is that i usually end up in a seat with more room anyway after letting all the crazy people rush onto the plane first , yeah i sit watch and wait ...get up and check in dead last and ALWAYS get a great seat . This flight i happened to find this really large man with a row to himself ( he is sitting at the aisle ) so i take the window and chat it up with him about hockey for a good 20 minutes then sleepy time. Upon arrival in Frankfurt- Hahn airport which is NOWHERE near Frankfurt ( actually about 150 kms away from Frankfurt LOL) we jump into Rainers car and drive off to Aalen . 3.5 hour drive and we arrive safely and tired , hitting the sack ! Rainers mom collects our clothes and does our laundry and now here i am laying in bed telling you all what happened yesterday ....i am halfway through my trip and already hoping it does not end , but on the other hand i do miss my girlfriend  !