Wall of text crits you for 4687!
Foreword
This months blog has soooo much stuff in it. My guess is that most of you would be reading this on a slow Monday, or the cold Sunday morning. My tip; Read it whenever. Just be ready for LONG LONG post. The number in the title is not by accident :P This month, i have written it in a diary style. By that i mean that i have written the dates, and all the events described have taken place in days past. The wordings might be off, but that is because i tried to rewrite it in a cohesive wall of text, until i realised how futile my struggle would have been. So, grab a hot cup of coffee, tea, chocolate, or whatever else tickles your fancy (Mr. Orchard, i hope i got the phrase right!) and enjoy, or choose to write very angry emails for having you reading this.
6/10/2009
Election time in Greece is always huge... October 4th was Election Day for us, and lo and behold the liberal party won. I am not at all surprised by that, since it seems that the conservative party really did make a botch of things. What surprises me is the amount of dedication people have to a particular party. I don't want to say it angers me, but at some point it really does start to piss me off... To support ideas is one thing, but to blindly follow a party more out of loyalty is quite another.
After the exit polls took place and they announced the result of the election, a good majority of the people were out on the streets celebrating the way Toronto would have celebrated if the leafs won the Stanley cup :). Note that most likely the same people will be out protesting the new government (or even blame it if a flood or any other natural disaster occurs), by closing down streets, throwing Molotov at police etc. Greece is one of the countries where the same citizen that voted for the government is out on the streets protesting it the very next day: P
14/10/2009
I arrived in Athens on the 13th after a killer ride. The roads were great and I left early enough to avoid all traffic from trucks and cars. After arriving... being dead tired, I presented to my sister the famed puppy. I also brought the other puppy with because my friend here said her mother would take it. After getting some rest, I ended up taking the electric train to Peireas, to meet up with my friend. I gave her the puppy and chaos ensued... her mother was ecstatic and kept thanking me. My plan kind of backfired though, and my friend started busting out the wine. We ended up staying up late, and after a being up for about 24 hours including a 6 hour drive, and also having drunk a few cups of wine, I returned to my place being a wreck. Slept for most of the day and ended up trying to do some stuff around the house to help my sister out, who apparently is out for beers now, as I am dog sitting: P
20/10/2009
I returned to Thessaloniki on the 20th. Woke up at 4 to take the car, and myself, back home. Had a bit of trouble sleeping but nothing out of the ordinary. I said my goodbyes to my sister and the pup in that order, and took off... Getting out of Athens was easy enough thanks to Google maps and Rania who let me print it :). What a beautiful sight it made just driving in the night and watching the sun rising over the mountains and just further along watching it glisten over the blue sea. It was quite the sight and was really enjoying the tunes playing and the ride. I was about an hour or two away from Thessaloniki when I noticed some weird behavior in the car. It was steering me directly to the right and I found myself turning the wheel further and further left to keep in the lane. I realize something is amiss and I better pull off to the side. As I am starting to pull I see smoke coming out of the front of the car .,. Yes I got a flat tire.
Not a big deal I thought, I'll call up the folks and tell them I am running behind schedule and just change the tire. I take out my cell and in pure Petros style; it really came as no surprise to see that I was out of battery. I start giggling as it is known I appreciate irony. "Oh!" I thought. "What else do you have in stock for me?"...I wondered as I lifted my stare up to the heavens. "No matter" I muttered, "I'll just change the tire and be on my merry way".
HA! As if that would happen! I proceeded to take out the spare tire and the jack to lift the car. I started lifting the car with no real issues till I realize that it would have been smarter (DUH!) of me to just loosen the bolts while the car was on the ground. I lower the car. I put the leaver in to loosen the bolts... I give it a good hard push... didn't even nudge it. At this point I can hear the almighty laughing and crying out "EAT IT!" Muttering made up curse words, I start positioning the leaver in such a way I can put more weight under it. So I jump on it. "Take that" I start yelling putting 130 pounds of fury on the leaver. All the good it did me, the One above basically gave me the hint to go call road service. Thankfully, I remembered I saw a cantina, on the side of the street, few km back. Having no cell available, what is a man to do? So I walked the one or two kilometers back to the cantina, where a surprised owner gave me his cell and I managed to get road side assistance.
Having had my tire changed, I proceed to make my way back to Thessaloniki... lo and behold, an hour and twenty minutes later I am at home ready to say hello to my folks who have surely missed me this whole week..... Or so I thought! I entered the house in a hail of adjectives about having my cell phone off. I also had to dodge a couple of slippers...
My day was far from over though. I finally got some news about my military time! I will be serving in the artillery division starting in a city called Thiva. I'd like to see their reactions if they find out I couldn't loosen the bolts of a tire a few days ago :)
OH! Trip to Italy incoming. Also got my team uniform. Apparently I have been upgraded from assistant GM to GM since the original GM had to cancel! Oh fun! I have no idea what to do but it is really exciting. I'll just do what I do best; wing it. Also there are rumors of news papers writing daily articles about us for the duration we are there! sounds like fun although I am sad to say that we are up against people that play for a living, and we are just guys that get together play a game and then go out for beers :) so ... no... We are not really in the same level.
