Last month, I bought tickets for 2 matches at the Ice Hockey World Championships, which are currently being held in Slovakia. This past weekend, I took a train out to Bratislava to attend the games.
The strangest thing happened before the trip even started, and the trip really was thisclose to not happening. I was scheduled to take a 6:30am train out of Augsburg on Saturday morning, which would allow me to arrive in Bratislava by around 1:30pm that day (travelling through Munich and Vienna). That meant that I really needed to be up by about 4:30, in order to catch the 6:11 tram to the train station in Augsburg. I THOUGHT I set my new alarm clock correctly. As you can guess, however...I didn't. I woke up on my own at 6:00am, and then panic commenced. I grabbed my stuff, which I had luckily packed the night before, and ran out of my apartment, encouraged over the phone by Ali, who was looking at a map and telling me the quickest way to get to the train station. Luckily, the third cab that came by as I was speed walking Ali's route ended up stopping for me, and I made it to the train station with about 2 minutes to spare - unshowered, with my makeup bag left behind in my apartment. Those who know me well know that this was a hellish state to find myself in - I rarely go out without a shower or makeup, unless I'm going to play hockey. Oh well, at least I was on the train and on my way.
Once I made it to Bratislava, I took a taxi to my hotel, the Junior Hotel. This place is a serious relic, and it probably has not been updated since Communism. Here was my hotel room:
Among the several eastern European delights that this room had to offer:
- No shower curtain or door - just a nozzle on a raised platform in the bathroom
- 13" TV that got 4 channels
- ONE light in the whole room - a 40-watt bulb inside a frosted glass wall sconce
- No hair dryer (uh-oh, guess what else was left in my apartment?)
Never mind. I was there to see some hockey, and I was willing to pay almost 100 euros for one night at this place (breakfast included at least) because it was less than a 1-kilometer walk to the hockey arena. Of course, I did not figure out the proper way to go the first time I walked there and back (to and from the first game), and got so lost I had to call Ali at home to ask him if he could figure out where I was. Yes, if Ali had not been so available to take my calls and give me directions, this trip would have been impossible. Although I was grateful, this also made me feel kind of lonely and sad to be all on my own over there.
Bratislava has a newly-remodeled hockey arena, which holds about 10,000 spectators. It is beautiful and pristine. The smartest policy they implemented (and one that I wish every hockey arena would adopt) is that you cannot take food or drinks to your seat - you have to eat and drink in the "snack area." This is brilliant. Not only do you run no risk of having beer spilled on you, but I think it also seriously reduces fan drunkenness, since they have to wait at least a half hour between beers.
The early game that I saw was Germany vs. Denmark. I was surprised by how good Denmark was - they actually ended up winning in a shootout. Most of the fans who were there were actually Slovak fans, because this was the qualification round game for the winner of the group that Slovakia was in. Unfortunately for the fans, Germany won that group and Slovakia was third. That meant that Slovakia would play in the game that evening, against Finland.
After the Germany game, I decided to walk back to the hotel while it was still light to make sure I knew the way. That was when I got very lost. I was afraid I wouldn't make it back to the arena in time, and was in general pretty miserable. I hadn't eaten much that day, and after the stress of the morning and the long train journey, I was cranky and exhausted. I actually considered blowing off watching the Slovakia game live and just watching it at the hotel. However, I decided I had come that far, and I needed to just persevere and head back to the arena.
As I made it my seat, I was faced with this sight, which made all the pain and struggle of the day totally worth it:
I think my favorite player, Michal Handzus, stayed out in the warmup to the very end, which is when I arrived, just for me. At least I like to think that. My seat was 10 rows up, directly behind the Slovak net.
Even before the game started, I realized that I was witness to a very special event. Slovak hockey fans are some of the loudest and most passionate I have ever seen. They sing, they chant, they scream, and they wave flags - pretty much the whole time. Most of my favorite hockey players over the years have been Slovak, and many of them were playing in this game, in addition to Handzus, including Richard Zednik, Miroslav Satan, Pavol Demitra, Josef Stumpel, Lubomir Vishnovsky, and Marian Hossa. All that were missing were Zdeno Chara (still playing for Boston in the NHL playoffs) and Ziggy Palffy. Anyway, to get see the Slovak team play in Slovakia's capital in front of their home fans - I've never been to a game like that, and I probably never will again.
Unfortunately, the Slovaks couldn't hold on to the 1-0 lead they took into the 3rd period, and they lost to Finland 2-1. It was almost physically painful for me to take this picture at the end of the game...
To me, it sums up just how important this tournament was to these guys. They sacrificed a lot to play in front of their home fans and wanted to do well for them. Since I'm not Slovak, I have a relatively outsider's point of view of the whole thing, and I was just gutted for them.
However, I have to say that the most pleasant surprise of the whole weekend were the Slovak fans themselves. They were on their absolute best behavior the whole time. Many of the Slovak fans at the game were couples and families with young children, and they were joyous without being out of control. In fact, I did not see one rowdy drunk among them, and I was prepared to. To be honest, the Finnish fans were more obnoxious than the Slovak fans were. There were a lot of Finnish fans at my hotel, and I was really put off by how hammered they all were.
So that's the main story about my trip to Bratislava. The train ride back seemed like it would never end, but eventually I made it back to Augsburg and my apartment. I will never forget the Slovak adventure that almost didn't happen, and I'm glad I forged ahead when things got rough for me. Now it's time to get to work...
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