Day 3

Friday, March 11

Warsaw, Poland - 09:00

A wonderful hockey morning freezes our morning breath on the Gintowt's backyard rink. A mere 5 x 10 square metre ice surface sees the blades of daughters - Natasha and Julie, son Niels and father Richard Gintowt, cut to and fro dodging each other's shot or daring a dangle with the puck. Proudly displaying his gigantic heart for the game of hockey in his tales and excitement, Richard reminisces about one Christmas season when he broke his collarbone playing shinny and the sadistic doctor joked that he was going to be spending Christmas breakfast with other patients. Josey and I chime in on the enthusiasm and share some of our own stories, including the near fatal miss from our accident the night before, which in its own right is hockey related!

Richard brings out some good old Stompin' Tom Connors and through the basement window his frozen finger depresses the play button on his cold-proof ghetto blaster. We proceed to shoot and skate and share in the moment - shinny in Poland.

Not long after a cup of tea and handover of the infamous Slapshot curtiously burned to DVD by Richard, Josey and I conduct interviews with the kids in a warmer environment. As suspected, the afternoon passes quickly and the ticking clock reminds us of the long drive ahead. We ship off.

Entering Lithuania - 20:00

After running through the Lithuanian border checkpoint without stopping (by mistake of course) we find ourselves in a bit of a situation after hitting a heavy snowstorm. Just past the Lithuanian border the car decides it is bored and takes on a life of its own making a 360 degree turn into a ditch. Making sure the team is alright the next step involves getting the car out of the ditch. A few friendly Lithuanian guys exchange an unknown sum of money with another group of Lithuanian guys in a gas station and a backhoe came to the rescue. No cops are called saving us deportation and most probably many fines. Back on the road we do a double check for bone breakage and settle into the new rattling sounds of our fine vehicle.

Deep breath. Gas pedal, slowly then, pedal to the metal! We're literally another 350km and in these conditions, at least 5 hours away from our very important date in Riga, Latvia with good friend and local Rigan host, Kitija.