Finally in Erzurum

Well here we are in Erzurum after close to 27 hours of straight traveling.  As you can imagine traveling with 44 players (between the men and women's teams) and probably 15 coaches, doctors and trainers this is no easy task.  We left Chicago at 3:25pm central time en route to Frankfurt, Germany which proved to be a pretty raucous trip as nobody could sleep due to excitement.  Once arriving in Germany we moved through another security check point and waited for about 2 hours to get on our plane to Istanbul, Turkey.

Soon enough peoples excitement began to fade as our body clocks told us it was late at night even though the sun was up.  Before long we were on our way to Istanbul which took us a few more grueling hours but it was only when we had arrived in Turkey with the whole group where we started to run into problems.  Our first flight to Erzurum had been cancelled which didn't really phase anyone but when we had to go through customs then grab our bags and move to the other end of the airport everyone started to get pretty grouchy.  It was like a small army of American hockey players pushing baggage carts full of bags and sticks past everyone to see us.  We were told to try and keep the attention off of ourselves overseas to keep a low profile but there was absolutely no way that was going to happen while wearing only our USA duds.  The real disaster started when we were getting our tickets to go to Erzurum and we were handing our passports to random airline workers who spoke minimal english.  After waiting in the most crowded area of the airport we soon caught wind that there passports missing and not everyone was going to make it on the same flight.  I was counting my lucky stars when I was handed both my passport and my ticket and told that I was on the first flight out.  We waited for HOURS for this debocle to be solved before we heard that just one of our coaches' passports had been lost and only two people would not be making the trip with us.

Finally we were told that we could go through yet another security check point and take the overcrowded bus to our plane.  We weaved through planes and luggage transports and finally arrived at our plane.  Once we had boarded it really hit me how big these games were going to be.  I sat next to Russian skiers, behind Polish curlers and in front of British athletes of various events and before I knew it I had passed out.  When I awoke 2 hours later I noticed that the plane had not moved an inch and people were still boarding which only aggravated me more but soon I was out again before I heard the pilot announce that we would be landing soon.

The airport in Erzurum was buzzing when we had all deplaned and reached the baggage claim.  Athletes and officials had packed the place and it was hard to think straight with all the yelling that was going on. After another grueling hour we had moved all of our bags to the buses and found out that we had missed our practice and would just be going to the rink to drop off our gear and check out the arena.  Once we were all loaded and our police escort had arrived we made the short trip to the arena and unloaded our stuff.  When we pulled up everyone went haywire at the sight of the place.  It was like going to the olympics but this time I was participating in it! The rink was incredible and as soon as we had our stuff in the locker room we were made aware that we WOULD be skating.  Once everyone had suited up and got onto the ice we skated about three laps when the lights began to go out row by row and soon we were on the ice in complete darkness, so we got off and got undressed and finally got to take a much needed shower.

Once we had left the rink and pulled up to the gates of the Olympic Village we unloaded one last time and went through our last security check point.  FINALLY we made it!  Although it was dark outside the place was aglow with lights and flags and music.  It was incredible and everyone was awestruck at the ski jump that was directly across from where we would be staying.  We drearily made our way to the cafeteria and found the place almost empty minus a few pots of soup and loads of bread which everyone greedily devoured.  Before long nobody could keep there eyes open and we made our way to bed.  Finally we were in Erzurum and everyone was thankful to be able to lie down and get some well deserved sleep.

Now that the sun is up and we are finally moving around its easy to see how big these games are going to be.  60 countries are participating and everyone is running around trying to get rid of their traveling legs.  I can't wait to get this thing going!  Stay tuned for more!