Day 4 Lightning Arrive in Helsinki

The team awakes to the Helsinki harbour and we meet for breakfast on the ship. After leaving the ship, a Finnish guide joins us on our bus for a guided tour of Helsinki. We see many of the sights, including the site of the 1952 Olympics, parliament buildings, large sports complexes and a very unusual church carved out of granite. Dynamite was used to blow out the walls and the end result is a very unique and interesting building.
We then arrive at our hotel in Helsinki to check in. It is a very nice hotel, located right across from the harbour where our cruise ship had docked this morning. It is also a short walk to the main City Centre. The snow is falling as is the temperature so we feel very much at home here. We have a few hours of free time so people take advantage of that to go have some lunch, shop and visit local sites such as churches, etc. Some people even went cross country skiing!
We meet in the hotel lobby at 4:30pm to board the bus to our next exhibition game, this time against Helsinki Ringette. When we arrive at the rink we are again warmly welcomed by the team’s coaches and parents. There are three ice pads, all with hockey being played. Ice hockey is a very popular sport the locals know the NHL pretty well, particularly with the Finnish players such as Vesa Toskala. We find out that the team we are about to play are actually a year older than us and tell us they are a very strong team. It looks like the girls will need their A game, as we see the Helsinki team outside warming up with a soccer ball, and then going through a variety of Aerobic activities. This game proved to be a much tougher one for the girls but we scored early and went on to a 6-2 win. The game was fast and a little rough but the referees kept it under control. It was interesting to see the different styles of play, with our aggressive fore checking catching the Fins off guard. Melissa Simone was selected as the Richmond Hill player of the game.
We spent some time talking to the Finnish parents after the game and they said that during the game they decided that they want to come to Canada to play in a tournament. This was another excellent experience for our girls and for the Finnish girls. They are very excited to play a team from Canada…or to quote one of the Finnish coaches before the game “our girls are very excited to beat a team from Canada”. They will have to wait a little longer to do that!

We returned to our hotel after the game and met for a late team dinner. Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve and a free day for us so the girls plan their various activities…some plan to go to a water park (indoors of course), others to the spa and others to some museums. Afterwards, the girls relaxed and headed to bed.

Day 3 in Stockholm

The third day marked the end of our stay in Stockholm. We checked out of our hotel in the morning and Ollie brought us to the City Centre where we split up and spent the next few hours of free time to do as we wished. Some girls shopped, some went to the Old Town, and others walked around exploring the city.
At 3pm we met back at the bus and headed to our cruise ship to make the 14 hour journey to Helsinki. The ship holds 2,800 people was well equipped with restaurants, bars and entertainment areas. Our bus comes on the ship with us so we do not need to worry about luggage or our Ringette equipment. That is a good thing since the rooms on the ships of pretty compact. There is also a duty free shop, it was interesting to see the Swedish and Finnish people buying up the beer and alcohol because it was so much cheaper on the boat…believe it or not there are countries with higher taxes than Canada!
We had dinner together and the girls then went about exploring the ship. The highlight seemed to be the Karaoke bar, where a group of the Richmond Hill Lightning showed their support for Sweden by getting up and singing ABBA’s Money, Money, Money. The parents could relate to that song as well, especially coming from the girls! There were many interesting people on board, including a group of teenage boys at the Karaoke bar that are probably still trying to figure out what Ringette is all about. There were also some live entertainment events, including a French Cabaret Show; we won’t go into too much detail on that one!!
Our tour continues to be very well organized, our driver very accommodating and the Scandinavian people very friendly…although Greg finds them all a little too tall.

Day 2 in Stockholm

After a good night’s sleep (for most people) the team met for breakfast and began the day. We boarded our bus and Ollie, with the help of a guide, took us on a City tour of Stockholm, giving us the opportunity to see many of the important sites. These sites include various museums, the location where the Nobel Awards are given out and the neighbourhood where Bjorn Borg and Tiger Woods have condominiums. Our first stop of the day was a visit to the Vasa Museum. This is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Sweden and everyone found it very interesting. The museum is dedicated to the Vasa, a Viking ship that was built in the 1660’s to much fanfare. Unfortunately it did not make it out of the harbour during its maiden voyage and sank within 15 minutes. Centuries later, crews were able to resurrect the ship and create a replica that is 95% original. It really was a fascinating stop and a view into an era 300 years ago.
From the museum, the girls were forced to go shopping in the main shopping district of Stockholm. Somehow they suffered through it. We are lucky enough to have Sarah’s dad Mohamed with us; he is from Sweden and provides free tourist tips to us. We had some lunch along the way and then boarded the bus to go to our first Exhibition game against Tikkakoski, a team from Finland. It was quite a sight to our girls walking into a rink dressed in their Canada sweaters. The Finnish team was made up of a variety of ages, many younger than our girls and the game was very one-sided as Richmond Hill won 11-1. Sarah Esmail was selected as the Top Richmond Hill player of the game. The game started with both the Canadian and Finnish National anthems being played, which was a new experience for our team. The Finnish girls were very excited to have played Canada and had many questions for us. At the end of the game, the Finnish girls were in our room getting their sticks signed and were just outstanding sports. It was an excellent experience for our girls, even though the game was not very competitive.
We arrived back at the hotel, showered and had a late dinner at the hotel. The girls played together for awhile and then went to bed.

Day 1 in Stockholm

Most girls arrived at the same time and made their way through customs. This was a very different experience than in North America...many of us walked through customs without even talking to anyone…just walked through a hall and came to the greeting area. It was a welcome sight for us to see our tour coordinator, Lauri, there waiting for us. We made our way outside the airport and to our Team bus…a very nice bus with large, comfortable seats. It was fun pulling our luggage and Ringette bags through the snow and since it was 3:30pm it was getting dark in Stockholm. We were introduced to Ollie, our team bus driver for our visit. Sabrina and Mary’s plane was delayed (apparently not because of Mary) so they arrived a few hours later.
We drove approximately 30 minutes to our hotel. The girls had dinner and spent the evening hanging out in the hotel, tobogganing outside and we made sure they got to bed at a reasonable hour to get their bodies used to the time difference.