Jeret in Prague!

So my brother made it safely to Prague thank goodness. He had a rough start as the night before he left he didn't exactly sleep since he was working his night shift as a firefighter. Then he flew overnight to Prague and missed another night's sleep. But he was a trooper and came to practice with us that same day...then slept for 14 hours to catch up.


Jeret hanging out on my balcony.

We had games that first weekend he was here, actually they were the start of our Czech Championship final series. It was awesome to have him there watching and taking pictures...he was the first family member to see me play overseas in about three years so it was really awesome to have him at the game. The year before I had given him a Slavia jersey so he was wearing it at my game and some other fans mistaked him for being a Czech and started talking to him...really funny situation as he knows zero Czech.

My superfan!!


My bro and I after the game.

The following week he was there we did a ton of touring around the city. Went on a couple of organized tours along with me showing him around as much as I could. Went to all our favourite restaurants, hung out with my roommates and of course Jeret being the wine lover that he is, went to the local wine bar a block from my house. The Czech Republic isn't really known for their wine, beer is their thing, but none the less we would head out to the wine bar and Jeret would try all the local favourites. The wine/beer is really cheap so Jeret really enjoyed that aspect. The guy who owned the store didn't exactly speak English so my Czech was really stretch as I was trying to translate for Jeret what he wanted and I don't exaclty have all the wine lingo down.


Teammates/roommates out at Posledni Mamut, one of our favourite restaurants.


Jeret and I with the dinner for two at Noi, one of the best Thai restaurants I have ever been to!


Jeret and I hanging out at the local wine bar.

One night I was able to get us tickets through our owner to a Slavia men's game. This means VIP tickets, aka all you can eat and drink. All the roommates went and we had just an awesome time, minus the fact that Slavia lost. But the game and atmosphere were great since it was a play off game, one of the highlights for sure.

Jeret left the following Saturday and missed the second round of my games, but it was still pretty neat as he was able to overlap with my parents since they flew in on Thursday morning, but that's a whole other blog...

Catching Up....

I just saw that I haven't blogged since February, just before my brother was coming...wow that's a long time ago but my last couple of months just flew by! I will do my very best to catch up on everything that is if you haven't stopped looking at my blog competely. None the less I would like this for my memories as well. So here she goes...

My Brother is Coming!!!

That's right after almost two season's here and three years in Europe my brother is coming to visit! Wasn't expecting him to come and I don't think he was either, but he booked last minute with a last minute decision and is on his way. He'll be here on Saturday morning and will be able to watch two of my games which is really exciting as I haven't had someone see me play professionally before! Then on Tuesday we're hoping to take a road trip to Dresden, Germany. Then on Wednesday I have an exhibition game and that night I'm trying to get tickets to the first round of playoffs for the men's Slavia hockey team. Then it's Thursday and my parents come! So for two days I'll have all my family here minus my sister-in-law, Amanda! Will miss her for sure! On top of all that we'll try and see as much as Prague as we can, but Jeret's never been overseas before so we'll see how well he deals with the jet lag! More to come!

Vysehrad

Going on with my theme of exploring Prague, I went to Vysehrad the other day. It was actually sunny out which was amazing considering this is still February and we usually don’t see the sun until March. Vysehrad means high castle and during the 7th century Slavonic tribes set up camp on the crag above the Vltava River in south Prague. There was a town here by mid 11th century and a castle was built, then the basilica of St. Lawrence, and the church of Saint Peter and Paul was added. It was then destroyed during the Hussite Wars until after the Thirty Years’ War when the city decided to rebuild it. The Church of St. Peter and Paul has an amazing cemetery on the outskirts of it with famous Czech people burried there. Not sure if you have heard of the composers Smetana and Dvorak, or painter Alfons Mucha but their gravesights are there. It’s now an old fortress with a huge park and great views of the city as you can see from below.


Tabor Gate


Streets of the old fortress


Leopold Gate


Church of St. Peter and Paul...wasn't able to go inside as it was closed, bad timing!


