Yesterday was a very eventful day. Woke up in Tachov ,Czech Rep. and Rainer and myself had to go to the arena ( Rainer runs hockey camps and has 2 teams in Tachov at the moment ) . At the arena i was introduced to Peter , a Czech fellow that will be meeting us in Finland next weekend ! After Rainer settled up all the little things like dressing rooms , ice times , etc.... we headed off to Prague !
We had went to Prague to watch Slava Prague ( pro hockey team ) . Upon arriving in Prague our first problem was finding a parking spot, damn it is a busy city! After finding our spot for the day we checked into our hotel www.thebridgeprague.com .Nothing spectacular really, just a place to sleep . Somehow we ended up with basically a suite with rooms of our own with 2 beds in each room. After check in we were off to the races . Meaning we ran frantically through the streets of Prague to catch a tram to get us to the Slavia Praha arena.
Getting on the tram is pretty easy . But i did feel awkward as we did not pay to enter :) about 10 stops later we were at the arena which is situated somewhat near the football stadium ( football is soccer for all you laymen ) . The game we were going to watch was actually a pre season game kinda....over in the Czech they have a super cup tournament that runs through the season . So the closer we got to the hockey stadium the more we scratched our heads...is this the right arena ? Apparently there is another arena in Prague called the O2 arena , so we were kinda up in the air over where it was taking place at this time ! The closer we got the more people we were expecting to see , but it was all quiet . Arriving at the arena we were still in disarray and basically just walked in , finding out that we were in the right spot, but where were all the fans ? We got into the arena to see a whopping 150 fans , guessing that it was kinda being taken as a pre season to try out skaters and the fact that the game was at noon on a weekday made it kinda understanding as to why there were not so many fans.
The game was between Liberec vs. Slavia Praha ....pretty good game , never understood all the penalties for basically body checking LOL! oh well.....Praha won the game 4-3 and we enjoyed quite a few fizzy beverages between each period , basically missing the first half of ever period . Didn't mind that as we paid something like $2 to watch the game ! With a good buzz going we went to buy some team merch and grabbed a meal next to the stadium ( gnocchi mmmm) not the biggest serving but it did well for me .
Back on the tram , and yes we did not pay AGAIN ....for the life of me to this moment i have no clue how to pay to get on the transit in Prague. Honestly we did look for this magic payment centre to no avail . Home sweet home , for the moment ....The Bridge. Got back got to our rooms and passed out for an afternoon snooze , zzzz. Now those of you that know me well will know that i enjoy having a daily smoke or 2 , well not so easy in Europe , so here comes my buddy good ol' withdrawal . Usually kicks in when i am sleeping , and it usually comes in the form of nightmares , or afternoonmares if you will HA ! Can't really recall what it was about but for some reason the bed i was sleeping on BROKE ! Yes i went through the bed , ending up on the floor in a cold sweat cursing and cursing and cursing some more. Went down to reception where this little Spanish dude was ( we called him Spaniolo jokingly) i told him my bed broke and he came up to inspect it, apparently someone broke it before i did and repaired it half heartedly with string !
Rainer is sleeping through this all and i can't get to sleep again so naturally i wake him up ( sorry Rainer ) . Up and ready to hit the town we eventually start our walk into the city center , and might i say that Prague is a pretty friggin cool city with alot of cool architecture . Deciding to go on an organized pub crawl we head to the meeting point . Basically it is 500 Czech Kroners which is roughly 20 Euros . This gets you 3 hours of drinking as much as you can at the meeting point and then gets you into 3 or 4 other bars with entry covered and first drink and shot upon entry into each establishment with the last stopping place being a disco , yeah they call clubs here discos still LOL!
Both of us are pretty seasoned drinkers and we both think it is a great deal so we decide to eat first and then go back to start drinking like wild animals...tick tock tick tock, we get back and we see the first group leaving the meeting point and we begin to wonder if it is now worth the 20 Euros which basically will get us 20 beers anywhere in Prague . Beer is dirt cheap in the Czech going for roughly 1 Euro in most establishments. So obviously we decide against the pub crawl and head on our own pub crawl which basically starte at some irish pub called Caffreys. Had a couple pints watched England vs. Bulgaria ( euro cup qualifying) on tv and the Rainer comes up with the best of best ideas . Lets go back to Tachov and drink there , ok sure . So back to our hotel room which we paid for and never even spent the night , grabbed our bags and hopped in the car to drive the hour and a half to come to have fun with the pro team that Rainer has at a hockey camp in Tachov.
Remember withdrawal! We get into the car and begin driving only to have our first run in with the LAW ...lol. shitty that we made that illegal left turn , bribing cops always sucks. But in Prague they give you a receipt to prove it , we got lucky and only had to pay 200 Kroners up front and on the spot ! 24 Kroner is 1 Euro so it was under $10 cdn , which i paid as it was me who decided to make the turn HAHAHA! Continue driving i have no clue what was going on but i begin to hallucinate and at one point i almost got Rainer to stop on the highway to let the imaginary person cross the highway that i had seen, good ol' withdrawal LOL! Getting back to Tachov safe and sound we drop our bags off at Hotel Olimpic where we have a room too , change and go to the local disco here.
Most of the Waldkraiburg team was at the disco as Tachov is a teeny little town , with not much to do . Most were half in the bag so it was easier for me to communicate with them HA ! Finally i get me a shot of Absinthe and my night of debauchery begins. Beer was flowing and i was on the hunt for something sweet to smoke , no luck . There is a huge blank where i was basically just drinking and drinking and drinking ( yes i have a beautiful hangover as i type this on Rainers laptop ) . All the team was itching to see this Canadian goalie play this morning , didn't happen ! There was even rumours of the team wanting to sign me without even seeing me play , only because i am Canadian . We eventually crawled back into our room and fell asleep promptly at 8 AM ....yup a Looooonnnngggg night , OUCH.
Rainer tried to wake me up to go for a beer bath in Plzen which we had organized to do today but i was not having that , not at 10 AM ...forget about it. The guys from Waldkraiburg went to practise and one of their goalies unfortunately broke their collar bone , and Rainer was lucky enough to go to the hospital with the team ,with no sleep . Personally i slept well enough but i am still kinda peeved that i missed the beer bath :( , hoping and praying that we can do it on another day. It is now 3 PM , i am in Tachov...Rainer is sleeping , and i have a practise to get ready for . Shitty it just started to thunder storm .....not sure what shape i will be in on the ice but wish me luck . Peace !
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