24/10/2009
Third day in Italy. We arrived here 2 days ago and were caught off-guard by the weather. Rain greeted us along with our bus drivers that were supposed to take us to our hotel. For a champion's league tournament, they surely are unorganized. In Trieste there are VERY few people that are actually able to communicate in English! So we arrive, and after about a 30 min bus ride, we find ourselves in the city of Trieste. Trieste is a beautiful city, and it really does remind me of Thessaloniki, with the mountains on one side and the port on the other. And the ladies.... omg, fantastic!...
We get to the hotel where we are greeted by Martha. A 25 year old Italian girl full of laughs and the only person who can communicate in English so far. We take our leaves to the rooms so we can shower and relax and then meet up the lobby so that we can tour the city for a bit, and head off to practice. The people from the tournament took care of moving our gear to the rink where we would be practicing. After having to take the public bus to our destination, yes the public bus!... just read on.... , the players get in gear and they start practicing. While our practice was going on, Roberto, a middle age Italian man, who fancies himself a manager, is probably trying to make an extra buck and books us in a restaurant for dinner. After specifically asking him for a place that has a variety of pasta dishes, he books us at a fish tavern. WTF? We were too hungry and too tired to put up with it... so we had a beer or two there, and then took off to find a descent meal.
We got to this place by the peer, which seemed to be welcoming enough, and had pizza, and pasta dishes. We sat, ordered, and ate to our hearts delight. However we couldn't help but noticing how arrogant these Italians were. The waiter, yes him, was all ready to get insulted if someone ordered something slightly changed from his mamas recipe. And they also pretended to not speak English and kept talking to us in Italian.... GRRRRRRR
Anyways, we called it an early night, because the next day was going to be even rougher.
The second day, the teams' captain and I, as GM, were supposed to be at this, what we thought to be, informal meeting with all the other teams captains/managers for a meet and greet. We were wondering the streets of Trieste for about 30 or so minutes (thank you Martha for the great directions... we really would not have found it without you), before entering the municipality building....There and after a lot of hand gestures, they led us to this conference room... Now we thought this was going to be a meet and greet, so conference room, municipality building just didn't strike us as normal... So asking around, we made sure that we were at the right place. Shortly after photo cams, video cams, reporters and the second in command in the municipality appear! We are sitting there completely out of our waters wondering wth was going on!
The conference started and the only team reps were us and from the local team. Get this... the conference was 1 hour long... in ITALIAN. So we are sitting there listening to them blabbing on about this, and heard our team mentioned a couple of times, and that, in a different language.
Also, completely not dressed for the occasion our team captain had moments where he could not contain his laugh because of the insanity of the situation... Cameras were focusing on us for some reason and my advice to the team captain (as taught by the meetings in Canada)... shut up, nod, and smile... also laugh when they do! And so the meeting was concluded with us having said nothing, being filmed by foreign media, and just sitting there, looking pretty.
We took off, kind of pissed off, because we figured that they would be accommodating and at least provide a translator to help us with our everyday things. Alas! That was futile enough. Our rough schedule included, practice later that day so the captain gave the team leave to do what they want till 16:00. At 16.00 we met up at the lobby, and had arranged for our gear to get transferred from the rink we were at the day before to the rink we were going to be at the second day. Reason? If we hadn't done so, we would have to carry our gear in the public bus, since there was no bus designated for our moves. So once again, the sassy 25 year old interpreter student at the reception, Martha, came to our rescue! She gave us directions on taking the bus and called them to make sure she had the right info for us to get there.
We boarded the number 10 bus. I had to make sure to ask the driver where to get off, and how to get to the arena. So I walk up to the driver and to my surprise, this beautiful looking girl... and I am talking set-phasers-to-kill-not-stun beautiful, is driving the bus. She was willing to help us out, and struggled with her English, but she was beyond accommodating. She even called her sister on the cell, and told her what to tell me in English because she had forgotten the words! Not a long ride after, we arrive at our stop and Sara, the bus driver, drew out a sketch with directions to the arena. She asked me if I would be playing at the game and told her I am a gm :) hahah yeah... I used that line... it seemed to have worked because then she proceeded giving me her number, and got a promise out of her that she would come see the games the following day :)))
So, getting dressed once more for practice, and watching the local team at their practice. We look around at the stands, and sure enough we see a few Greek flags waving... the Greek immigrants found out that we were going to be participating and they came to watch us! We were surprised and I know all of us were very touched by it. We also found out about a Greek restaurant in town... turns out it was not that far away from our meeting earlier that morning! Practice came and went and we stuck around for an opening ceremony that never happened.
Once again, pissed off, we took the bus back to town to grab a bite. By now it was 21:00. We made our way to the Greek place to simply stop by and say hi. there, a guy outside the store, started greeting us in Greek... after shortly chatting with him, we understood that he was packed and couldn't fit 13 people in the store so he basically took us by the hand and led us to the next best restaurant, which was of course Italian... he made the arrangements in Italian, and shortly after we were enjoying great food. Massimo, the cook, and Juliette... the hostess even gave us free beer, and a few free pizzas, as we were waiting for Massimos, homestyle ragu.
