Day 5 : Still Catching Up

As the days go by without the use of my own personal laptop, i begin to fall behind on my blogging :( . When i arrive at Frankfurt airport on way to Finland i will grab a proper a/c adaptor . Until then i will use Rainers laptop sparingly . So this is what happened on Sunday....

After a semi late night out with the WOID BOYZ , i had to wake up at 8 AM to get ready for my second practise with Waldkraiburg. Lucky for me that this practise will be full of goalie drills to keep the players fresh for their big game later on vs. SAC Klatovy. Now for me to compare this hockey to what most of us are used to in Toronto, i would say Waldkraiburg would be a good B league team , pretty sure a couple Ghetto Blaster can skate circles around this team, but as a whole they have a very strong team and practise alot more than we do .

So i get to the rink here in Tachov and get into my own private room again where my equipment is trying to dry ( not really drying ) .Put on my soggy gear and jump on the ice, most of the guys are tired as they have not skated in a couple months due to the closing of rinks during the summer months in Germany. On the ice i feel less nervous at practise this day ,as i survived practise the day before .Practise was supposed to be 1.5 hours but around 45 min in one of the goalies gets hurt ( kinda ) and leaves the ice ( he was probably tired ) and withing 10 more min i am the only goalie left standing. As this is occuring all the skaters begin to depart the ice and Jan Loboda ( Slovakian player that loves fighting !) asks if i want him to pepper some pucks at me , i obviously oblige . As this is happening the coach begins to want in on the fun . Waldkraiburgs coach played in DEL League in Germany and had a great career ( for the life of me i can not remember his name at the moment ) So when Jan is done pounding pucks at me he comes over and maked a bet with me . 15 pucks , if he gets 5 in i have to do pushups , if he doesn't the he does the pushups. At this point i am dead to the world , and jokingly mention that he should put my gear on to do pushups if i win LOL. So BLAM BLAM BLAM first 5 shots 1 goal , 10 more to go ! Now he is trying to pick corners and i am trying to basically just see them, somehow i seem to get into my groove, 14 shots in and i let 1 get by me so i let number 15 by me ! 2 goals on 15 shots , coach does pushups and we have a laugh over it . First one on the ice and last to leave , kinda felt good.

After a nice warm shower we head over for to a nice restaurant near the river as a team to eat some pre game pasta ...and it was GOOD ! While we are sitting there the GM ( Wolfgang) tells the team they are going to Egypt after the season is over , and the guys were all quite excited. Interesting enough Kathleen is heading to Egypt this month so i am keen to see the pictures that are being passed around to the players .It was really cool hanging out with this team and now it was showtime , time to walk back to the rink . As the team prepared for practise i wander over to see the WOID BOYZ drinking some pre game beers. They seem a tad lethargic after their big night of drinking in the disco , apparently their night ended when the sun came up , and of course so did my roomates ! Rainer is truly a nighthawk even though his nickname is basically shithawk ( kackvogel means a bird that is shitting LOL) .

The teams are getting on the ice and the WOID BOYZ are putting up their banners around the rink . I really wish that there was this kind of excitement around our games in Toronto . The teams are on the ice and game faces are definitely on . Waldkraiburg knows they have an uphill battle with this team as they are in a much higher division in another country and have already played a few games this year. First period was great end to end hockey , personally i thought Waldkraiburg should have been winning but luck was not on their side . Score was 2-1 for Klatovy after first and i was optimistic. At the game i finally get offered a smoke ( AHHH) munchies leads to hotdogs and sausages upstairs at the rink , as Rainer and i are hanging out with Peter ! Game is on and it is beginning to get ugly , lets just put it this way the final was 8-1 for Klatovy . I have nothing bad to say about Waldkraiburg but i am a bit peeved to be cheering for the team that got smoked !

After the game Peter ,Rainer and myself walk over to the football pitch to watch Tachovs team play a game , i think they are in 4th division in Czech league ( soccer ) about 250 fans there to watch the game , nice weather if you are in the sun . Great game as Tachov wins 4-0 but the true highlight is this super hammered big dude that is just all over the place . Now we are standing on a hill and there are stands with benches below us and at one point we were all waiting for this monster of a man to fall , and next thing you know he tips over but does not hit the ground ! He leans forward and basically steps on every bench all the way down the hill and ends up running into the fence for the field without dropping his beer or hitting the ground LOL . Of course i attract drunks for some reason and end up in a 15 minute handshake with this self taught english speaker . Uncomfortably i am so glad the game was ending as i had an excuse to let go of his hand and head back to say bye to Waldkraiburg and their awesome fans only to see the buses rolling out of the parking lot :( ....facebook will keep us in touch and i will see some in the future i am sure !

Heading back to the hotel i begin to feel the fact that we are now alone , but we aren't . Peter runs the arena here in Tachov and is such an amazing guy , he has helped Rainer in so many ways to organize his camps and tournaments here in Tachov. Truly hockey is in his blood ! We meet up and head out for a couple pints of beer . Now the pubs here in Tachov make me scratch my head, in a town of 12000 people there are 25 bars that stay open 24 hours serving beer as gambling joints , but there is nowhere to eat after 10 . Peter just so happens to live above one and we go there for a good chat over a couple beers . Essentially ending our evening around 2 AM we all disperse to our humble abodes , Rainer and i head back to our cold hotel room .
So far i have been in Europe for 4 days , played hockey 3 times and drank every day ....tomorrow i am taking it easy !