Eurolanche

I missed my first game (2013/14)

The media attention of previous Eurolanche Invasions and their continuity reached its apex prior to the 2013-14 season. Furthermore, Patrick Roy came back to Denver and Joe Sakic received more competences. Therefore, it was no surprise that a then-record six participants took part in the Eurolanche Invasion VI. Rudo went for the second year in row, Norbert from Austria returned to Denver for the third time after two years and Ales and Ondrej from the Czech Republic, as well as Pavol from Slovakia made their premiere Invasion appearance. We all met on December 27 at the airport in Budapest. No, problems with finding the right terminal like during Invasion IV never occurred. I personally had to face whole new challenges. Our first flight brought us to Paris. Our flight to Minnesota was scheduled to depart in a few hours and we thought about spending the night at the airport in Paris. When we saw that it stayed true to its reputation as a dangerous place, we opted for plan B – to spend the night at the airport hotel.

Early next morning, we made our way back to the terminal. I suddenly saw a group of familiar faces at the departure hall. The familiar faces were those of two American fathers, about whom I wrote articles as a then- reporter of the Slovak daily newspaper Novy Cas. Short detour: both Americans were once married to a Slovak woman named Maria. She had a son from both marriages. She divorced both and didn’t want to allow her former husbands to have any contact with their sons. In 2012, she didn’t return from a vacation in Slovakia and the FBI had been looking for her ever since. She traveled all across Europe. God knows where she took the money to support this lifestyle of hers. The case found its way to my desk in fall 2013. I wrote countless articles about it and kept in touch with both fathers. It was the first case I covered. Maria was later found in France near the Swiss border. The court gave both kids into the custody of their respective father. And it was them I met right there at the airport in Paris! I bought my tickets to Denver two months before I even knew about the whole case. By the way, the American ABC also informed about the case in their show called 20/20, with me taking part in the segment’s production. I stopped by both fathers, while the rest of my Eurolanche group went ahead. When we finally boarded our plane, we had to wait on the runway for like an hour. I don’t know what caused the delay, but I’m sure we were all pretty furious. What if we don’t catch our flight in Minnesota?

Right after we successfully touched down and unbuckled our seatbelts, we jumped out of our seats, took our luggage as fast as we could and ran through the entire airport to the immigration control. Sorry for lying. Pavol and I unbuckled even before we were allowed to. The plane was just taxiing to gate as we jumped out of seats to get our hand luggage, which was pretty far away from our seats. The stewardesses shouted at us and told us that if this were an American airline, we would be in handcuffs right now. What were we supposed to do with only an hour left to board our next flight? The memories of our hectic travel escapades came all back to me. Mainly those from Invasion I, when we really didn’t catch our next flight. Back then, an hour also wasn’t enough. Knowing what to do and where to go, I led our group through all the halls and corridors. All of us made it through the immigration interview.Then we had to take our big travel bags and put them on another conveyor belt. The bags arrived one by one. My luggage was nowhere to be found. The guys from our group who found their bags boarded the plane to Denver following the re-hand-in of their luggage. All of a sudden, I was standing by the conveyor belt all by myself. There were only a handful of minutes remaining until the plane departed. I didn’t know what to do. My bag just wasn’t there. I couldn’t stand still, as I walked back and forth around all the belts. Like a madman. Norbert called me to say that the stewardess wanted to close the door to the plane and was asking if she should wait. In a matter of seconds, I decided to board the plane. I ran as fast as never before in my entire life. I made it to the plane and they closed the door right afterwards. It felt like a movie, yet it was cruel reality. I was so out of breath that I thought I was bleeding internally. I barely managed to ask the stewardess for something to drink. Although I made it to the plane in the last moment possible, I didn’t have my luggage. I was assured of it also upon our arrival to Denver. All five remaining Invasion VI participants had their luggage. I didn’t. I went to the returns desk, where the daughter of Czech immigrants fluent in Czech currently had her shift. The customer, whose lost luggage she was looking for from a different flight, was also Slovak. It felt like the beginning of a bad Two Slovaks and the daughter of Czech immigrants meet at a desk... joke. We both agreed what to do next and I left the airport without my beloved luggage.

In case you’re interested in the unabridged, colored PDF version of the book, contact us at eurolanche@eurolanche.com. The physical copies are all sold out.

 

An important tip – never put your valuables into your hold luggage, always keep them in your hand luggage. Me being a dumbass, I put the jersey I wanted to have signed by the players, as well as all the hockey cards, photos and something for the other Invasion participants in my lost travel bag. I haven’t seen it for four days. For two games, which meant two post-game meetings, I was left without anything for the players to sign. It was a disaster of epic proportions for me. I constantly kept calling the airline. I called them thinking that the helpline service is also free for European numbers. I was immediately corrected upon returning back from the US and seeing the phone bill for 550 euro. All for a travel bag. Great, don’t you think? Furthermore, the airline employees never game me any real information. The bag was there in one moment, then it was elsewhere a moment later. It was even on its way one time. After four days, I finally went to the airport and really found my lost bag. I almost cried. A sign reading ‘urgent’ was attached to the handle. A four-day urgency? Sadly, I didn’t have as much travel experience back then to know what my rights were as the owner of a travel bag lost for so long. In theory, I could’ve asked for money to cover the expenses of buying new clothes, but I was satisfied with the little cosmetic bag from the airline. The bag was finally home and I could begin my hunt for autographs, as well as to hand out promotional material.

From a fan point of view, the consequences were tragic. Each participant was forced to miss at least one game. I had to miss the last game of Invasion VI against the Ottawa Senators.Everyone knows what a die-hard Avalanche I am. That’s why you have to imagine how bad I felt that I was forced to miss my very first game. I felt so awful that I didn’t even regret it. Another pro tip – if your mothers stuff your bags with medicine, take everything you can. Back then, I didn’t take any for the first time ever. Served me right.

Although the Eurolanche Invasion VI began and ended with a disaster for me, I really enjoyed everything in between. During one of our rare days off, we went to Wyoming, which is north of Colorado, and visited its capital Cheyenne. It’s only inhabited by about 60,000 people and the entire state is the least populous and second least densely populated US state. It’s mainly dominated by its beautiful scenery, which we couldn’t really appreciate at the time. We felt more like we were in a small town, not in a state capital. Everything around us had a cowboy motive. The other guys visited the Winter Park resort while I experienced my biggest health issues, which they described as a great experience, just like the visit to the grave of Buffalo Bill with a beautiful view of Denver, or the town of Golden, where our old friend Andy took them. Luckily, he took charge of the group during the last critical days of the Invasion and was also their driver.

A standalone chapter of Invasion VI was a meeting with Scott Parker, which I arranged before we even arrived to Denver. It’s common knowledge that he’s the owner of a barbershop. At the time, it was located in Castle Rock near Denver. He welcomed us to his small, cozy barbershop, where he also had a tattoo studio and his own small career hall of fame. He lit a cigar in the dimly-lit room. It was magical to see him in an atmosphere resembling a horro rmovie. At the end of our interview, we took some funny pictures in the style of Parker’s gonna punch you in the mouth.

Invasion VI made me realize one important thing. The Eurolanche Fan Club became more and more renowned in the community of Colorado Avalanche fans. More and more of them stopped by to say hi to us either in the streets, or in the Pepsi Center. They took photos with us and wished us a pleasant trip. We were heading the right way, which helped us to publish our first and currently last article about a Eurolanche Invasion on the official Avalanche website.