Food was great! We headed back to our hotel with our bellies full, and feeling a new sense of responsibility to at least score and try harder for the Greek people in Trieste.
26/10/2009
The next day we had our first official games. French team of Villeneuve and the hosts Trieste. Our schedule looked very rough with the first game starting at 12 and the second game starting at 15:00. That meant an hour and a half rest between games.
Starting with the French they were true pros. They had strength and power, agility and they beat us fair and square. A very rough beginning for us but the guys had fun and as expected, they won, we lost. Not really much else to say other than the score: 15-1
Prior to the game with Trieste, I talked to Roberto in an effort to arrange transportation to the airport. We had reached an agreement for our transportation and shook hands for a good game. The hosts as a team were good. However it seemed that they underestimated us. The first half was the best we ever played and it ended up tied at 4-4. In the locker room, we could hear the Italians swearing, throwing sticks around and general chaos. We were sitting, telling jokes and generally were quite excited with the game. Second half the Italians came out all guns blazing. We were expecting it but they started playing a little bit dirtier but no matter. The game ended up with 13-5 in their favor. Tina, one of the referees, had two of their goals canceled because they were illegal and also ejected a player from the game, because he was not in the game roster to begin with.
Later that day, Pavel, the FIRS representative showed us the score sheet, and the stats in general but someone else from the game advised us that we can protest the game because of the use of that illegal player IF we could prove that he was part of the game until he got ejected. To our surprise we saw that he had scored the first goal! So after discussing with the team I had to set the wheels in motion for our protest to go through. If our protest was deemed successful, the game would have been ours with a score of 1-0.
I wrote a letter of protest and submitted it to Pavel, along with my personal feeling on the matter. I was there as a representative of the teams interests so whether I felt bad or not protesting had nothing to really do with it. The professionalism however was not reciprocated by the Italians, as I will explain later on.
Apparently the Italians were panicking so much about the fact that we submitted a protest, that the there were no officials at their posts because they were all discussing what would happen with the protest. The non-Italian assigned officials (refs and FIRS representative... including an Italian assigned Greek doctor, who acted as a translator for us.. by accident) had to interrupt the following game for 10 or so minutes until the organizers were found and had people assigned to their post!!!!
A fun note on the game, however, was that the local Greek orthodox priest had come to watch the game along with a few more Greeks. It seemed that the word was going around that we were in town and more people wanted to come and support us :). The funniest thing was that after the Greek national anthem was heard the priest started blessing the team and in true Greek style he started praying for them... I think someone up there heard him because as I mentioned before our first half with the Italians was awesome!
After our games were concluded and the captain and I, tended to all the post game formalities, signing game sheets and what not, we went back to our hotel rooms where we once again took a nap and then went out for food. This time, as he had promised to Myron, we went to his tavern... the Greek place. We had enough with the Italians by the end of the day and wanted some good food, and better yet someone who could understand us. By the way... if you are ever in Trieste, go to Time Out. The best place for food.
It had just so happened that Myronas' partner was a supporter of the football, and basketball divisions of our team and was from our home town of Thessaloniki! Unfortunately he was at Thessaloniki at the time but we got to talk to him on the phone, and he told Myron to bust out the team flag and ordered him to force us to sign it! What a great experience.... I just can't describe it in words.
As for the food itself... Myron had prepared a feast! Four different kinds of salads, for each of us (13 people in total), followed by kebab, dolma, gyros, souvlaki, desert, beers, ouzo. And each was an entree for individual players. By the end we were freaking out because we did not know if we had enough money to pay for it. Myron came with the "bill" and basically broke it down to us, and told us to just pay 15 euros per person and the rest is on the house. We are talking for food around the order of 400 euros. Pictures were taken, goodbyes were said, and a big thank you for the hospitality, before we parted ways.
Drunken, full, and tired once more, we stumbled around the streets of Trieste were we met more Greek people, who after hanging out with them a bit, pointed the way to the best gelaterie in town. Great gelato indeed... from what I remember. Once again with our bellies full, we returned to our hotel. Gler, "Tall", Phil and I had the best conversation EVER on the way to the hotel. I don't think I have ever laughed that hard. Kudos to you sirs for the good times :)
The next day was ROUGH! Our first game was with the Swiss, at 08.00 but the game did not start until 8:30 because the italian officials didn't show up until that time! I think the German guys in our team were still drunk :) . The game had to be one of the most passionate games I had ever seen. It was tough on both sides, but so much fun! And the Swiss were one of the best squad, character wise, in the tournament. Just pure awesomeness... the best thing was that the refs allowed the tough game, and we were playing ice hockey on wheels. Body checks, hits you name it! Kudos though to both teams because we got to hang out after the game. For the record, we lost once more to a vastly superior team, 15-3.
Our next game was at 12.00. That gave us a few hours to get our shit together and push for one last try. We had to face the Spaniards. Those guys are a league of their own. They have a huge following in their home country and their federation has done wonders. Ice hockey is less popular than roller hockey apparently. The coach had approached us the day before and we discussed organizational issues etc. He gave us some great ideas, and I am looking forward to working with him so that we can get the ball rolling, figure of speech, here in Greece. Prior to the game we had agreed that the game was going to be fun. They had no reason to demolish us, and we wanted to use players that were not that good, and had little play time since it was our last game.
