|
We had the most incredible experience at our first Junior Grand Prix Final which took place in Gdansk, Poland. After qualifying in first place, it was a very difficult and intense competition but there were a great many things that we learnt from it.
The whole trip, as always, started at the Lester B. Pearson Airport in Toronto, where we had the chance to go in the Maple Leaf Lounge, with computers, internet, and unlimited food and drinks (AKA: Paul's heaven). After maximizing our time in the lounge we left to Munich, and then to Poland. Luckily, however, there wasn't another five hour bus ride afterwards. We quickly arrived to the hotel, which was generally nice other than the constant stench of smoke in almost every room. The food however, was usually very good, always including potatoes and usually some sort of perogy. We had a quick practice on the day of our arrival, in the Hala Olivia, which was decorated with H&M lingerie advertisements. In any case, the arena on the inside was very nice as well, especially the kiss and cry area which had a replica of Neptune's Fountain.
The next day was also one of practices, and in between the two we had a chance to go to the beach, about a five minute walk from the hotel. Given it was winter, the water was especially cold, even for the Baltic's standards. But that didn't stop these two crazy men in speedos from swimming. After Vanessa took numerous pictures, we headed back. At the end of the day we went to the opening ceremonies, which were located in a historic building of the old part of the city. They even took us through a tour outside before leading us to the building, this of course being the one time Paul forgot to bring his camera. They did the usual speeches, but afterwards a local choir did some marvellous singing including Queen and ABBA songs. Afterwards though, we had to rush back to the hotel to get our beauty-sleep for the coming day.
The next day we had our combined compulsory-OD-all-in-one-day competition. The compulsory was ok, but there was a slight bobble on the last restart, and we landed in fifth place. That night, however, we skated a good OD and managed to move back up to 4th, and get into the prestigious last-group for the freedance. Since there were no draws, we had to skate first in our group the next day, but we had a great skate, though it didn't catapult us on to the podium (of course, the 3rd team had a 12 point lead after the OD, so we weren't expecting to move up). We did keep our spot though, a 4th place finish at our first JGP Final. We were extremely happy with the result. We also got the opportunity to skate at the gala the following day.
That night, we left to the banquet, at which we stayed only half an hour, as the food was terrible, hardly resembling the food we had all week. After that narrow escape, we played a few games of air hockey, though we were unable to defeat our Canadian teammate, Amanda, a pairs skater. Then, we headed to the dance downstairs. It was a fun evening, but it was soon time for a very few precious hours of sleep before the journey home. We said goodbye to all our new friends from various countries, hoping to see them again in Bulgaria in February. It was great experience in the sense of international mingling, as all of the countries other than the U.S.A. and Russia had very small teams, which forced us to spend time with people of other nationalities.
We did not only meet other skaters, but we were joined also, as always, by Sally and Flat Eric, Carol's sister and brother-in-law. More surprising, however, was the presence of Juris' brother Valdis, who came from England. He was very nice, and just a younger, skinnier, darker-haired version of Juris. We were very glad to meet him, and to have all of them (as well as our parents) to cheer us on during the week. Also thank you to Mike, our team leader, Dr. Philpott, our team doctor, and especially to Carol and Juris for coming to share the experience with us. It was truly a very memorable trip and we hope to have another just as exciting time at our next competition. We can't wait until then.
|