Last day in Sweden - Dog Sledding

Today is my last day in Sweden. This has been a wonderful trip for me and i'm sad to be packing up my bag now and to get ready for my 6 hour drive back to the airport. I drove an hour and a half today to the border of Sweden to a town called Idre. The drive was fun because it was during the day, and i got to see a lot more of Sweden. There is a ski resort there and i met Ann and her boyfriend at the ski stadium. After i parked i saw three teams of dogs and their sleds ready to go and a tipi set up next to it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I will have to write more later on my flight, i have to get going so that i have plenty of time to get back to the airport!!!! Stay Tuned! here some pictures----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My first day of skiing

 

 So today was the first day of skiing, my first time ever. I got lift tickets and rental skis and then was deciding if i was going to sign up for lessons. I decided to play around with the skis a bit and it turns out i dont need lessons. I have already done most of the green runs at this point, it's lots of fun. The mountains are beautiful! I took lots of pictures. And so far i have not fallen!

After skiing I went to ICA (a grocery store) at the bottom of the mountain, which is just a short walk from our hotel. I picked up some eggs, bread, lunch meat, cheese, salmon, and pasta. Yum! I made the salmon and pasta for dinner and it was delicious!

So tired right now, i'm going to be sore! More excitement tomorrow!

Ice skating in Stockholm, Traveling to Salen- Stoten Ski Resort

Today I went ice skating at the Kungsgarden Square. Tuesday morning we got up and went to the Kungsgården outdoor ice rink to skate. That was a lot of fun! There were only a few people there and most of them left while we skated so we basically had the whole place to ourselves. After skating around a bit it was time to go pack up our things and check out of the hotel.

We went back to the Arlanda airport to pick up our rental car and then headed to Sälen, a 6 1/2 hour drive. Once outside of Stockholm and the area around the airport, "major" highways become 2 lane roads covered in snow. We drove through a snow storm for awhile, which was really pretty, but also a little scary. We didn't have any problems driving, it was just all snow covered and dark.

We got to the hotel about a half an hour after the reception desk closed, something they failed to mention to me when booking.  So no one was there to give us the key to our room.  There were a few envelopes there that had people's names on them, but not one with my name.  We called every number we could find and didn't get any answers.  Desparate, I grabbed a magazine and flipped to the back.  There were about 50 phone numbers for hotels, restaurants, etc. in the area.  I randomly chose one in the middle of the page, for a different hotel.  The woman that answered just happened to actually be friends with the guy that handles all of the booking at our hotel.  So she called him and he (or someone he called and sent) came to the hotel to give me the key.  How lucky and random is that? The hotel room is awesome! It has a little kitchen with a table, oven, microwave, dishwasher, etc. It has a living room and 2 bedrooms with bunkbeds in each. AND it's right on the mountain. We can step outside of our hotel and ski straight to the lift. AWESOME! Time for some sleep, first day of skiing tomorrow!!!

Vasa Museum & Boat tour

The Vasa

This morning we went to the Vasa Museum. The Vasa was a war ship that sank before even making it out of the harbor on it's maiden voyage in 1628. Over 300 years later it was recovered and they rebuilt the entire thing. The pieces they didn't find they used a lighter color wood so you could see what was original and what wasn't. They even had some of the bones on display of the people who were onboard when it sank. Kinda creepy, but cool.

Me on the Vasa's Anchor

After the museum we went on a winter boat tour in the Baltic Sea. We saw lots of castles and cool looking buildings and heard a lot about the history of the different islands we passed by. On the boat we had some glögg, which is mulled wine served with raisins and almonds. It was really good!

I did some more shopping after the boat tour and we all met back up and met with Malin, her boyfriend, Erik, and her son Oscar for dinner. We had a couple drinks that we didn't realize were about $20 each!  Dinner was good, though. After we ate we just went back to the hotels, got to get an early start tomorrow! Going to go ice skating and then travel to Salen to ski!

The Ice Bar

The guards getting ready for the presentation

 

I woke up early in the morning and rode the train downtown to my new hotel at Crystal Plaza, then i took a nap untill 11am. After i went to the Royal Palace to see the changing of the guard at noon.This time it was different because they have a whole presentation with marching, trumpet playing, drumming and a little background on how people join the Royal Guard.



Marching with guns and swords



After watching the changing of the guards i went to the Dungeon for lunch and coffee.