Again, prior to the game, the Greeks started marching in! This time they came straight from Sunday mass, and it was just a sight to be beheld. A small contingency of them led by the priest dressed in the typical Greek orthodox fashion, with a HUGE gold cross coming down his neck, and about 20 or so people in the back cheering and holding Greek flags. Amongst them students from Greece that were at the local university... ;).
I went introduced myself to those who did not know me, and got to talking with the people around. Got some emails, and they offered next time we go there, for them to pay for our stay! Awesome!
The game itself was average. You could tell both of us were tired, and just wanted it to be over. We lost 7 to 4, but the Greek fans seemed to have enjoyed the game even though they had no idea that hockey existed! So much fun hearing the priest trying so hard not to swear... even funnier when one of the ladies there asked him in an intense moment... "Where should they go father?"... Having thought of the answer in my head, (... they can go to hell) just made me burst out laughing.
Soon after the game was over, I made my way back to the locker rooms to make take care of some things before we started packing to take off. Our flight was set for 19.00.
Now this is where it got complicated. Before the game with the Spaniards, I went to talk to Roberto (the Italian manager, who I later found out was the team president), to ask what arrangements were made in regards to transportation to the airport. He told me that no arrangements were made and there were problems in regards to our transportation. I started suspecting what sorts of "problems" were plaguing him.
Sure enough, he said it would be better to have a translator. So again, I went and found the doctor who was always willing to help out. I ask him to ask Roberto what the problem was. Here is the conversation is short form.
- What seems to be the problem?
- You submitted a protest against us, so there is no reason for me to drive you to the airport
- It is your responsibility as an organizer to take us from and to the airport.
- Maybe you should submit a protest for me not driving you to the airport.
- We were going to write a formal letter of complaint regardless, because this is by far the most pathetically organized tournament we ever had the misfortune of attending. You are unorganized, unprofessional, and you personally are acting like a child. I am afraid that we are not the only team that feels this way.
- Do whatever you want.
- We have no problem d--
- If you submit a letter of complaint you should know that we will charge you for arena rental for your practice and also charge you for travel expenses from the airport and for gear transportation.
- You can try and do so, however we have no recollection of such things happening and you have no receipts or other proof to charge us with that stuff... Also there are 13 of us versus 2 of you. So best of luck.
After that I left... basically fuming... Talked to FIRS, and they heard the complaints. Of course his version of the story said that he offered a "rental" fee to transport us and he said that we misunderstood. However nothing else was said and we will just try and deal with the bald idiot.
We ended up having to take taxis there, and pay a fee... not a big problem but mostly the way we were treated really pissed us off... and it also pissed off the Greek community which is head of the largest local paper in circulation, and wanted a written version of the story, so that they can run an article on him. In addition to that, the bald idiot ejected the head of the paper from the spectator seats because he had no ticket (FYI no tickets were required to view the games) :) haha. Don't mess with us! At the airport the French team said that they were going to write a letter of complaint as well, and after hearing how he had treated us, they were going to include organizational issues.
Our trip back was not an easy one either. The Italian opted out to use their weight threshold for people for the trip and ended up not putting any luggage in the plane because it was going to be heavy. So... they left all our gear, and all other luggage's from different passengers in Italy. Do yourself...a favor and NEVER fly Alitalia.
31/10/2009
The last days in October went by really calm... I got over a bit of a stomach cold, courtesy of the rain we found in Italy. I got my enlist paper from the army declaring officialy, where, and when i am supposed to show up. So, for the month of November i am not sure if i will be able to update the blog with all the details, but it really should make for an interesting write up, since starting november 9th i am offically a member of the Greek army! Yeah, my mum is one proud lady... she already started sewing decals on the clothing i am supposed to take with me :)
Lastly, i will try and add tunes that i like over the months. I know that most of them will not agree with your tastes, but keep an open mind :) ... Also as my good friend Marc Beauchamp pointed out, you guys can subscribe to the feed of the blog. That way i won't have to send an annoying email out to notify you of any changes.
As always, cheers to all reading, and i would like to hear from ya!
P.S. Some pictures from Italy can be found at http://www.emperor.gr/gallery/index.php?cat=41
This months blog has soooo much stuff in it. My guess is that most of you would be reading this on a slow Monday, or the cold Sunday morning. My tip; Read it whenever. Just be ready for LONG LONG post. The number in the title is not by accident :P This month, i have written it in a diary style. By that i mean that i have written the dates, and all the events described have taken place in days past. The wordings might be off, but that is because i tried to rewrite it in a cohesive wall of text, until i realised how futile my struggle would have been. So, grab a hot cup of coffee, tea, chocolate, or whatever else tickles your fancy (Mr. Orchard, i hope i got the phrase right!) and enjoy, or choose to write very angry emails for having you reading this.
6/10/2009
Election time in Greece is always huge... October 4th was Election Day for us, and lo and behold the liberal party won. I am not at all surprised by that, since it seems that the conservative party really did make a botch of things. What surprises me is the amount of dedication people have to a particular party. I don't want to say it angers me, but at some point it really does start to piss me off... To support ideas is one thing, but to blindly follow a party more out of loyalty is quite another.
