Saturday, Januray 28th - Hotel Otar
Awoke at 08:30 still waiting for the time change to catch up with me. Down to the lobby for breakfast, which is the first meal at hotel. Often the food is one of the most memorable parts of these trips. It looks like this food will be good, and not the focus of our attention. I start with plate of bread, meat and cheese, and some noodle salad. Then I go for some of the hot dishes, which includes an entree with some type of scrambled egg, cooked stiff and cut in rectangular shapes. There is also some oatmeal which looks like gruel (will have to try that tomorrow).
Up to the room for a quick nap before meeting and classwork to begin. We begin meeting, and find that the Swedish referees and supervisors have been delayed in Istanbul by a massive snowstorm. This leaves the meeting with three Russian teams, the Fins, Norwegians and ourselves. We continue with the discussion of the new rules for this year, and points of emphasis for the tournament.
The afternoon concludes with rules test, and then we're off to prepare for the skating test at the Medeo Stadium, the venue for the A-pool games is at an altitude of one mile, so we can expect difficult conditions. Temperature is -15 C (-1 F) with a stiff wind. Team USA are just beginning practice upon our arrival, so we have about an hour to prepare, and get warmed up. Once on the rink, we find the ice is cracking in places, and the grounds crew are making patches as the zamboni resurfaces the rink. Located in a steep valley, with a ski lift gondola rising high above makes this venue one of the most beautiful that I have seen. After a good warmup, the six head referees make their 3000 meter skate achieving their goal of 6 minutes. The remaining twelve assistant referees are next, and we encounter ice conditions that are quite dodgy, however we all to make our goal. Next skating test is the agility test set out skate forward then backward thru a course of cones set 40 meters apart. Again, all the referees meet the standards. The physical activity is quite demanding, and the lungs are burning due to the high altitude and thick air.
We return to hotel about 21:30, and are ready for dinner. A plate of hot food is very nice and includes some baked fish, and noodles. I go back for a bowl of hot soup.
After dinner, Kevin, Eric and I walk about in search of some beer. The hotel bar had some Heineken for 650T $4.40. We find a kiosk where we get four Baltica 7 for 740T ($4.95), we continue our walk back to hotel and find a bottle shop where we get four local beers for 560T ($4.40), and Kevin gets a liter of Coke for 400T ($2.70). We're finally back to hotel to settle in for some evening entertainment, which includes our own commentary of badly dubbed movies. And the refrigerator is well stocked for the weekend. Tomorrow we start with meeting at 09:00, we may be able to visit the bazaar on market day, which should be an interesting experience.