World Juniors in Gotëborg, Sweden

Hi there! This is the last post-dated post that I need to do to be completely caught up! (With the exception of James' post from November (of course) but that one is coming really soon, I promise!!!)

But anyway, over the break, my parents, James, Georgia, and lots of family friends flew over to Europe to watch Canada (spoiler alert) lose in the World Juniors hockey tournament.

December 28th, 2023

Picking up where I left off in the "Christmas in Denmark" blog post, Kimmy, Kenny and I rolled up to the Scandic Copenhagen hotel to meet our trip coordinator, Karen. And we started off rolling!! As you might remember, we took a quick trip to Germany to visit an alcohol Costco to stock up for our hydration needs over the next part of the trip. So arriving at the hotel we had to move our stock and that was a mission. Just imagine this bellhop cart trying to be pushed, pulled, and maneuvered over typical old European cobblestone. Nearly a disaster! But "nearly" was thankfully the key word!!

So half of the mission was complete! We got our precious goods into the hotel and we headed back out to the airport to meet the rest of our group!! Other than a very grumpy rule-enforcement dude threatening to fine Kenny, it went smoothly and we found everybody, got on our bus and headed back to our hotel to relax for a little bit while trying to keep everyone awake! My best friend from Napanee, Georgia, came on the trip and I was so happy to be able to see her after far too many months!!

In an attempt to keep everyone awake, we went on a walk to see the nice castle (pictured above), had dinner and everybody made it until about 7 PM before falling asleep at the table.

December 29th, 2023

We had lots of sightseeing to do in Copenhagen!! We saw the classics: the Little Mermaid statue, the year-round ski hill built around a garbage-burning plant, the royal palace, Nyhavn (the picturesque street & harbour), and of course, many pretty churches!

A word of advice: these hotdogs in Nyhavn are so good and may even be "life-changing".

In the afternoon, we toured the Carlsberg Brewery and James arrived!! He flew across Canada and the Atlantic Ocean to come on this trip and I was so excited to finally see him again!! Also note that he could spend over 24 hours travelling back to Europe and the first blog post that he is a part of still isn't done.... (but it is in progress, and will be posted soon:)).

In the evening, we found an Irish pub that put on the Canada vs. Sweden game for us and we got our first tournament disappointment :( But we had a lot of fun at the bar anyway!

December 30th, 2023

Today was our last day in Denmark and we had lots of free time so we walked around Nyhavn some more, went on a canal cruise (a Katie & Kimmy classic European activity), and Georgia, James and I went to the Danish War museum!

In the evening we went to Tivoli Gardens and rode one of the oldest working wooden roller coasters in the world! (well at least the brave ones of us did :))

December 31st, 2023

Now it is New Year's Eve and we had to get to Gotëborg/Gothenburg, Sweden to watch some hockey! The bus ride was only about 3 hours, including a stop and we arrived at our hotel in the middle of the New Year's Eve 10km race! We quickly checked into our room, got suited up and walked over to the rink (which was conveniently just across the street!).

We watched Finland play Sweden (perhaps the biggest rivalry of the tournament). Then Canada played Germany, and this time, (thankfully) Canada pulled through with a 6-3 victory (Spoiler alert: don't get used to the winning...)

After these games, Georgia, James and I walked into the town square to watch the craziest self-organized fireworks display. "Organized" is definitely not a word to describe the show but it was crazy with minutes on end of constant fireworks!! Back at the hotel, the others had created quite the New Year's party that attracted a crowd! All in all, it was a great way to ring in the new year!!

January 1st, 2024

Thankfully, we got a bit of a sleep-in this morning and not too much activity planned for the day! We had a driving/walking tour of Gotëborg and got to see some beautiful sights and learn a little bit of the history too :)

There were many attempts to found the city here and it was finally established by King Gustav II Adolf when a sign from God in the form of an eagle landed at his feet and he decided that right here would be the city line (as shown by the dramatic pose below).

We got to see some beautiful churches, a fortress, and views of the city, followed by a much-needed nap:) After nap time, we got started on our arts and crafts project of the trip and started painting our outfits for the next day! We had a really nice group dinner then tucked into bed early:)

January 2nd, 2024

We had a free morning to explore Gotëborg so we all kind of went our separate ways to explore! James and I started at a greenhouse then met up with Kimmy, Kenny, Wade and Deb in this cutesy shopping street for really good sandwiches and massive cinnamon buns!

In the afternoon, it was back to the rink for quarter finals!! We got all ready, suited up, pumped up, and excited for the game.....

... then Canada lost :( and got eliminated :(

January 3rd, 2024

With last night's disappointment, a day off from hockey is exactly what we needed! So it's perfect that today we took a day trip to Oslo!

We loaded up on the bus with another group from Moore's Sports and started on the road to Oslo! It was a long 4-hour bus ride and it was made even more exciting as my seat wasn't properly bolted down and it would slide quickly to the right or left every time we turned! Thankfully, the road was mostly straight...

We got to see a really cool ski jump, an interesting sculpture park and some more monuments on our bus tour of Oslo!

After the bus tour, we got a drink at a pub, walked around a cool fortress and had dinner with the whole crew!

It was a very quick trip to Oslo, and before we knew it we were back on the bus to Sweden!

We got home pretty late and headed to bed immediately but unfortunately, my tummy was not feeling very good and I did not sleep much...

January 4th, 2024

So I didn't do very much the next day... but rest and recover! James was nice enough to take care of me and keep me company and by the end of the day, I was feeling much better! We had a really nice dinner and watched some more hockey (switching which team were cheering for) and enjoyed being in Gotëborg!

My tummy once again was not feeling great at the end of the day so I went off to sleep but Georgia, Makayla and James went to see what the night-life was like in Gotëborg and came back with lots of stories to share!!

January 5th, 2024

The last day of the trip! Crazy how fast it went!! Today was the gold medal game of the tournament and Canada was not playing in it:(

We still went to the game and cheered for Sweden, but at this point, we were starting to think that we were cursed. Every team we cheered for ended up losing.... weird...

But the US won and the Swedish fans left early... The tiny section of American fans were seated close to us so it was fun to see them try to out cheer the thousands of Swedes!

We had our farewell lunch with the heartfelt speeches and got to hang out as a group for one last time :( It was such a fun trip and a great chance to reconnect with people I haven't seen in way too long!! It was sad that Canada couldn't even make it passed the quarterfinals and we only got to wear our fat suits once, but...

...don't worry, there's always Finland in 2028!