GOOOOOOOLD!!!

Yay!!!
And what a gold. besides being completely exhausted from watching the game, we were in good spirits. If you were looking for us at the game. we're behind the goalie in "standing room" with pots and spoons. haha.
We took a trek down to Bosporon Pizza and got a big cheer from the other canadians that were already there. We also spent the rest of our meal being congratulated by Sweds and Finns who were all very nice! if we're getting this treatment. the team must've beeen lovin it.
After a stop at the afterparty at the rink we started for the cabin... it was about 230 and mike and johnny were leaving Leksand at 630.
We were coming up to the hotel team canada was staying at and we realized that there was a bus outside... we ran.
When we got up to the hotel we realized they were getting ready to leave. so we started cheering to send them off. some of the players ushered us over to the bus. Garreth is now in possession of Luc Bourdon's stogie. and Steve Downie came down for a picture. He was pretty drunk.

Anyway,
now we're at Arlanda airport.
it is the most terrible airport ever.
ever.
we can't check our luggage cuz the counter closed at 8pm. So we've got a good 12 hours of nothing ahead of us.
oh yeah, and i'm paying for this net so i guess i have to go.
See you in Halifax.... be there with a cup of Timmies :P

Canada 2 – USA 1: What a Game!!!!!!!!

“It’s the most tired I’ve ever been after watching a sporting event”
which is pretty much the quote that sums up the Canada-USA semi-final. In case you were the one person in Canada who wasn’t watching it—Canada played a terrible first two periods. In fact, ‘terrible’ is not the word… it was down right scary. They did manage to tie it up in the third, and nothing materialized in OT, so off to the shootout we went.
At the end of overtime we watched the zamboni only clear one end of the ice, we realized that we were at the wrong end. So we ran. And planted ourselves in the front row, right behind the net. Garreth thinks he may have had a miniture heart attack… I felt like I was going to puke and we all left their happy, relieved, excited and tired.
So, we’re off to the Gold Medal Game. Against the Russians. Hopefully the boys wake up for this one. GO Canada GO!!
“I suggest no further use of the two way radio”
Yeaaaa, so for some reason Garreth can’t call home. He got cut off in the middle of a conversation a few days ago and now his calling card is “invalid” and his house “isn’t accepting collect calls”.

Swiss v. Slovaks
Hey all,
it's us!
Right now as we type this, we're (half) watching a Swiss-Slovak relegation game in Mora. We haven't posted since our second win so here's a bit of a recap:

The game versus Germany, it was pretty slow and most of the Canadians here sat on their asses. Well, except us. We decided that we would plant ourselves behind the Canadian bench and we think that Garreth's head made it on TSN.

The next day it was raining and so it never really got light outside... nobody woke up before about 2pm. It was pretty strange. Johnny slept for about 17 hours straight.

New Years Eve was a gongshow. Canada was playing in the first game. We had to go to the grocery store and get yucky 3.5% beer because the liqour store was closed. We played Slovakia and we planted ourselves behind the Slovaks bench. Jenn had a "Happy Birthday Rob Tough in Halifax" sign (HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROB) and Garreth had a "Marry Me Pierre" sign, much to the amusement of the TSN cameraman.
After that we stayed for the USA-Sweden game, which was a fun atmosphere. Then we came back to our cabin and got SNOWBALLED by about 20 people, mostly Canadian Military guys and their families who were posted in Germany with NATO and staying in our campground... we continued on, bombarding any cabin with Canadian flags in the window...
Then we spent the next two hours watching our troops set off fireworks on the beach... needless to say... we were f@%king scared as hell.
We counted down the New Year with Frank, and two other really drunk soldiers and one of their 14-year-old sons, Jessie. They had some pretty good scotch so they're cool.
Basically, it was one of the most bizarre New Years ever.

which brings us to today, Mike, Jenn and Garreth made the 40 minute train ride to Mora and well.... we know Dan got a massage at noon, so who knows what's going on. We're heading back to Leksand shortly for the Sweden-Czech quarterfinal which should be interesting!
Anyway, Hope all is well in Halifax, Cape Breton, London, and Calgary!!!

Paaaaayce!

The Chocolate Chip Cookie Pals Gang

More pics.

