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Woke up before the wake up call again. I went down around 8 because I wanted to walk to the town centre to get a souvenir magnet of the town. It was pouring rain ugh and I don't have a jacket or umbrella - both forgotten in our front closet. Thank you Patricia for lending me one.
I had cereal and yougurt for breakfast. The boys are looking more and more worn out every morning. The tour planner forgot to keep in mind that teenagers (and their parents) need time to recharge.
We got on the bus at 10 to head to Trencin. There is this great law that the bus driver has to have 9 hours of rest - which means that we get it too!!!
Unfortunately it was raining quite a bit so we didn't get to stop and take the scenic pictures that were planned - I can still take pictures in the rain but I guess I'm he only one :+( Couldn't take pictures from the bus window either because the windows were too wet and it was really frustrating because the scenery was breathtaking. Lots of hills and trees and valleys.
We ended up stopping at a mall for a bit to kill some time until our lunch reservation. Matt bought himself a few shirts - great prices and stuff you can't get here.
We went for lunch at this little restaurant - we pretty much took up the whole place. We had to preorder this meal to make it quicker to serve us. When Rachel was taking all our orders (there were 8 choices) Denis asked for #9 - the double breasted serving and the joke just spiraled from there. So a few of us went in on a boobie pillow and Rachel presented Denis his #9 at lunch - everyone had a great laugh! Unfortunately, it still took awhile to serve us all so some people were finishing as others were just getting served - we are a large group. I had chicken with apricots and goat cheese sauce - yum! Gilles had pork schnitzel and Matt had steak and the plates were HUGE!!! Just as the last people were served Dave announced that the boys had 10 minutes to finish eating because they were hopping on the bus to try and get to an arena before Marian Gaborik left - it his arena. So a few of the boys didn't really get to eat but they didn't care - they were stoked to meet this guy. He plays for the Rangers now and he also played for the Minnesota Wild. When we got there we were told he hurt his back during the camp he is running and he was working out and would be out to see us shortly. So Gary went and got Thomas Kopecki to talk to the boys. He was in a hurry but he took the time to talk to the boys, pose for a group shot and sign autographs - very nice guy. He won the Stanley Cup in 2008 when he played with Detroit. He now plays with LA (Gilles thinks). The boys were really stoked!
Gaborik came out and had to sit because his back was still sore. He talked a bit and signed everyone's autographs and then slowly stood and posed for a few group shots - poor guy looked like he was quite uncomfortable.
The bus went back to get the parents and then we were brought to the Trencin city centre. Unfortunately it was still cool and drizzly but we walked around a bit. Rick came and got me to bring me up to the castle to get some pictures of the great view. It was a steep climb and my knees were screaming but well worth it! The castle was a fortress in its day - built in the 12th century. Absolutely beautiful. We didn't go in because we didn't have time but still well worth the trip up. A bunch of us met up at the ice cream place and had a cone and vegged until it was time to meet the bus. Gilles and I had Kinder Surprise and Matt had Red Bull flavor - imagine that!
Back on the bus at 6 and to the Brumov arena - it was soooooooo cold in that arena and a lot of the parents had shorts and flip flops on. I at least had socks and shoes on. So we huddled outside under the eaves and an umbrella where the smokers go to stay dry and warm.
The game was the best so far as far as equality of the calibre - the age range on this team was 13 to 20. The sportsmanship was great between the two teams - they had a lot of fun mixing together for the group picture. They do shoot outs at the end of the games no matter what the score and that was fun way to end the game. They won the game but we won the shoot out.
We then walked in the rain - not happy because I didn;t know we would be walking that far and my camera rain coat wasn't on so my camera had lots of condensation and I couldn't take pictures and I was worried about what it would do to the inner workings....we went to a school and they had dinner for us there - on them. It was chicken, rice, potatoes and cole slaw. They also provided juice, water and beer. The food was good. We got on the bus to head back to the hotel around 10:45 and got to the hotel at 12:40. We have to be packed and on the bus by 9:15 tomorrow - I am so tired. We opted to go to bed right away and get up early to pack. Bed here I come!!!!
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