Friesen Invasion!

This past Tuesday I had my first visitor to the Czech Republic. My cousin, Greg, was here on a Easter break European Tour and just happened to come to Prague with it. Quite good luck actually as he signed up for the tour before he or I knew that I would be living here. It was awesome to hang out with him and his tour group for the day. We toured the castle and the bridge in the am with his class and tour guide. Then for lunch broke away and did little shopping and just hung out at my place for the afternoon until we met back up with his group for supper. I have to admit that I wasn't the greatest host as we could have went a hundred other places instead of my house, but he was sick and unfortunately it was freezing outside so it probably was the best idea. I did manage to show him the random little baseball store just down from my house (he's a huge baseball player) so that was interesting. It was super fun to hang out with him and show him a bit of the city! Thanks for coming Greg!

Riga, Latvia

Part three of my trip was to head back to Riga for about a day of touring around. We caught the bus back to Riga and arrived there around 1ish that Saturday. From the bus station there was just a short walk to our hostel which was located in the Old Town of Riga. It's a beautiful area of old buildings, church, cafes and cobble stone streets everywhere!

You know you've picked the party hostel when you arrive at 1:30pm and people are still fast asleep. Oops...wasn't expecting that and wished we would have picked a different place, but I guess for the $10 a night price we paid it was to be expected.

After dropping our stuff off, we went to find some food and explore Riga. The first place of destination was the central market which consisted of five huge hangers and is one of the largest markets in Europe (according to my travel book). Interesting would be the best word to describe the market. It was pretty huge selling everything from fruits, vegetables, cheeses, meats, breads, candy and a ton of sea food. I saw a lot of interesting looking sea creatures and smelt it all. Outside there were more clothing stalls set up and a lot of interesting looking people to add.

From here we went to St. Peter's Gothic Church and saw an amazing view of Riga from the top of the tower. We also went to the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. I'm sure to many this sounds boring but it fascinated me as I knew nothing about the history of Latvia other than that I thought it broke away from Russia. Boy did I learn alot. It became and independent country after WWI in 1918. Then was occupied by the Soviets in 1939. Next taken over by Nazi Germany from 1941-1945, and then back to the Soviet rule. Finally they had independence in 1991. An amazing history really.

After the museum we pretty much just walked the streets the rest of that day as well as Saturday morning. The old town in Riga is really pretty with cafes everywhere an a ton of shopping to be done. It's know for it's Amber, so I was able to buy some jewelry from there. Sunday morning we were off to go back to the Freedom Monument to take some more pictures when we came across a road block along the way. There were police everywhere...hum...what's going on. We found out through a couple of Americans who were working in Riga that there was a big memorial parade going on that day. Shouldn't be a problem right, well that's not the case. Apparently it was to remember those who died in WWII. Some people have objections to that as they were fighting with the Nazi's, but in reality they had no choice. So kind of a touchy subject and I guess in past there had been some problems. Well with all the cops that we saw dressed in riot gear, there were definitely no problems on that day. It pretty cool to come across that event while we were there.

So that was our time in Riga, we then flew back to Berlin. Got there around 6pm which left us a couple of hours to kill before we took a bus back to Prague at midnight. I was able to go back to Checkpoint Charlie and check out that museum which had a ton of information about the Berlin Wall and the efforts people made to escape under/over/through it. Another interesting museum.

Here some pics...


Central Market


Caviar


St. Peter's Church


View from the top of the tower in St. Peter's Church


Another angle - notice the four big hangers...site of the Central Market


House of Blackheads and the statue of St. Roland


Streets of Old Town Riga


Freedom Monument


Memorial Parade


Police in riot gear...just in case

Ventspils, Latvia

Ventspils, Latvia was the second destination of our trip. Chelsa and I flew into Riga and from there we made our way to the bus stop to try and purchase tickets to Ventspils. It's a city of 44,000 on the North Western coast of Latvia right on the Baltic Sea. It's a huge industrial hub with a large harbour. I wouldn't say there is a ton to do or see there but it's a cute, clean city with lots of parks, beaches and brick streets which was pretty amazing. I'm sure it's pretty beautiful in the summer or when the sun is out as unfortunately it rained most of the time we were there.

