After the most amazing three weeks of my life living it up in Vancouver, I ventured back to Europe to finish off the World Cup season. My plan was to do three world cups and then fly home, missing the final world cup in Sierra Nevada, Spain. I think bailing on the first three weeks of Uni is cutting it pretty tight already!
After one hell of a journey and a series of bad connections (Vancouver – Chicago – Washington – Stockholm – Oslo), I arrive in Norway jet lagged, cranky, homesick and with no bags. Not even one! This was not good news as training for the next world cup in Branas, Sweden, starts tomorrow. Cutting it a little tight, I know, but I couldn’t miss the closing ceremony and the finals hockey match! Scott, my team mate, is also missing all of his bags, so we’re not in the best position.
We decide to stay the night at the airport hotel, and seeing as though Scandinavia has to be the most expensive place on the planet, it sets us back quite a bit. Every minute spent in this country feels like more money is being drained from my bank account. The following day we get good somewhat good news; my will arrive in the morning, Scott’s in the afternoon. There is still time to drive the 4hrs to Sweden and make qualifications the next day (with perhaps only one run training). However, when I go to collect my bags, one is missing! Great! It’s the one with all my race wear, helmet, gloves etc.
My bag finally arrives at 8pm, but by this stage I’m so frustrated and exhausted that there’s no way I was in the mood to drive 4 hours on a desolate road, in the middle of nowhere, in the dark, on the wrong side of the road all the way to Sweden, where I will arrive past midnight, have to prepare my skis (not knowing what to wax because I have no idea about the snow conditions), probably get to bed past 2am, wake up at 6am the next morning, do one training run (note that I haven’t skied since my event on the 23rd of Feb, so over a week!), and then race qualifying! Hell no! It would be dangerous to race in such an exhausted state. I had to draw the line, so we decided to fly back to Zurich. I'm going to try to claim what I can on insurance (flight, car rental...). Hopefully I get something back! It will soften the blow of missing the world cup!
I am now in Interlaken, Switzerland, having a rest and a free ski. Training for the next world cup in Grindelwald starts on Tuesday.