The huge steeples of the church!


The cemetery.


One of the biggest gravesites I have ever seen.


Looking north up the river


The promonade along the castle walls.


Looking south down the river.

Adventures with Jeni on Petrin Hill

So my time is winding down here in Prague and I'm trying to get in all the sights that I haven't seen already while being here. I would like to say that there are only a few things to go and see but actually there's quite a bit! This city is huge with a ton of history and things to see. We decided to head to Petrin Hill as it had just snowed the night before so thought that maybe there would be nice pictures up there.

Petrin Hill is 318m hill situated just south of the famous Prague castle and close to the river bank making it a great destination for picnics and walks. You can walk up it or in our case we decided to take the funicular up it and walk down. Yes I know I call myself an athlete. hehe. On the very top is the Petrin Tower which looks like the Eiffel Tower and was but in 1891 for the Prague Exposition. You can climb to the top of it for great views, but being it was winter it wasn't open. There is also a huge wall going around the grounds at the top of the hill called the Hunger Wall. It was built in the 1360s by the city's poor in return for food. Once again a ton of history. Here are some pictures of the day...


Jeni and I in the funicular on the way up.


Looking across at the city and the castle.


Huge church at the top of the hill...not sure what it's called.


Petrin Tower


A view of Prague...too bad it wasn't a more clear day.


A lookout tower Jeni and I found that is part of the Hunger Wall.


One of the paths we took down the hill.

My Last Road Trip...Thank Goodness

Last weekend was our last road trip of the season and it was a memorable one for that matter. Not only was it our last road trip of the year but there were a couple of other factors that made it a trip that I will probably never forget.

First off we left on Sunday morning at 4:30am. Yes that’s right, my team was too cheap to leave the day before and drive the 8 hours, stay in a hotel and get a good night’s sleep before a very important game. How important? Well we had to win that game in order to clinch 1st place in our European League, as there are no playoffs. Let’s just say I was less than excited with the thought of leaving at 4:30am. That means we were up at 3:30am and out the door by quarter to as our rink is about a 20min drive away. And of course nothing is ever really on time here so our bus pulled up about 4:45am. So we load up and were on our way.

There’s another factor to this trip that I have not talked about and it’s the fact that I had the flu. As I had said in my previous blog, Thursday was my last day of school. For some reason after school I started to feel sick. That night I had to babysit a friend’s son and after that came straight home to bed. Didn’t get much sleep of course as I was in the bathroom most of the night with the runs. So Friday I laid low, didn’t go to practice that night, then Saturday started to feel better and thought that I was kicking it. I was being too optimistic. Did not get much sleep on Saturday night and it didn’t help that I had to be up at 3:30am.

I pretty much slept the whole ride to Maribor minus the times that we would stop for a bathroom break which in my case seemed to be needed every time. The thing with our buses is that you never know if you’ll get a bathroom on it or not. There is always a bathroom on the bus but sometimes it’s locked and out of service. Makes complete sense of course as everyone is trying to drink as much water as they can (well more like us Canadians are doing this) in order to hydrate for the game. Thankfully (I think) we stop almost every two hours or so because my coach/the bus driver have to have a smoke. Oh yes and you probably are thinking that we would stop for a pre game meal somewhere along the way. Nope that never happens, you just pack your own meal consisting of sandwiches and what not for your pregame meal. Basically anything that we have been taught over the years for preparation for a game is thrown out the window as soon as your plane touches down in the Czech Republic. The luxuries of playing college hockey seem so long ago.

We get to Maribor, Slovenia an hour and a half before our “big” game. We walk around the rink a few times to wake up, then start our warm up for the game. Surprisingly enough we came out hard and after the first period were up 2-0. I was hoping this could continue so I could sit out the third but unfortunately they came back and tied it 2-2 going into the third period. We fought back and won 4-2. On any other given day we would have killed the team but due to the circumstances that was not the case. I was extremely thankful when the game was finished. I had four points on the night which I was quite proud of as one time I scored a goal, grabbed the key to the locker room and went to the bathroom and was able to make it back in time for my next shift. Luckily for me that was the only time during the game that I needed the bathroom as by that point I had nothing in my system. At the end of the game my equipment wasn’t exactly wet as there was pretty much no water left in my system.