So we booked our tickets from the sketchy Riga bus station and off we went on our 3 hour bus ride. The scenery is much like northern Saskatchewan minus all the rocks. Lots of trees where you can see evidence of selective foresting. We did make on stop along the way where we were able to get out and take a pee break in what had to have been one of the grossest outhouses I've ever seen. I would have preferred to just go in the woods. Finally we got there and found a taxi that could take us to our hotel, as we didn't exactly have directions. We stayed in a pretty nice hotel that was only a couple of years old. It was a fairly good location as well since we were only about 2km away from Olympic Center where the tournament was taking place. The Olympic center consists of an ice rink, basketball stadium, an indoor and outdoor track. I'm sure that's where their national teams have their training camps.

The first night there we were able find the hotel the team was staying at and hang out a bit with them. It was funny to see everyone and their surprise to see us. We had told them before that we were coming to Latvia, but I guess they didn't believe us or something got lost in translation. I figured that Chelsa and I would be with the other parents in the stands cheering on the team. Well actually not because there were no other fans there. As in no parents or family. That pretty much blew me away as I can't imagine being at a World Championship and not having some sort of family there to cheer me on. That kind of explains why the team was super appreciated of our presence there. We were able to get Czech team passes so we could be with the team and go where ever. Sound like we were all important and all, but in reality we weren't. We did get some Czech jersey's along with a huge flag and Czech clothes to wear while watching the games. It was pretty fun to be out in the stands just the two of us cheering on the team, trying to do so in Czech might I add. We were blown away by the Norway fans...all 30 of them. hehe.

Chelsa and I were in Ventspils for three nights and were able to watch the Czech's play two games. The first game we watched they played against Kazakhstan, and lost 3-1. They actually played not bad considering they rolled two lines and Kazakhstan was the clear favourite to win the tournament which they did. The second game against Norway was was super exciting as it went into a shoot out. The Czech's should have won it in regular time 2-1 but Norway scored to tie it with about 3 minutes left to send it into OT. It was very nerve racking watching the shoot out from the stands, but they pulled through and won. It was great to celebrate that win with the girls after as it guaranteed them a medal. With the World B Pool Championships there are not finals, just a big round robin with the team with the most points as the winner. The game after that was Slovakia vs. Latvia which went into a shootout as well. All in all Chelsa and I had a great time and experience in Ventspils hanging out with the girls and my coach (he's the assistant coach for the National team) and watching some international hockey. Oh and if you were wondering the Czechs actually placed third so not a bad showing by them. Here are some pics below...


Cool pictures of the tree lined streets everywhere and brick sidewalks/streets


Hanging out on the Baltic Sea, love the shipping dock background


Livonian Order Castle and Museum - also had an amazing medieval restaurant inside


Streets of Ventspils


Crazy Czech fan!


Chelsa and I with the Czech team

Berlin

Like I said in my last email I took a little trip to Berlin and Latvia. Took the train last Monday after work to Berlin. Four and half hours later I arrived. Had all my hostel information with me and the directions on how to get there. I took the S-bahn (an above ground metro) two stops and then had to switch to the U-Bahn (underground) for one stop. It was around 10 at night by this time and I could not figure out why the gate was closed to the U-Bahn. Kind of earlier to close the metro down. Come to find out from someone on the street that the U-Bahn/tram/bus workers are all on strike. Great timing! Thank goodness I have my Lonely Planet Germany with me and have a map to find my hostel. Great start.

I just had Tuesday to look around the city so I did a much as I could in that day. Started off with a tour for tips walk around the city. Latest about four hours which was well worth it. I think I learned more history in that one walk then I did all through my high school social studies classes. You'll all from the pictures below. From there met a guy from Australia and hung out with him the rest of the day going back to Checkpoint Charlie and reading all the info on the old wall. Then we went to the Jewish Museum which is the largest of it's kind in Europe. I went through it all and read almost everything taking me almost three hours. Then for supper went to a random Thai Restaurant that was recommended to us, it was amazing. I parted ways with my Aussie friend and went to meet Chelsa at the train station where she was arriving as we were off to the next day to Riga, Latvia for the World B Pool Women's Hockey Championships. Here are some pictures below...