After the exit polls took place and they announced the result of the election, a good majority of the people were out on the streets celebrating the way Toronto would have celebrated if the leafs won the Stanley cup :). Note that most likely the same people will be out protesting the new government (or even blame it if a flood or any other natural disaster occurs), by closing down streets, throwing Molotov at police etc. Greece is one of the countries where the same citizen that voted for the government is out on the streets protesting it the very next day: P
14/10/2009
I arrived in Athens on the 13th after a killer ride. The roads were great and I left early enough to avoid all traffic from trucks and cars. After arriving... being dead tired, I presented to my sister the famed puppy. I also brought the other puppy with because my friend here said her mother would take it. After getting some rest, I ended up taking the electric train to Peireas, to meet up with my friend. I gave her the puppy and chaos ensued... her mother was ecstatic and kept thanking me. My plan kind of backfired though, and my friend started busting out the wine. We ended up staying up late, and after a being up for about 24 hours including a 6 hour drive, and also having drunk a few cups of wine, I returned to my place being a wreck. Slept for most of the day and ended up trying to do some stuff around the house to help my sister out, who apparently is out for beers now, as I am dog sitting: P
20/10/2009
I returned to Thessaloniki on the 20th. Woke up at 4 to take the car, and myself, back home. Had a bit of trouble sleeping but nothing out of the ordinary. I said my goodbyes to my sister and the pup in that order, and took off... Getting out of Athens was easy enough thanks to Google maps and Rania who let me print it :). What a beautiful sight it made just driving in the night and watching the sun rising over the mountains and just further along watching it glisten over the blue sea. It was quite the sight and was really enjoying the tunes playing and the ride. I was about an hour or two away from Thessaloniki when I noticed some weird behavior in the car. It was steering me directly to the right and I found myself turning the wheel further and further left to keep in the lane. I realize something is amiss and I better pull off to the side. As I am starting to pull I see smoke coming out of the front of the car .,. Yes I got a flat tire.
Not a big deal I thought, I'll call up the folks and tell them I am running behind schedule and just change the tire. I take out my cell and in pure Petros style; it really came as no surprise to see that I was out of battery. I start giggling as it is known I appreciate irony. "Oh!" I thought. "What else do you have in stock for me?"...I wondered as I lifted my stare up to the heavens. "No matter" I muttered, "I'll just change the tire and be on my merry way".
HA! As if that would happen! I proceeded to take out the spare tire and the jack to lift the car. I started lifting the car with no real issues till I realize that it would have been smarter (DUH!) of me to just loosen the bolts while the car was on the ground. I lower the car. I put the leaver in to loosen the bolts... I give it a good hard push... didn't even nudge it. At this point I can hear the almighty laughing and crying out "EAT IT!" Muttering made up curse words, I start positioning the leaver in such a way I can put more weight under it. So I jump on it. "Take that" I start yelling putting 130 pounds of fury on the leaver. All the good it did me, the One above basically gave me the hint to go call road service. Thankfully, I remembered I saw a cantina, on the side of the street, few km back. Having no cell available, what is a man to do? So I walked the one or two kilometers back to the cantina, where a surprised owner gave me his cell and I managed to get road side assistance.
Having had my tire changed, I proceed to make my way back to Thessaloniki... lo and behold, an hour and twenty minutes later I am at home ready to say hello to my folks who have surely missed me this whole week..... Or so I thought! I entered the house in a hail of adjectives about having my cell phone off. I also had to dodge a couple of slippers...
My day was far from over though. I finally got some news about my military time! I will be serving in the artillery division starting in a city called Thiva. I'd like to see their reactions if they find out I couldn't loosen the bolts of a tire a few days ago :)
OH! Trip to Italy incoming. Also got my team uniform. Apparently I have been upgraded from assistant GM to GM since the original GM had to cancel! Oh fun! I have no idea what to do but it is really exciting. I'll just do what I do best; wing it. Also there are rumors of news papers writing daily articles about us for the duration we are there! sounds like fun although I am sad to say that we are up against people that play for a living, and we are just guys that get together play a game and then go out for beers :) so ... no... We are not really in the same level.
24/10/2009
Third day in Italy. We arrived here 2 days ago and were caught off-guard by the weather. Rain greeted us along with our bus drivers that were supposed to take us to our hotel. For a champion's league tournament, they surely are unorganized. In Trieste there are VERY few people that are actually able to communicate in English! So we arrive, and after about a 30 min bus ride, we find ourselves in the city of Trieste. Trieste is a beautiful city, and it really does remind me of Thessaloniki, with the mountains on one side and the port on the other. And the ladies.... omg, fantastic!...
We get to the hotel where we are greeted by Martha. A 25 year old Italian girl full of laughs and the only person who can communicate in English so far. We take our leaves to the rooms so we can shower and relax and then meet up the lobby so that we can tour the city for a bit, and head off to practice. The people from the tournament took care of moving our gear to the rink where we would be practicing. After having to take the public bus to our destination, yes the public bus!... just read on.... , the players get in gear and they start practicing. While our practice was going on, Roberto, a middle age Italian man, who fancies himself a manager, is probably trying to make an extra buck and books us in a restaurant for dinner. After specifically asking him for a place that has a variety of pasta dishes, he books us at a fish tavern. WTF? We were too hungry and too tired to put up with it... so we had a beer or two there, and then took off to find a descent meal.
