When we arrived at the airport, we got our bags sorted and checked in. Apparently Jet2.com was supposed to make me bring my bag to a luggage checkpoint—but the lady behind the desk fancied me and told me with a wink she would let it pass because “I looked tired”.
We boarded the plane quite early actually and as usual, I fell asleep before we took off and we were still on the tarmac when I woke up. The flight was nice, with a bit of turbulence in between to wake me up. We arrived in Prague about 10;15 GMT+1.
This was my moment of truth. I remembered how customs in Germany questioned me on every little detail and I hoped it wasn’t going to the same; it was. Though, the pretty, young gal behind the customs desk seemed to just want to keep me there as long as possible, asking me question after question.
The attention… jeez! Only joking though! :]
After everyone made it thru customs and we collected our bags, we headed to find the bus that would transport us to the train station. I’m surprised we fit 11 hockey players and 11 hockey bags on that bus along with the other passengers.
None the less, we arrived at the station and be it out luck, everyone wanted to speak Czech to us. Ordering my meal at Burger King was some ordeal… but I managed and fed myself at 109.00 CRK! D:
Since we were making great time, we were able to jump onboard the 12;51 train to Zlín. The fortunate bit was the train only had one change involved—that compared with the 13;17 train that had two.
We arrived into Zlín just after 5PM and were greeted by UTB Hockey Team captain, Michal Rudeky and Andrea. Right from the start, they were so appreciative that we made the journey to their town. When we had dropped off our hockey bags in the rectory, we were led to dinner; bread and a stuffed pepper of some sort of meat.
Right after dinner, our livers were quickly put to the test as we headed to the Jelínek distillery just outside of Zlín in Vizovice. We had a sampling of the fine liquors that the distillery has produced such as Slivovitz, Bohemia Plum Vodka, amongst others. The drinks were quite heavy, I must say.
Once we returned to the main town, we were invited out to the pub to spend time with a few UTB Hockey players and friends from Tomas Bata University. Instantly, we were all surrounded by people asking tons of questions – all of course were very friendly.
And look! They had a Guatemalan rum from Quetzaltenango. :'D
To conclude...
The main question on everyone’s mind? “Do you really have a girl as a goalie?” It would be the hot bed topic of for everyone across the duration: instant motivation.
