The Eurolanche book (14.)
Eurolanche will be gradually publishing the entire book about its history via its website throughout the summer.Freezing in Chicago (2014/15)
The number of participants of the Eurolanche Invasion VII once again surpassed the previous edition, which happened for the third time in row. Eight Eurolanche members took part in the Fan Club’s seventh overall trip and fifth in row. The constellation of the group was pretty uneven – seven Slovaks (me for the sixth, Rudo for the third and the remaining five for the first time) and one Austrian, who was none other than Norbert. The native of Hornstein near Vienna traveled to Denver for the fifth time. During all those years, he already managed to learn a little bit Slovak. Not only curses. We often told him something in Slovak, which he then really did. A true cultural exchange.
The interesting part of the Invasion VII group were our two female members. Although Tina, Norbert’s then-girlfriend and now wife, took part in Invasion III in 2010, we didn’t officially count her among the participants. Invasion VII was joined by Stanka, Juraj’s wife, and Michaela, a young fan. Officially, they became the first female Invasion participants. The entire group managed to meet prior to our flight to the US during our sixth member meeting. During a weekend in the north of Slovakia, we had enough time to get to know each other, as well as discuss how the upcoming trip should look like. The meeting once again included a nightly Avalanche game and even a cake with Eurolanche Invasion VII and a figure of an Avs player on top. From this moment on, we began to organize these types of meetings prior to each future trip to Colorado. I thought that it would be better if the group would meet earlier than at the airport in order to learn everything about the trip as well as make any suggestions.
We once again flew from Budapest, just like the year before. Thanks to all our previous experience, we avoided any complications with our transport. The majority of our group took the last train from Bratislava to Budapest. From there, we rode to the airport with a pre-ordered minivan. We had enough time until the morning. The memories from each Invasion are beginning to merge into one, which is why I can’t recall if anything interesting happened during the night, but I don’t think it did. One could describe it as the calm before the storm. We were all looking forward to everything we were going to experience during more than two weeks in Denver.
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.
We boarded the plane to Brussels in the morning. From there, we flew eight hours to Washington. Somehow, we managed to get tickets into the plus zone, which had more than enough leg room. Two participants flew for the very first time. They managed their flying debut without any problems. The lack of sleep was slowly catching up to us in the US capital, where we found that our flight had been delayed for an hour due to a storm. The total waiting time therefore reached five hours. It was still better than running through the airport in the fashion of previous Invasions – and the first two Home Alone movies. We arrived to Denver in one piece and I even got my luggage back. The situation from the previous Invasion was averted! I learned my lesson and had my essentials in my hand luggage just to be sure. From the airport, we directly went to the Westminster suburb of Denver with another minivan. And then fell into our beds. The majority of us had been traveling for 35 hours. We flew 14 hours together. Everyone was glad all the traveling was over.
Not only was this the very first Invasion with female participants, but it was also the first trip during which we rented our own cars. It took seven Eurolanche Invasions until we dared to do so. I’ve seen enough of downtown Denver and the surroundings of Denver during my five Invasions. It also wasn’t too appropriate to continue being a burden to our American friends and rely on them having time to give us a ride. We went to get our rental cars first thing the following morning. Four of us fit into one, four into the other one. The first trip with our own vehicles could begin!
In the evening, we went to our first game against the Chicago Blackhawks, which ended with a 2-5 loss. Prior to the game, we received our traditional welcomes from fans and team employees alike. During one of the periods, we even made it to jumbotron, as arena announcer Conor McGahey did an interview with us. After the game, we met with Avalanche players, as well as with Marian Hossa, who already encountered us during previous Invasions. During this meeting, Tomas from Zilina chatted a bit with him, which, unbeknownst to us, was the beginning of a truly remarkable story, about which you’ll be able to read more in the III. Period in his member story.