We got to this place by the peer, which seemed to be welcoming enough, and had pizza, and pasta dishes. We sat, ordered, and ate to our hearts delight. However we couldn't help but noticing how arrogant these Italians were. The waiter, yes him, was all ready to get insulted if someone ordered something slightly changed from his mamas recipe. And they also pretended to not speak English and kept talking to us in Italian.... GRRRRRRR
Anyways, we called it an early night, because the next day was going to be even rougher.
The second day, the teams' captain and I, as GM, were supposed to be at this, what we thought to be, informal meeting with all the other teams captains/managers for a meet and greet. We were wondering the streets of Trieste for about 30 or so minutes (thank you Martha for the great directions... we really would not have found it without you), before entering the municipality building....There and after a lot of hand gestures, they led us to this conference room... Now we thought this was going to be a meet and greet, so conference room, municipality building just didn't strike us as normal... So asking around, we made sure that we were at the right place. Shortly after photo cams, video cams, reporters and the second in command in the municipality appear! We are sitting there completely out of our waters wondering wth was going on!
The conference started and the only team reps were us and from the local team. Get this... the conference was 1 hour long... in ITALIAN. So we are sitting there listening to them blabbing on about this, and heard our team mentioned a couple of times, and that, in a different language.
Also, completely not dressed for the occasion our team captain had moments where he could not contain his laugh because of the insanity of the situation... Cameras were focusing on us for some reason and my advice to the team captain (as taught by the meetings in Canada)... shut up, nod, and smile... also laugh when they do! And so the meeting was concluded with us having said nothing, being filmed by foreign media, and just sitting there, looking pretty.
We took off, kind of pissed off, because we figured that they would be accommodating and at least provide a translator to help us with our everyday things. Alas! That was futile enough. Our rough schedule included, practice later that day so the captain gave the team leave to do what they want till 16:00. At 16.00 we met up at the lobby, and had arranged for our gear to get transferred from the rink we were at the day before to the rink we were going to be at the second day. Reason? If we hadn't done so, we would have to carry our gear in the public bus, since there was no bus designated for our moves. So once again, the sassy 25 year old interpreter student at the reception, Martha, came to our rescue! She gave us directions on taking the bus and called them to make sure she had the right info for us to get there.
We boarded the number 10 bus. I had to make sure to ask the driver where to get off, and how to get to the arena. So I walk up to the driver and to my surprise, this beautiful looking girl... and I am talking set-phasers-to-kill-not-stun beautiful, is driving the bus. She was willing to help us out, and struggled with her English, but she was beyond accommodating. She even called her sister on the cell, and told her what to tell me in English because she had forgotten the words! Not a long ride after, we arrive at our stop and Sara, the bus driver, drew out a sketch with directions to the arena. She asked me if I would be playing at the game and told her I am a gm :) hahah yeah... I used that line... it seemed to have worked because then she proceeded giving me her number, and got a promise out of her that she would come see the games the following day :)))
So, getting dressed once more for practice, and watching the local team at their practice. We look around at the stands, and sure enough we see a few Greek flags waving... the Greek immigrants found out that we were going to be participating and they came to watch us! We were surprised and I know all of us were very touched by it. We also found out about a Greek restaurant in town... turns out it was not that far away from our meeting earlier that morning! Practice came and went and we stuck around for an opening ceremony that never happened.
Once again, pissed off, we took the bus back to town to grab a bite. By now it was 21:00. We made our way to the Greek place to simply stop by and say hi. there, a guy outside the store, started greeting us in Greek... after shortly chatting with him, we understood that he was packed and couldn't fit 13 people in the store so he basically took us by the hand and led us to the next best restaurant, which was of course Italian... he made the arrangements in Italian, and shortly after we were enjoying great food. Massimo, the cook, and Juliette... the hostess even gave us free beer, and a few free pizzas, as we were waiting for Massimos, homestyle ragu.
Food was great! We headed back to our hotel with our bellies full, and feeling a new sense of responsibility to at least score and try harder for the Greek people in Trieste.
26/10/2009
The next day we had our first official games. French team of Villeneuve and the hosts Trieste. Our schedule looked very rough with the first game starting at 12 and the second game starting at 15:00. That meant an hour and a half rest between games.
Starting with the French they were true pros. They had strength and power, agility and they beat us fair and square. A very rough beginning for us but the guys had fun and as expected, they won, we lost. Not really much else to say other than the score: 15-1
Prior to the game with Trieste, I talked to Roberto in an effort to arrange transportation to the airport. We had reached an agreement for our transportation and shook hands for a good game. The hosts as a team were good. However it seemed that they underestimated us. The first half was the best we ever played and it ended up tied at 4-4. In the locker room, we could hear the Italians swearing, throwing sticks around and general chaos. We were sitting, telling jokes and generally were quite excited with the game. Second half the Italians came out all guns blazing. We were expecting it but they started playing a little bit dirtier but no matter. The game ended up with 13-5 in their favor. Tina, one of the referees, had two of their goals canceled because they were illegal and also ejected a player from the game, because he was not in the game roster to begin with.
