I awoke this morning at a strange hour – 02:45 local time to be exact, hoping of course to catch the action of the world junior hockey final. It seemed it was intermission, from what I could make out in Czech, so I hit the iSnooze and awoke to the next digital jingle – just in time to catch the start of overtime, and the subsequent slaying of the Canadians off the stick of the young American. I went back to sleep, devastated. I had told my American journalist friends last night – over dinner at some tiny beer hall down some cobbled medieval lane - that they were sure to lose.
I remember sitting up five years ago in Granada, Spain, listening to Canada win their first in a string of five successive championships on the radio. I told the story of us celebrating the championship from Spain to a friend who was the goaltender of that championship team – we both that was pretty cool. Anyways, back to the point....
My day actually started at a more acceptable hour – 06:15 – when I awoke to get ready for a train trip into rural Bohemia. I grabbed a shower and a double espresso, and then ate my baguette breakfast at the tram stop, trying to stay warm as the snow came down again in seriously freezing temperatures.
