Crazy Hockey and a Couple Days Off

I went to Jordan’s first game here last week and the hockey was so different!  I have watched hockey my whole life but honestly I do not pay close attention.  Truth be told, people watching can be much more entertaining than most games.  I only really watch Jordan anyways…

Aside from the ice being much bigger, and the game looking a lot less rough, the crowd was crazy!  It was a sold out arena – which apparently is the norm for the majority of teams in this league- and the fans were chanting the whole time.  It was so noisy and exciting compared to a bunch of people just sitting around sporting jerseys and eating hotdogs (or even worse people sitting in suits updating their status to “at the leaf game” as if the leafs are important HA).  Sorry that was a bit rude but for the most part it’s true.   I am not a Leaf fan.  I am only a fan of whatever team Jordan is on haha.  Enough hockey talk.

This week we were able to enjoy a couple days off.  Monday we went for a nice bike ride around where we live.  We are right on the lake, and had not yet explored, so we took out some bikes we have at the apartment and just hit the road with no directions…the usual.  There is a nice bike path around the lake and I’m sure this place is great in the summer.  A lot of the lake front restaurants and cafés have closed down for the winter.  There is also a nice beach, which again, would be really nice if it were summer. 

Yesterday we put a bunch of cities in a hat and drove to the one that was pulled.  It ended up being Rijeka, Croatia.  Well we only partially did our homework and bought a highway pass for Austria.  We did not realize that you also needed one for Slovenia (we thout it was a toll road like Croatia).  The day was great but ended horribly with a €150 ticket.  We were just about back to Austria when the DARS pulled us over and were rude, arrogant, and told us there was no way we were getting off (show some compassion people, we would have paid if we had known!!!!).  There were six people that pulled us over.  One wrote a ticket, the other five stood around smoking...i'm no expert in economics but hiring six people to do the job of one?!?!  

Anyways, my message to everyone is do not go to Slovenia, not that anyone would be planning a trip there anyways right?!?!  I will never be going back.  I hold a grudge.  I will drive around the whole country if I have to just to get to my final destination.  I won’t even contribute to their economy by filling up at one of their gas stations.  I was THAT angry.  Other than the day ending on a bad note, we enjoyed our day exploring Rijeka.  We had a nice lunch and cappuccino at a café and Croatia was much less expensive than here.  I even got two stamps on my passport (Slovenia & Croatia).  I will be going back to Croatia, Zagreb is on my list of places to visit.

Jordan has Saturday off as well and we are probably just going to stay close to home. ..if he is not too hung-over Saturday morning than we are going to Graz for the day. Our highway pass for Austria lasts 10 days so we may as well get some use out of it.

Auf wiedersehen!