Later that day, Pavel, the FIRS representative showed us the score sheet, and the stats in general but someone else from the game advised us that we can protest the game because of the use of that illegal player IF we could prove that he was part of the game until he got ejected. To our surprise we saw that he had scored the first goal! So after discussing with the team I had to set the wheels in motion for our protest to go through. If our protest was deemed successful, the game would have been ours with a score of 1-0.
I wrote a letter of protest and submitted it to Pavel, along with my personal feeling on the matter. I was there as a representative of the teams interests so whether I felt bad or not protesting had nothing to really do with it. The professionalism however was not reciprocated by the Italians, as I will explain later on.
Apparently the Italians were panicking so much about the fact that we submitted a protest, that the there were no officials at their posts because they were all discussing what would happen with the protest. The non-Italian assigned officials (refs and FIRS representative... including an Italian assigned Greek doctor, who acted as a translator for us.. by accident) had to interrupt the following game for 10 or so minutes until the organizers were found and had people assigned to their post!!!!
A fun note on the game, however, was that the local Greek orthodox priest had come to watch the game along with a few more Greeks. It seemed that the word was going around that we were in town and more people wanted to come and support us :). The funniest thing was that after the Greek national anthem was heard the priest started blessing the team and in true Greek style he started praying for them... I think someone up there heard him because as I mentioned before our first half with the Italians was awesome!
After our games were concluded and the captain and I, tended to all the post game formalities, signing game sheets and what not, we went back to our hotel rooms where we once again took a nap and then went out for food. This time, as he had promised to Myron, we went to his tavern... the Greek place. We had enough with the Italians by the end of the day and wanted some good food, and better yet someone who could understand us. By the way... if you are ever in Trieste, go to Time Out. The best place for food.
It had just so happened that Myronas' partner was a supporter of the football, and basketball divisions of our team and was from our home town of Thessaloniki! Unfortunately he was at Thessaloniki at the time but we got to talk to him on the phone, and he told Myron to bust out the team flag and ordered him to force us to sign it! What a great experience.... I just can't describe it in words.
As for the food itself... Myron had prepared a feast! Four different kinds of salads, for each of us (13 people in total), followed by kebab, dolma, gyros, souvlaki, desert, beers, ouzo. And each was an entree for individual players. By the end we were freaking out because we did not know if we had enough money to pay for it. Myron came with the "bill" and basically broke it down to us, and told us to just pay 15 euros per person and the rest is on the house. We are talking for food around the order of 400 euros. Pictures were taken, goodbyes were said, and a big thank you for the hospitality, before we parted ways.
Drunken, full, and tired once more, we stumbled around the streets of Trieste were we met more Greek people, who after hanging out with them a bit, pointed the way to the best gelaterie in town. Great gelato indeed... from what I remember. Once again with our bellies full, we returned to our hotel. Gler, "Tall", Phil and I had the best conversation EVER on the way to the hotel. I don't think I have ever laughed that hard. Kudos to you sirs for the good times :)
The next day was ROUGH! Our first game was with the Swiss, at 08.00 but the game did not start until 8:30 because the italian officials didn't show up until that time! I think the German guys in our team were still drunk :) . The game had to be one of the most passionate games I had ever seen. It was tough on both sides, but so much fun! And the Swiss were one of the best squad, character wise, in the tournament. Just pure awesomeness... the best thing was that the refs allowed the tough game, and we were playing ice hockey on wheels. Body checks, hits you name it! Kudos though to both teams because we got to hang out after the game. For the record, we lost once more to a vastly superior team, 15-3.
Our next game was at 12.00. That gave us a few hours to get our shit together and push for one last try. We had to face the Spaniards. Those guys are a league of their own. They have a huge following in their home country and their federation has done wonders. Ice hockey is less popular than roller hockey apparently. The coach had approached us the day before and we discussed organizational issues etc. He gave us some great ideas, and I am looking forward to working with him so that we can get the ball rolling, figure of speech, here in Greece. Prior to the game we had agreed that the game was going to be fun. They had no reason to demolish us, and we wanted to use players that were not that good, and had little play time since it was our last game.
Again, prior to the game, the Greeks started marching in! This time they came straight from Sunday mass, and it was just a sight to be beheld. A small contingency of them led by the priest dressed in the typical Greek orthodox fashion, with a HUGE gold cross coming down his neck, and about 20 or so people in the back cheering and holding Greek flags. Amongst them students from Greece that were at the local university... ;).
I went introduced myself to those who did not know me, and got to talking with the people around. Got some emails, and they offered next time we go there, for them to pay for our stay! Awesome!
The game itself was average. You could tell both of us were tired, and just wanted it to be over. We lost 7 to 4, but the Greek fans seemed to have enjoyed the game even though they had no idea that hockey existed! So much fun hearing the priest trying so hard not to swear... even funnier when one of the ladies there asked him in an intense moment... "Where should they go father?"... Having thought of the answer in my head, (... they can go to hell) just made me burst out laughing.