I wanted to use the advantage of an own car to the fullest. That’s why our first steps during our first days overseas went where even I didn’t get to go during all these years. We went on a day trip to the Rocky Mountains and the national park, where we enjoyed the beautiful Coloradan scenery and the great, sunny weather. We then stopped in Colorado Springs, which is known as a training center for American Olympians. We didn’t leave out the classic cog railway to Pikes Peak. Also, we made our premiere visit to the Coors brewery, with the company being the biggest beer manufacturer in North America. Aside from the tour being free, we also got to taste various American beers at the end. The train museum we visited also had its own unique atmosphere. There was so much to look at, so many places to visit. We were driving around like crazy. During longer trips, we realized that we wouldn’t do without a car in the future. Denver is a really specific American city. It isn’t densely built, like for example New York or Los Angeles, and it also lacks faster means of public transport like a subway. It’s more or less stretched out wide due to the surrounding forests, hills and plains. In Denver, and in the entire US really, people view distances differently than us in Europe. An hour-long commute is a daily routine for them.Ten plus hours of driving for a trip or for work is nothing special. America’s enormous. It has big burgers, drinks, roads, hotels, everything.
I won’t easily forget the last days of 2014 and the early ones of 2015. On the last day of 2014, we saw the Avalanche defeat the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3. Croatian forward Borna Rendulic, with whom we had and still have a good relationship, scored his first NHL goal. We also met Patrick Roy while waiting for the players after the game, which is really rare since he doesn’t often give autographs or take pictures with fans. Truth be told, every time he passed us by while going to a post-game press conference, he lowered his head and continued his way to the conference room. During Invasion VI, which was his premiere season on the Avalanche bench, we tried a number of tricks to get him to notice us. He only looked at us when he heard the French of one of our participants. But on that day, on New Year’s Eve 2014, he really stopped by. I almost hugged him from being so overjoyed. We also took a photo and I got him to sign my Roy jersey, which I bought specifically for this very occasion. Afterwards, we went to the motel, where we quickly celebrated the New Year. There wasn’t much time for celebration, because we had to wake up at 6 in the morning on New Year’s Day! Have you ever seen someone waking up so early on the very first day of January? I mean, it’s the time most people finally go to bed, or even still continue to party.
Our New Year’s plans had one goal – to reach Aspen. A famous ski resort, which was the temporary home of a number of Hollywood celebrities. The trip was exhausting and took more than three hours. The town itself had a special feel to it. We went to several souvenir shops, but that was it. That’s why if you’re not going skiing, stop an hour earlier at Glenwood Springs, a town with, as the name already tells you, hot, thermal springs. Picture it being minus eight degrees Celsius outside.Then imagine running outside of the changing rooms and jumping into a big, hot pool. The water was unbearably hot in certain places. We really enjoyed the combination of hot water and the beautiful view of the mountains of Colorado. It was a wonderful experience and it was just the first day of 2015!
On our way back to Denver, we had one rather uncommon experience, about which I’ve never written before. We were hungry and our search for a good place to eat near the highway was already taking several minutes. We eventually decided to take a turn leading to a number of restaurants, from which we chose the Chinese one as our restaurant of choice. What followed was a total disaster. No one from the restaurant personnel understood English. We had to show what we wanted with our fingers on the menu. Michaela, who is a vegetarian, was served a meal with meat. Everything tasted strange. There were also no free non-alcoholic beverage refills like at the 99-percent of other places in the US. Only a can for several dollars and that was it. No customer service at all. The waitresses then took our plates without a single word. They didn’t want to give Michaela a refund. And if that wasn’t enough, they wanted a big tip. We threw several dollars on the counter, which probably wasn’t even enough, and walked out. It just wouldn’t be us if we didn’t choose the worst restaurant in the entire state of Colorado in the middle of nowhere.
A possible connotation of Invasion VII could be bad weather. It was never as bad as back then. It was almost always snowing and the sunny days were few and far between. And there are about 300 sunny days on average in Denver. During one of our trips to the surroundings of Denver, Mother Nature apparently wanted to play a game with us. We began the day with a few kilometers long hike south in the hills, passing by luxurious cabins. Out of nowhere, a snowstorm appeared and it was hard to even drive. We froze thinking about how we’d manage the superelevations of the Coloradan highways, which are big and long.