Recap.

DEC. 28: DAY OFF

HAPPY 19th BIRTHDAY TO EMILY MACDONALD (Garreth’s little sister)

Johnny still doesn’t have his luggage. AIR CANADA… WHERE’S MY LUGGAGE?!?!? It was supposed to be dropped to our cabin today, but that was a no-go. The reception on the campsite does close at 2pm so it is quite possible that they came after and just turned back around… which is dumb… but hey, it’s Air Canada… it’s pretty much synonymous.
Today was spent recovering from everything that happened after about December 23RD. Everyone woke up feeling like crap. But not hangover-type crap, more sore-throat-and-stuffy-nose crap. It feels like a quasi-cold—hopefully not.
Michael couldn’t sleep again and was up at around 6am (then crashed hard at around 3pm). Everyone spent part of the day exploring downtown.
Not too much happening today. We sat around the fireplace after dinner and listened to the new Stuart MacLean album. The boys played poker after that—Jenn watched because Poker confuses her—with Swedish Kroners, which is like playing with dimes, nickels and pennies. The winner has to buy everyone a round at the game tomorrow night.
We play Germany next, which shouldn’t be underestimated since they did drop Team USA, but then again… who hasn’t?
We have found out that the Library has internet (and coincidentally… where the library is located) so tomorrow we’ll post a couple days worth of stuff. Sorry it’s been so long—you’ve got some reading to do.

Love,

The Cheesecake Dumpling Gang.




DEC. 27: CANADA 6 — USA 3

Jenn has finally caught up on her sleep—Michael has not. There was not much recovery time between games, last night was a late one and today we had to take a 40-minute bus ride over to the town of Mora so we had to leave the cabin earlier than usual.
Today was also the first day that we got towels… so now we can shower. So that’s pretty good.
Mike, Dan and Johnny spent the day in the downtown of Leksand picking up groceries and Kung Beer (a local Swedish beer, only $1.50 CAD!). Garreth and Jenn went for a walk at sunset (which occurs at about 3pm) around the woods/lake, which is quite nice.
We all got back to the cabin and ate pizzas that we made from flatbread and took off to walk to the arena at around 4:45pm. The bus to Mora was an interesting endevour. Both Garreth and Michael had a little too much Kung beer so they spent the last 20-minutes of the trip trying not to pee themselves. As soon as we pulled into the Arena parking lot the two sprinted of the bus to the nearest dark alley—as the rest of us laughed at them.
The game was awesome. The arena was quite small and we were seated about six rows behind the penalty boxes with some more Canadians.
As soon as the game started the five of us all started jeering American defenseman Jack Johnson. Soon the entire group of Canadians in the arena were on him. (We don’t forget blind-sided bows at the end of the game). We seemed to be getting under his skin, and rumour has it, he flipped us the bird on the way to the penalty box. And during the first intermission some Swedes asked us why we hated #3 so much.
Anyway, word from home is that TSN commented on our Johnson jeering and that you could hear “Johnson sucks” and booing every time he touched the puck.
On a completely unrelated note the arena sold the longest, skinniest hot dogs I’ve ever seen—in the smallest bun ever made.
During the walk home we crossed paths with a bus… which turned out to be the Team Canada bus, Luc Bourdon gave us a ‘rock on’. We decided to follow the bus over to where it had stopped and congratulated them. We realized this was their hotel and that they are staying about a five-minute walk from where we are.
The rest of the evening was spent watching Anchorman. After the movie, Jenn went to take a shower. After the shower she learned that her hairdryer needed a voltage converter because European plugs emit more voltage than North American ones. Needless to say she learned this by having her hairdryer burst into flames. She now has no hairdryer for the rest of the trip.



BOXING DAY — CANADA 2 SWEDEN 0

Hells. Yes.

We got on the train from Borlange to Leksand at around 12:20 on Boxing Day. It was quite an easy transition thanks in large part to our friend from the Borlange train that had put us in the first-class private car.

When we got off in Leksand, we phoned a cab company that sent a helpful driver in a van to the station. It was a short ride to the cabin and Mike was able to sort things out with the reception pretty quickly. When we got to the cabin, the driver gave us directions to the arena. The rink is only about a 15 minute walk along a path through the woods.