The Dungeon Coffee Bar



inside a jail cell eating lunch

 After coffee i went shopping for souvenirs and took lots of pictures. Check out my picasaweb for photos.

they still have telephones outside in booths! Weird!



My new hat! Just kidding, i only tried it on for a picture



Downtown at sun down

riding the lion!

After shopping we all met at Malin & Erik's house and went to a pizza and Kabab place and ordered pizza. We hung out for a while then went downtown to the Ice Bar. Everything here was made of ice, except for the floors and ceiling. They gave us giant coats that looked kind of like garbage bags, but were super warm. They also had gloves attached to the coats. We were given a coupon to get a drink at the bar, and had a little map of drinks we could choose from. The drinks were served in solid ice glasses, and the drinks were fantastic! There were really cool designs around the ice bar all in a aquarium theme with plenty places to sit. Apparently every year they do a new design and there are several Absolut Vodka Ice Bars all around the world. I ordered one more drink, it ended up costing $15. EVERYTHING here in Sweden is super expensive for people from USA and Canada- so i have been watching what i have been spending. You can definitely go broke here.

Drink glasses on the bar, glasses made out of ice



Sylena, Malin, Krissy, Haley, Me, Valerie



Ice Bar!!

We look like we have garbage bags on, but these huge coats were warm!

Tomorrow, we will all go to the Vasa museum then a boat tour around stockholm! i'm excited!

final game day

Today i had my final game- The Bronze medal game Czech Republic vs. Finland. Finland came out strong and beat the Czech Republic 3-0. The Czech Republic lost to USA the night before 14-1, i think they were tired during this game. Krissy, Haley and I had fun during our game.



Haley, Krissy, Me



Finland Vs. Czech Republic

Finland wins 3-0

This tournament was amazing to work, and i hope to work with my new found friends sometime in the future.

Tomorrow i will be traveling to Salen to go skiing at the Stoten Ski Resort, which is 6 hours north west of Stockholm. But before i leave Stockholm i'm going to Kungsgarden to skate outside! Got to pack up!

Semi final game, Final game assignments, and Snow people!

Today i had the semi final game Finland vs. Canada, Canada won 6-1. I had fun working with Radka and Ilona again, they are a great crew!!

Japan came back today and won against Switzerland 5-1 in the best out of three relegation game!
When the Japanese team came into the dining area all the teams that were in the room started clapping and cheering for them! They were excited to win their first game of the tournament, and have one last shot to win tomorrows relegation game to stay in the top tier.

Sweden took 5th place winning against Germany 2-0.
USA beat Czech Republic 14-1.

Game assignments for tomorrow Gold, Bronze & Relegation games:
Japan vs. Switzerland 12:00pm Sylena, Ivanova, Ilona

Bronze Medal game:
Czech Republic vs. Finland 3:30pm Krissy Langley, Laura Johnson, Haley Weieler

Gold Medal game:
USA vs Canada 7 pm Debbie Hengst, Therese Bjorkman, Jonna Partanen


After we got our assignments Krissy and I decided to use the sauna in our house because we wanted to warm up. After sweating for a while we decided we should jump in the snow! We ran outside (20 Degrees out by the way) and jumped in the deepest part of the snow which came up over our knees threw a few snowballs at each other, then ran back inside to the sauna. After the first time we decided to take pictures of our crazy antics for you to enjoy! Krissy did a superman dive into the snow, and i got crouched down all the way in the snow and put some on my head.
Now its time to get some rest for tomorrows game! Enjoy the pictures!

Krissy in our snow bathtubs!

Krissy emerging from the snow





Me running to get out of the snow and get back inside to the sauna



Day off Super League Hockey game!



Our group standing outside of Globen City

 



Today we had our day off. We went to the Super League game in downtown Stockholm next to the Globe ice arena. It was Djurgardens vs. Timra. Different areas of Sweden that have teams. When we got to the Globen city rinks Malin told me how a few weeks ago a huge fight broke out during the game. Then said that it gets really crazy and loud in there like a european soccer game. I was like oh i'm sure its not that bad, then we started walking past tons of police officers walking around everywhere with riot gear on. And as we walked closer to the arena we could hear the loud chanting through the walls of the building. We went into the building and were walking around the side where the people chanting were sitting and it was deafening. The game was pretty fun, it was ok hockey and only got heated for a few minutes in the game, but what was more exciting was the crowd experience and the different songs they sang in unison.