Not without snow chains. Despite the bad outlook, I still stood by my plan. I wanted to see the town of South Park, which is 125 kilometers away from Denver. Half of our group wanted to turn back and we decided to split up. I’m glad that I made it out alive. At times, we had to drive at a walking pace. We beat high superelevations, unkempt hillside roads, or traffic jams in several towns. Ironically enough, the best weather waited for us in Alma, the highest-elevated inhabited town in the entire US (3,158 meters above sea level). It was really tough to keep the car on the road. I saw a potential slipping hazard at every corner we had to pass. It was an enormous responsibility. Finally, we arrived in South Park after more than two hours. We quickly realized that there was nothing to be happy about. There was nothing. The only opened shop offered mediocre souvenirs, a few of them referencing the famous adult cartoon series of the same name. The neighboring ghost town with old Midwestern buildings was closed. What now? Nothing. Back to Denver. The snowing was letting up, but we managed to get stuck on one of the many hills not far from Colorado’s capital. Unlike the majority of the locals, who have cars with all-wheel drives, ours didn’t possess such a feature. We tried to overcome several meters for an hour or so. We ultimately made it and made it back in one piece to the hotel, where we were greeted by the lucky ones who chose to return to the motel a few hours ago.
Invasion VII also offered standard, previously-tested activities from the past years. Everyone except me went to an NBA game. We went to a public tour of the Pepsi Center. We returned to the Red Rocks Amphitheatre. We attended several Avalanche practices. Furthermore, we met with Milan Hejduk and Jan Hejda, as well as with anthem singer Jake Schroeder, who even showed us the 2001 Stanley Cup Championship ring he received. You can bet that we tried it on. This meeting took place at the Country Buffet restaurant located about 300 meters from our motel. We noticed the restaurant being nearby on our first day. We also found out it offered a cheap all you can eat buffet. Wonderful. We went there multiple times and only one of us was really, really sick once. Can you guess who? Yes, it was our vegetarian Michaela!
The highlight of the Eurolanche Invasion VII was a double-trip we went on. In the middle of our stay in the US, the Invasion group split up for the first time in Eurolanche history and visited other American cities. Rudo, Brano and Tomas flew to San Francisco for three days, while Norbert and I flew to Chicago. The rest of the group remained in Denver, where they had an individual program, mainly in downtown, since our cars were registered on me and Tomas.
In Chicago, we stayed at the flat of Norbert’s friend, who lived in a skyscraper. His friend was studying at the local college at the time. We almost didn’t catch our flight from Denver due to traffic jams and a missed turn. We literally ran from the parking lot to the terminal. Mario, a well- known hockey fan, who’s been living in Chicago for more than 20 years, picked us up at the airport. Following dinner at a Slovak restaurant, we had to wait for Norbert’s friend for a couple of hours, because his flight was delayed due to a storm. The wait eventually came to an end and we went to his place.
Aside from the pool and the sauna in the skyscraper, we also enjoyed the city of Chicago the following day. We visited Willis Tower, Lake Michigan and the famous bean – the Cloud Gates culpture. We tried typical Chicago-style pizza, one slice of which is as thick as one big hamburger. Maybe that was the reason the waiter told us that we couldn’t possibly eat two medium pizzas. I mean, we couldn’t even finish the smallest one!
Chicago is a big, charming city with a great atmosphere. Big skyscrapers, narrow streets, the elevated light rail. It felt like a movie. But the game we went for to Chicago sure didn’t feel like one. We made our way to the United Center in the evening. The initial, fantastic atmosphere later died down and transformed into traditional, calm cheering. While the local fans didn’t impress us, Semyon Varlamov certainly did. Almost from the last row, we saw him have the best game of his career to date, during which he broke an NHL record. He stopped 54 shots to help the Avalanche to a 2-0 win. We finally saw Colorado win a road game, since our first road game in Minnesota during Invasion V ended with a loss.
The only disadvantage of our stay in the Windy City were the freezing temperatures. During one day of our short, three-day stay, the temperature reached minus 30 degrees Celsius. The schools remained closed and there weren’t many people outside. There was ice everywhere and Lake Michigan also froze over. It snowed occasionally. Luckily it wasn’t too windy, otherwise we would’ve frozen outside.
The cruel conditions were in stark contrast to those experienced by Rudo, Brano and Tomas during their three days in San Francisco, where they had 17 degrees outside. This is how Rudo remembers the trip after all those years:
“While I was preparing for my third trip to the US, I told myself that I finally have to visit San Francisco, the city of my dreams. We almost didn’t even make it, because Colorado was hit by a heavy snowstorm on January 4 and many flights got cancelled. When we arrived at the airport on January 5, it was beautifully sunny. Our hotel was near the baseball stadium and the Oakland Bridge. We also visited Downtown and Chinatown. On the second day, we rode bikes across the Golden Gate Bridge, went to the famous Lombard Street and also took a ride with the cable car. Those three days were awesome and the local beauty was so astounding that we will certainly go back someday.“
The Colorado Avalanche ultimately won five out of seven games, staying true to its tradition of winning when European fans are in the stands. It wasn’t the first time both team employees and fans told us to stay longer, because we brought the team luck. If only we could’ve afforded it. An interesting fact at the end of our trip was the number of kilometers we drove during two weeks – more than 3,000. It goes without saying that it was an Invasion record at the time.