Figuring out how to use the can opener was an afternoon activity. We butchered a couple of cans of Alphagetti.

I went along with Dan, Mike and Johnny to the arena that afternoon to pick up our tickets. Jenn slept.

Luckily, the tickets were there and we had a lot less difficulty picking them up than a Rangers scout. Then we got some directions from some Swedish broads to the nearest grocery stores. Mix was purchased.

We slammed back Scotch, rum, vodka and Bailey’s (Dan) before the game. Mike downed a good pint of rum beforehand. That garnered him respect from the Halifax clan.

When we got to the arena (half-snapped), we immediately made some Canadian friends. Everyone seemed really drunk.

We made a few Swedish friends in the stands. They gave me chewing tobacco. That was a bad call.

The game seemed to go by really quick, maybe because we were so excited to be there, but it also may have had something to do with us being totally sauced. Either way the game was awesome, a huge first win in the home team’s rink.

The post-game celebrations were awesome, we met up with the other Canadians in front of the rink and put on quite the show.

We walked home after the game, we all wish we had some cough drops. Koval passed out immediately—something he would regret later—and the rest of us sat around and chatted. Garreth drank a lot of Scotch. Man he loves Scotch. Scotch. Scotch. Scotch.

To our surprise, someone knocked on our door at around 11pm. It was two Swedish fans who were staying a few cabins down! Mats and Niklas. They stuck around for about an hour as we exchanged stories and they told us about Sweden. Garreth gave them Scotch. And drank some himself.

Michael was already passed out on the couch at this point at which point we draped him with our new friends’ Swedish hockey sweater. He finally “came to” a little later, but “coming to” really consisted of him making random hand puppets and swinging his legs around for about 20 minutes — none of which he remembers.



BOXING DAY

Greetings from the train to Borlange. It’s your old friends.

Last night, despite Johnny’s misfortunes, was alright. The gang, minus Johnny, enjoyed Christmas dinner at McDonald’s, which was decked out in Ikea furniture. The Big Tasty was mediocre at best but the French fries were on par.

We strolled around for a bit and then retired to the living chamber for an evening of Scotch and hockey trivia. Jenn slept.

Because there were only three of us registered to the room, only three could enjoy a delicious Swedish breakfast this morning. Koval, Wong and MacDonald were drafted for this assignment. The fried tomatoes were simply exquisite and the bacon was quite salty. It was delicious and it beckoned seconds. Dan ate at 7/11 and croissants and pastries were brought back for Jenn from breakfast. They were Swedish danishes. Isn’t that funny? Swedish danishes.

As stated earlier, we’re on the train to Borlange. Getting tickets was a bitch. The machines wouldn’t accept Johnny’s Canadian credit card and the bastard at the ticket office was very misleading. We left him at the office to get tickets. While he was doing this, the rest of us went to wait by the train on track 5. Our train was due to leave at 9:45. At 9:41, we found out from a train attendant that there would be no waiting around for Johnny.

Naturally, I ran back for him. We yelled something at the ticket attendant and she yelled back something about our tickets already being booked. So we sprinted back just in time for the train door to shut on Johnny Wong. He was able to karate chop it open and he calmly walked in. “That was for my father,” he muttered aloud. What an Asian!

Anyway, we’re on board and warm. Also, we’ve been bumped up to a first class private car and the Black Label is flowing. Well… trickling. It’s early. And we’re just getting warmed up.

We’ll get off soon in Borlange. Then we’ll hopefully board a train to Leksand. Talk to you then.

Love,

The Danish Dumpling Gang
10:47 am

To date.

We had written some longer entries on Jenn's laptop but it doesn't appear that we're going to be able to upload our stuff. Anyway, we got here Tuesday and the cabin is great. Sweden game was good but the US game was amazing. A much more intimate arena.

We started heckling Johnson in the warm-up and the Canadians in the arena got into it pretty quick. We were asked by about 50 Swedish guys why we were doing it. We told them all about the bow.

Johnson was off his game!

We started heckling him in the warm-up. We started that!

Morale is down.

Johnny's luggage didn't arrive. Morale is down folks. But we'll get it together. We always do.