The crazy crowd throwing colored paper and chanting





Then after the game we went to a different part of the city and had dinner at O'Learys for some non Swedish food. I had some hot wings! Then we walked to the train station 15 minutes away and had a huge snowball fight on the way. It was Ilona and I vs Stacey and Therese with others getting involved here and there. It was funny because at first it was a couple of us throwing snow backwards then someone nailed Stacey in the head, then she said Oh its on! Therese snowed me in the face and we chased each other down the streets the whole way to the station.

Jonna, Me, Debby, Therese, Malin





Djurgardens vs. Timra

Tomorrow i have the semi final game Canada vs Finland at 3:30pm. Wish me luck!





 

SWE vs FIN & Semi final game assignments

I had my game today-
SWE Vs. FIN 7:00pm Debbie Hengst, Haley Wieler, Laura Johnson


     I unfortunately dont have a picture of the crew because Debbie got hurt in the third period of the game. She is ok, but was unable to finish. She ran into a player, the players stick came up and Debbie shielded her face with her hand. The stick slashed her hand and she immediately blew her whistle. She wanted to finish the game, but she was in so much pain. The standby referee (Sylena Mutsaers) got onto the ice 8 minutes later and we resumed the game. Debbie is ok, has blue fingers but does not know if they are broken. Debbie had a great game up until she got injured. Haley and I worked very well together, it was a hard game but so much fun to work. Sylena jumped into the game and the transition of referees was seamless. The game as really exciting, Finland and Sweden do not like each other. Sweden dominated the first half of the first period, but Finland came back and fought to win the game in OT 3-2.
here for the U18 Website that has photos and live scores and stats.

After the game we got the game assignments for 1/7 Semi Final games:
There is one relegation game (best of 3)- SUI vs. JPN:
SUI vs. JPN 5:30pm Malin Axelsson (SWE), Magdalena Cerhitova (SVK), Zsuzanna Sandor (HUN)

SUI beat JPN yesterday, so if SUI wins on friday there is no game needed on saturday. A relegation game determines which team (the two teams with the least amount of points during the championship) will move down a division for next year. Same with Division 1 being played later this year, the winner will move up a division to play in this Championship next year.

The GER vs SWE game is for 5th place taking place on 1/7:
10am Sylena Mustaers (CAN), Jonna Partanen (FIN), Haley Wieler (CAN)

The two semi final games are:
CAN vs FIN 3:30pm Radka Ruzickova (CZE), Laura Johnson (USA), Ilona Novotna (CZE)

USA vs CZE 7:00pm Arina Ustinova (RUS), Elena Ivanova (RUS), Kaire Leet (EST)

After we found out our game assignments we stayed up until 1am to watch the  Gold medal game for Canada vs Russia U20 mens.
Canada was dominating the game up until the 3rd period with a score of 3-0. Then a lot of people started going to bed, i stayed up with Radka and watched the crazy finish to a game that was thought to be over. Russia came back with 5 awesome un-answered goals in the third period to win the U-20 Mens World Championship in Buffalo, NY.
     A little after the game was over, Elena and Arina came back from one of the other girl's rooms (they are from Russia) and i asked them if they saw the game. I was smiling, they were not. They said yeah, 3-0 Canada. They turned it off at the start of the 3rd period. I told them no........ Russia won. 5-3. They said no.. no... no..? you are joking me right? I said no seriously they won! Then i showed them the IIHF website with the final score and pictures, they were so excited and started jumping up and down. I just laughed because it isnt over until its over! watch the whole game!

Now i'm going to sleep, its 4am.... i am so tired! Tomorrow we have a day off, we are going to a Super League game (Sweden's NHL). I'm excited, yay more hockey!
God natt!

1/5 Quarter finals

I had my game this afternoon-
CZE Vs. JPN - 4pm Referee: Krissy, Langley (USA), Therese, Bjorkman (SWE), Laura, Johnson (USA)



CZE 4 - JPN 1





Me, Krissy, & Therese. We had a really great game together!

Quarterfinal games for January 5th:

JPN Vs. SUI 12pm Radka Ruzickova, Ilona Novotna, Therese Bjorkman

GER Vs. CZE 3:30pm Krissy Langley, Jonna Partanen, Magadalena Cerhitova

SWE Vs. FIN 7:00pm Debbie Hengst, Haley Wieler, Laura Johnson

I will add more later!! :)