The Icelandic Canadian - 01.02.2007, Side 15

Vol. 60 #4
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
141
from class and off they went to spend then-
money.
The second game versus Bjoninn began
at 8:30 p.m. that night and the crowd was
quite large. Steinthor Gudbjartson of the
Morgunbladid wrote a story of our arrival
in the Sunday edition and Steinunn and
Solveig had called the TV stations encour-
aging them to cover game. Women’s hock-
ey in Iceland does not receive much atten-
tion, but thanks to the above mentioned
people, it sure did the week the Falcons
arrived. During the game our fans were
waving Canadian flags, cheering like crazy
and passing out our player profiles to any-
one who would take them. There is noth-
ing better in the world than hearing
Canadian hockey fans cheering their team
on!
The re-match with Bjoninn of
Reykjavik went much as the first match.
Skating and team play were the Falcon’s
strength and the large ice surface allowed
the Canadians to exploit these skills to their
benefit. The Bjoninn players never stopped
competing though and had several great
scoring opportunities. They were not shy
in the contact department and at the face-
offs were tenacious. The game ended with
hugs, hearty handshakes and backslapping.
The reception following this game was
hosted by the Bjoninn Hockey club and it
was a feast. There was every type of food
and the desserts were laden with whipped
cream. Magnus Jonasson, President of the
Bjoninn Skating Club and former
President of Ice Hockey Iceland welcomed
the Falcons and told the story of how he
designed Icleand’s National Team Logo
using the 1920 Winnipeg Falcons for inspi-
ration. The evening was very interesting
especially when we were told that the folks
up in Akureyri were a “little stiff and hard
to get to know.” The next day we left for
Akureyri in two vans each pulling a trailer
full of luggage.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
As the vans left Reykjavik and came
out on the other side of the long tunnel it
began to snow. As we progressed on the
way to Akureyri the weather went from
miserable to terrible. The wind was blow-
ing at 70 miles per hour and the snow cre-
ated a whitcout effect. We had planned to
visit Hofsos on the way but that was can-
celled. After leaving Blundos, our van
began fishtailing down the highway. Valdi,
the driver, managed to correct the slide just
before a huge truck passed us going the
other way, but we were so close the exter-
nal mirrors of the vehicles nicked each
other. The weather never let up and as we
were approaching our destination, Solveig
made arrangements by phone to have the
entire group go directly to the pool and spa
in Akureyri. Eight hours after we left
Reykjavik the vans pulled into the parking
lot of the Spa and everyone went for a
swim/steam bath/hot tub. We all received a
week’s free pass to this marvelous facility
along with free bus passes. We arrived at
the Skautafelag Akureyrar in Akureyri
around dusk. As we strode into the rink,
(Olympic sized) we were greeted by Bjarni
Gautason, the person responsible for orga-
nizing the entire trip in Iceland. Bjarni is
the Treasurer of the Ice Hockey Iceland
Federation and is heavily involved with the
hockey program in Akureyri. He wel-
comed our team, offered us supper and
introduced the hosting families to the play-
ers. It was not long before the players were
shuffled off by their hosts for the night,
with a reminder to be at the rink by 9:00
a.m. The adults retired to Hotel Kea for
some libations and good humoured com-
mentary about the ride up to Akureyri.
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