Postcard from Estonia, Part 2

Better later than never, it's time for part two of the postcard from Estonia. Are you ready to read on? Well, here we have it. Enjoy as usual.

Day 2: Thursday 5 November 2015

So I finally managed to get my weary body of out my ever so comfortable bed at 8:00am for breakfast, that's actual around 6 in the morning back in the UK such is the two hours differential. The hotel serves a buffet style breakfast which is basically have as much as you want, so I had some cereal, a mini like fry-up and a few glasses of a yoghurt style drink similar to Yoplait but very tasty indeed.

After chilling away, I made my first trip into the City Centre on the number 51 bus. The good thing about these buses here is that they run spot on time, all the time, which is more than I can say back home. Another thing is that the drivers don't issue tickets, so it meant a free trip completely. I was amazed by the Old Town, so historical. It just feels like I have been transported back in time. Eventually I got to the Tourist Information to find out which buses take me to the ice rink: remarkably enough it was the same bus I caught in - the 51. However buses 19 and 44 also stop nearby, the former and the 51 also passing my hotel.

About the hotel. It's marvellous, and all the staff are friendly - nothing seems to be too much bother for them. Some places in the UK could take a leaf out of their book as I have been in some horrible places for sure.

Anyway I got the bus back and to Tondiraba where the arena. It's a new building, less than one year old and pretty impressive. It has a main arena where the games are played, couple of practice rinks and a rink also dedicated for curling. Fantastic eh? Whilst there I got talking to a couple of IIHF journalists, Henrik from Sweden and Jussi from Finland. Jussi had seen the shirt I was wearing, and already was talking about our games with JYP - saying how impressed he was with the Steelers team. It was then I saw a familiar face, officiating. Who would it be but Dean Smith from Cardiff. He was very surprised to see a British hockey supporter over here. I had a decent little chat with Dean before he dashed off to get changed for the first game between Mexico and Bulgaria.

Having not known anything about the standard of Mexican hockey, they pleasantly surprised me with their skill levels with number 7 Brian Arroyo really catching my eye. His partnership with Carlos Gomez had chemistry written all over it. Some of the Bulgarian defence play was sloppy, and at 1-1: Bulgaria decided to change their netminder. Within 15 seconds he had been scored on with his team on the power play. However the game changed in the final minute of the second to make it 4-2; two goals just 24 seconds apart. The Mexicans took control in the final period and won deservedly 8-2.

Henrik predicted the later game between the hosts and Israel would be one sided from the get go, and an 18-1 scoreline. He wasn't far wrong as Estonia scored 19 and conceded one. This was from a shot count of 87 to 9 in their favour, Israel didn't have a single shot on goal in the second period. That's dominance isn't it, and in Robert Rooba: Estonia have a quality player who makes things happen. He clocked a personal tally of 3+5; that just phenomenal. This 22 year old is absolutely brilliant.

So after the game it was off for a nice post game meal at a highly recommended restaurant about 0.2 km from the hotel, and get ready to do it again tomorrow (Friday). 

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