So after the game it’s back on the bus for the 8 hour drive back. Now back in college we would have pizza’s waiting for us on the bus, which at this point in my career would be like heaven but at the time I didn’t think much of it. But nope, refuelling the body after an important game isn’t exactly on the minds of our coaches. They said we would stop for supper later once we were in the Czech Republic. Humm...great that’s only two countries and 6 hours away. Like seriously could they not just go to the bank and exchange some Czech Krowns into Euros cause really it’s not that difficult or not to mention they have these plastic cards now and days called Visa’s and wow...they work in every country! So 12am we make it across the border and stop in the all night cafeteria where most of our team ate. Tea was of course all I could keep in my system as a few hours ago I had to have the bus make an emergency stop for me. Quite funny really. Finally we made it back into Prague at 2:30am. So 22 hours later my last road trip FINALLY ended!

Culture Day

Last Thursday was my last day of school at Riverside and also happened to be culture day. Every classroom picked a country to learn about/display to other classrooms and I ended up helping the Year 2 class as they decided to do Canada. I actually don't usually go to school on Thursday's as that is not my day to work but I could not pass up the opportunity to help out representing my country. So I brought in as many Canadian t-shirts as I could, along with a picture book about Canada. I also made a ton of maple cookies for the year 2 and year 1 classes so they could try eating something Canadian. Then I made butter tarts for the year 2 class that learned about Canada. I have never made butter tarts before and they actually turned out really well, but were not that easy to make so I now have an even greater appreciation for those who go through the slow processes of making them.

I then brought in my hockey equipment to show the kids how you would get dressed for a game and what it looks like. Now if we were in a Canadian school this would be ridiculous of course as I'm sure over 50% of the kids would actually be playing the sport. But in an international school in Prague this was actually a good idea. The kids really enjoyed watching me quickly put on half of my equipment along with letting the kids try on my helmet. The year 1 kids just stared at me in amazement and didn’t say much. One kid told me I looked like a super hero, another a giant. I asked one class what they thought you called my shoulder pads and someone shouted out they were called a shield...ah not quite...but close.

Then in the afternoon the older kids put on kind of a fair for all the students with the country that they represented. So they had some games pertaining to their country along with food that you could buy. It was fantastic to say the least because the school has so many kids from different cultures, and of course the mom’s went to town on the food. For the Spanish pavilion we had a whole tapas bar, sushi for the Japanese one and hummus with the Jordanian. The kids had a blast the whole day and really enjoyed learning (and eating) about other cultures, especially when the school is very multicultural.

The staff actually had a send off for me which I was quite surprised by and gave me a sweet card along with a couple of pictures of Prague and some bath products from here. It was really sweet as I did not expect anything. I will truly miss the school and of course all the teachers there. I can honestly say that Riverside is a school unlike none other I’ve been to before. The teachers are all extremely hard working and genuinely nice people. I’ll miss them for sure, and of course my students that I worked with. It was a great experience for me as I have never worked with kids with special needs before outside of the gym. Most of the kids just needed a bit of extra support in one subject area or another, and hopefully they actually got something out of our sessions. Not to mention I taught swimming and never in my life would I have ever thought that would happen. Actually if you were to tell me ten years ago or even five that I would be teaching swimming lessons in Prague, I would have laughed in your face. But nope it’s true, I did that and made it through and actually enjoyed it...most days!

So now I’m off for the next couple of weeks until the season is over which I am fine with. It will be nice to spend some days at home planning my trip with my mom for March/April along with being able to get out and see the rest of Prague and the things I haven’t gotten around to yet.


Kids working on making Canadian flags.


Me with a student in my attempt to "quickly" get dressed.


The little guy with my helmet on.