Bandenburg Gate


Hotel Aldon - where Michael Jackson hung his baby over the railing, very historical significance


Memorial to the Murdered European Jews - a ton of concrete rectangle boxes signifying graves


You know the city's old when there are still bullet marks in the exterior of the building from WWII


Berlin Wall - this part has been fenced off to keep people from taking the wall and selling it on eBay


Can't remember the name of this church but thought it was a cool picture


Bebelplatz and Humbolt University - the sight where in 1933 they burned about 20,000 books that didn't agree with the Nazi Party's ideology


Another Memorial


Berliner Dom


Check Point Charlie

I will post pictures of Latvia hopefully in a day or so when I get the time!

Going on a little trip...

Just thought I would let you know that I am off tomorrow on a little trip to Germany and Latvia. I had mentioned before that the Czech National Team would be playing in the B World Championships in Latvia. Well Chelsa and I found cheap flights to Latvia from Berlin so decided to make a little trip there and watch a couple of games. I can't say I've had a desired to visit Latvia but with the team going there I thought why not?

I leave tomorrow after work and will be taking the train to Berlin. On Tuesday I'll have the day to tour around and then that evening will be meeting up with Chelsa at the train station. Wednesday morning we will be flying to Riga, Latvia and from there taking a bus/train to Ventspils, the city where the tournament is taking place. We'll be able to watch games on Thursday and Friday as the Czech's take on Kazakhstan and Norway. Then Saturday morning back to Riga for a day of touring until Sunday when we fly back to Berlin and then make our way home to Prague. Kind of a world wind of a tour but should be great fun. I'm excited going there to cheer on the girls and have some fun sight seeing! I'll post pictures when I get back.

Kudos

A big kudos goes out to a couple of my bible study friends who attended our game last Saturday in Kladno. They were all attending their first ever hockey game. Dot hails from South Carolina, Karissa from Seattle/Spain and Julie and her girls from Scotland, so we had a real mix of people at our game. From all the pictures that they took at the game I know they had a great time. Even Julie from Scotland enjoyed it although she said at the end of the game that she couldn't figure out the rules. I really should have given her a quick run down. But thanks for coming out ladies!


Dot and Julie's girls


The Canadians

Never a Dull Moment

We had a game this past Saturday in Kladno. It’s only about 30mins from Prague and the home of the famous Jaromir Jagr. In the rink’s restaurant there are jersey’s and pictures of him everywhere. As I have mentioned in a previous blog we have these intense super fans. Well they were of course on hand for this little road trip game along with a couple of new additions to the group. I guess that during the game they were shouting some explicit words towards the other team so the cops were called in (apparently it was the new super fans that were doing the yelling). At the start of the third period I see about four cops climbing up the stands to where our super fans sit. There were only two super fans sitting there. I guess the others were warned and were able to make a quick exit. I'm not sure if any of them were arrested or not but we didn't have any drumming for the third period. I found out after the game that there were three cop cars outside the rink along with a big police van. I’m not sure who called in the complaint and what they were thinking as we only had about 6 super fans there. The cops must have thought it was a men’s hockey game and therefore called in the reinforcements. So as you can see our games can get pretty rowdy with all the fans that we get!

First Storm of the Year

Well it's currently March 1st and I've just experienced my first thunderstorm of the season. Woke up this morning to it raining with a little sleet, not quite as nice as the weather we were having a couple of days ago. The thunder and lightning storm rolled through our area this morning. Can't believe that has happened here already. I'm almost positive that this is the earliest in the year I have ever experienced a thunderstorm before, kind of crazy. And to my Wisconsin friends, yes I'm from Saskatchewan and enjoy talking about the weather! I promise my next blog post will not be of that!