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We were really excited to be going to our JGP with Juris, and as we suspected, we ended up having a great time with him. Our journey started, as always, at the Pearson Airport in Mississauga. Two flights and a transfer in Frankfurt later, we had arrived to Bucharest, Romania's capital. No site seeing for us though: after picking up our luggage the whole Canadian team loaded on the bus for the 5 hour ride. We got to see every form of land from city, to farms, to mountains (of which we took many pictures), while forcing ourselves to stay awake after the exhausting plane ride. On our pit stop we also unfortunately and accidentally bought "Rotisserie Chicken" flavoured chips. Enough said...
After one of the longest journeys we'd ever been through, we were glad to finally arrive at the hotel. It was small, but very clean with nice rooms and fairly decent food. That did not mean it was varied: We ate scrambled eggs and yogurt every breakfast, and chicken, chopped up vegetables and rice every lunch and dinner. After dinner that night, it was time to go to bed.
The next afternoon, Petra had rented two hours of ice, and so we had our first practice, while all around us, the technicians and volunteers were busy installing the computers and cleaning the rink. Then, it was time for team dinner, where we had some of the most delicious pizza we'd ever tasted, and Paul helped himself to everyone's leftovers. The next day, the official practices started, where we did our free dance and OD run-throughs as well as our draw. Competition was coming fast.
The next morning we had our cha-cha practice where we sported our new costumes, of which Vanessa's dress got many compliments. Then we waited until late evening to compete, so we went to the gypsy market, followed by our new Romanian stalker that didn't speak English). The gypsies tried to sell us wild mushrooms, but we declined and ate ice cream instead. The cha-cha went quite well, with only a small slip on the restart, and we ended up in first, about a point ahead of the Russians. The next day was the OD, where we had a fabulous (this might not be a real word but oh well...), or should I say fabulash skate; we even remembered Juris' leg position that he always moans at us for forgetting. Once again we placed first, and we increased our lead over the Russians.
On Sunday, nerves were high as we prepared for our free dance. After an inexorable wait, with several walks through the park (that was across the street from the hotel), it was time to compete. Most things were quite good except for the butterfly turned into a moth (Vanessa kept her cool really well at this point) and Paul putting his foot down in the circular footwork (because he's useless). Later the Russians skated, as the girl's dress fell off (to the satisfaction of the majority of the male audience and the medical workers). We placed first with about a lead of eight points. Next followed the medals where the national anthem played (tear, tear). One show number, one encore and a drug test (for Vanessa) later, it was off to get ready for the banquet.
We got shoved into a dark room, where we had to eat standing up (which only lasted about 5 minutes), and could barely see what we were eating. This was followed by about an hour of photo taking, where there was much camera passing, smiling, and signalling in the case of language barriers. Finally, some of the rowdy eastern European skaters got the dancing going. A few hours of dancing (with various people) later, it was time to pack, sleep for a few hours, then load back onto the bus to head back to the airport (where one man slept in the alleyway of the bus). After a long journey in planes, trains and automobiles (except not trains), we had finally gotten back home.
We'd like to thank Juris for all his help and support during the week, especially for walking us through the park every day (though that's probably easier than walking Buddy), and for whatever else he does with his Russian mafia. We had a great time and hope we can go to another competition with him soon. Also, a special mention for Vanessa who was able to connect with her Romanian roots (as Jamie told her to do), and take a picture of the gypsies without getting her camera stolen. In any case, with that trip over, it's time to prepare for our next stop............Croatia.
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