Saturday morning in Copenhagen was another clear, crisp one as I made my way down to the København H station to catch the 10:03 a.m. train for the 90 minute ride to Hässleholm.
The København H just HAS to have a crown!
WELCOME TO HÄSSLEHOLM!
Uffe Palmbrink, who has been my main connection to the Hurricanes for the last few months, was at the Hässleholm train station to meet me and he took me straight to my centrally located flat.
Now if you will recall, in Catania we called our seaside digs "Malibu". For the next seven months I have dubbed my new apartment . . .
ICELANDIA
The Living/Bed Room
Icelandia is located on the third, i.e., top floor corner of our building. As part of my training regimen, there is no elevator so I have to climb 44 steps to get to my front door.
Note the TV/VCR in the corner. Swedes speak English so well that most English speaking shows are subtitled in Swedish thus making my TV viewing MUCH more interesting than in Italy.
The couch on the left folds out into a secondary bed and my bed can be seen in the lower right corner of this photo.
Are those PEEPS on the table?
The Kitchen/Dining area
The view out of Icelandia's Front window
After dropping off my things, Uffe led me on a walk of beautiful downtown Hässleholm.
Uffe in Hässleholm's Central Square
The Hässleholm Court House
After our quick orientation walk, it was time to drive to my first Hurricane practice.
Hurricane's Game Field
A natural grass surface, even I can see why we are practicing indoors.
Loaner Gear
There is some gear stored in our indoor practice facility in case a player forgets to bring any or all of his own gear.
The Red Wings???
Our Indoor Home
It doubles as an indoor track training facilty, that green netting is the back of the shot put area.
Our "Locker Room"
Drew Brees???
No, that's legendary Hurricane defensive lineman Jonas Grip.
We had a very good first practice as we introduced our base offensive running plays. I've got a really good feeling about our team and the direction we're heading!
We only met for two hours but we already earned the right to go to the . . .
OK, not the Swedish Football Super Bowl but fun nonetheless.
Another of our defensive vets, Frank Hilgers, ponders what he is doing wrong.
You want to talk about wrong?
Now I am not a great bowler by any stretch but at least I'm usually in the 100's. I even bowled a 218 once at a Rio Mesa H.S. faculty TGIF affair.
You may note that in the first two frames above, I started out with not one or two or even three but FOUR STRAIGHT GUTTER BALLS!
Zero, zip, nada, INGET!!!
Embarassing start to my Swedish sports career to say the least! I bounced back into second place by the end of the game thanks to prayers heard and granted by Odin.
Pär Jönsson
Star running back and top notch bowler.
In the calm, fun loving eye of the Hurricanes
Åbro
That's Swdish for "beer"
Frank in the delicious post game buffett line
The Hilgers
Anna, Frank and Sara
Sara was a tough customer, but I beat this promising 12 year old at bowling.
Life is Good!
Center Johan Persson enjoying a post meal Coke.
Elin and Uffe Palmbrink
On the corner,
only a few yards from Icelandia
The mini mart across the street
from Pizzeria Valentino
The end of a GREAT first day in Hässleholm.
GOOD TIMES INDEED!!!
3 comments:
Did the Eagles helmet give you a flashback to the UW Alumni game?
Those are RED WINGS not Eagles and yes, I got a little bit queesy.
I am surprised that you did not reference the DVD of Eminem's "Up in Smoke" European tour when you came across "Abro." (My keyboard is in english so imagine that there is a little circle above the 'A').
Rap's great white hope thought that name was so funny, he actually did an entire skit where him and all of his friends kept referring to the beer as, "Hey, Bro!" The name stuck...
(Just a little pop culture reference to help you get in good with your new players...lol)
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