Czech Hockey Adventure: 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...