On January 11,2015,it was time to leave.And also the time we encountered problems.Tomas went on such a shopping spree during his first Invasion that he had to buy a second suitcase. A set of suitcases to be precise. He sold me one for a symbolic price, since I also stayed true to my reputation. Much to our surprise, the airline allowed us to have two pieces of hold luggage without any additional fees. They also didn’t have any problems with me bringing a hockey stick in a case, which I bought and gave the entire team to sign. The seventh Invasion ended with a happy end. I’ve never took so much things and bags from Colorado ever before or after Invasion VII. All in all, I had one big travel bag, two smaller ones, a hockey stick, about five plastic bags, wore two jackets and had one more in my hand, stuffed with souvenirs – which fell out a couple of times at the airport.
After the end of Invasion VII, we were delighted by another article published in the ProHockey magazine. While reports from Invasions V and VI were published in the form of a reader’s letter, the one about Invasion VII was a real, stand-alone article. Furthermore, the article also appeared in the Finnish and Swedish editions of the magazine, which was a gigantic bonus for us. We were also overjoyed because of the article published in the printed version of the Denver Post for the first time under the title The Eurolanche Fan Club travels to see the Avs. The article was written by Terry Frei, who has known us for years.
During the 2014-15 season, I also managed to attend an exhibition game in Vienna between Austria and Canada. The Canadian roster included Matt Duchene, Tyson Barrie, Nathan MacKinnon and Ryan O’Reilly. For O’Reilly, this was one of the final games he played while still a part of the Colorado Avalanche organization. Team Canada dominated the actual tournament in unprecedented fashion and won the championship.
The Eurolanche.com website was still fully functional and published at least three articles in Slovak and Czech per day. Our exclusive interviews once again garnered much interest. One of the most interesting interviews was the one with Pavel Zacha (whom I hoped the Avalanche would choose at the draft, but the Devils were faster) and the one with Jesse Winchester. I did the interview with Winchester back in summer 2014, before he even put on an Avalanche sweater. Sadly, we all know how he ended up. During a preseason game, Winchester suffered a serious concussion and hasn’t played ever since. For two years, he was only a formal part of the Avalanche team until his contract ran out. Our interview was therefore the only one published during those sad two years. As the internal rule of the team from the Rocky Mountains goes, injured players can’t communicate with the media.
The season of the Colorado Avalanche: Although Paul Stastny left Denver, the team signed Jarome Iginla. It looked like Colorado could challenge for a playoff spot yet again, maybe even for more. Calvin Pickard made his NHL debut. The last-place finish in the Central Division with 90 points was an enormous disappointment, which caught the fans by surprise and left them stunned.
Those, who’ve been to Denver with me know that two things are certain – that the Earth is round and that I’ll have problems with my luggage being over the weight limit. During my eight Invasions, the weight of my luggage has always been above the allowed limit. Why do I have so much stuff? First of all, I have a heavier suitcase than most, because it‘s robust, has a plastic shell and is heavy even if empty. It’s the guarantee of safe transport of valuable things for me, my family and other Eurolanche members. Not even the glass things I had in there shattered. Second of all, I don’t buy souvenirs just for myself, but for my family as well, with each members always getting something from me. Last but not least, it’s the souvenirs I donate to Eurolanche contests and give to the most active members/editors as a reward. During the first Invasion, I had to pay 150 dollars for my luggage being three kilos over the weight limit – for the first and last time. How did I do it? I started to put everything heavy, like papers, pucks or magnets into my hand luggage, because they don’t check its weight so often and the weight limit for hand luggage when flying with British Airways is 23 kilos, which it certainly won’t go over. And if there’s no other way, I take plastic bags, pretending it’s all from shopping at the airport. Remember, there’s always a solution.
Eurolanche.com, Worldwide, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
23/08/2018 - 21:51