Soon after the game was over, I made my way back to the locker rooms to make take care of some things before we started packing to take off. Our flight was set for 19.00.
Now this is where it got complicated. Before the game with the Spaniards, I went to talk to Roberto (the Italian manager, who I later found out was the team president), to ask what arrangements were made in regards to transportation to the airport. He told me that no arrangements were made and there were problems in regards to our transportation. I started suspecting what sorts of "problems" were plaguing him.
Sure enough, he said it would be better to have a translator. So again, I went and found the doctor who was always willing to help out. I ask him to ask Roberto what the problem was. Here is the conversation is short form.
- What seems to be the problem?
- You submitted a protest against us, so there is no reason for me to drive you to the airport
- It is your responsibility as an organizer to take us from and to the airport.
- Maybe you should submit a protest for me not driving you to the airport.
- We were going to write a formal letter of complaint regardless, because this is by far the most pathetically organized tournament we ever had the misfortune of attending. You are unorganized, unprofessional, and you personally are acting like a child. I am afraid that we are not the only team that feels this way.
- Do whatever you want.
- We have no problem d--
- If you submit a letter of complaint you should know that we will charge you for arena rental for your practice and also charge you for travel expenses from the airport and for gear transportation.
- You can try and do so, however we have no recollection of such things happening and you have no receipts or other proof to charge us with that stuff... Also there are 13 of us versus 2 of you. So best of luck.
After that I left... basically fuming... Talked to FIRS, and they heard the complaints. Of course his version of the story said that he offered a "rental" fee to transport us and he said that we misunderstood. However nothing else was said and we will just try and deal with the bald idiot.
We ended up having to take taxis there, and pay a fee... not a big problem but mostly the way we were treated really pissed us off... and it also pissed off the Greek community which is head of the largest local paper in circulation, and wanted a written version of the story, so that they can run an article on him. In addition to that, the bald idiot ejected the head of the paper from the spectator seats because he had no ticket (FYI no tickets were required to view the games) :) haha. Don't mess with us! At the airport the French team said that they were going to write a letter of complaint as well, and after hearing how he had treated us, they were going to include organizational issues.
Our trip back was not an easy one either. The Italian opted out to use their weight threshold for people for the trip and ended up not putting any luggage in the plane because it was going to be heavy. So... they left all our gear, and all other luggage's from different passengers in Italy. Do yourself...a favor and NEVER fly Alitalia.
31/10/2009
The last days in October went by really calm... I got over a bit of a stomach cold, courtesy of the rain we found in Italy. I got my enlist paper from the army declaring officialy, where, and when i am supposed to show up. So, for the month of November i am not sure if i will be able to update the blog with all the details, but it really should make for an interesting write up, since starting november 9th i am offically a member of the Greek army! Yeah, my mum is one proud lady... she already started sewing decals on the clothing i am supposed to take with me :)
Lastly, i will try and add tunes that i like over the months. I know that most of them will not agree with your tastes, but keep an open mind :) ... Also as my good friend Marc Beauchamp pointed out, you guys can subscribe to the feed of the blog. That way i won't have to send an annoying email out to notify you of any changes.
As always, cheers to all reading, and i would like to hear from ya!
P.S. Some pictures from Italy can be found at http://www.emperor.gr/gallery/index.php?cat=41
Sounds like you has an awesome adventure in Italy!! Good luck for the army - I can just see you getting out of there as a buff 180 lbs Greek stud!!
ReplyDelete-Roopak
Great adventures as always Petros! As it happens I'm headed to Italy (Milan) in 2 days myself! But alas only to enjoy all things Italian, not lodge protests! I had no idea that roller hockey tournaments even existed.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, hope you have a good introduction to the army and that your return to Greece continues to brighten your days.
Ash
Wait a minute...
ReplyDelete"I start yelling putting 130 pounds of fury on the leaver."
Unless you were wearing some seriously heavy pants then I smell something suspicious.
Also I want to know what happened with Sara, did she come to watch any of the games, did you call her? Spill spill spill!!!!
Also grats on the army papers, artillery sounds pretty interesting
Man, you certainly went through some interesting times! Has there always been some sort of Greek-Italian rivalry going on - kinda like the anglo-franco one between Ontario and Quebec?
ReplyDeleteI don't know what Roopak means in his comment above: I think you already ARE a Greek stud! :-D
Have a great time and hope your experience at the army is useful.
Well, Italians did get their asses kicked by us in WWII! hehe
ReplyDeleteTimes certainly were "interesting" in Trieste. I can't speak for the rest of Italy, but overall i can say that it seems to be alot of hype. I hope Milan treats you better that Trieste treated us, Ash.
And yah.. i gained SOME weight.. either that, or my wallet turned to George Constanza size again (sp?) *checking...* no it seems normal enough :P
As for Sara, nothing happened that could be told over a public blog.. damn brits and their tabloid mentality :P
Sami, thanks man.. leave it to the french guy to watch your "back" (is that even a good thing? :) ) But seriously bud, congrats on the beautiful daughter :)
6 days and counting for the military!
On a side note.. i really have to find a way to get some pictures up from recent shenanigans.