Stockholm Ice
After the show...
When the show was over I was desperate for the loo...
So, instead of waiting in line at the arena toilets I RAN back to my hotel room!
Heading back out from my room a saw
Viktoria Helgesson coming towards me in the fifth floor corridor.... all alone.... I said "Thank you for a great show tonight, and congrats on your 10th place at Worlds!" She said, "Oh, thank you, thank you!!!" and went off...
I went outside again for a walk around the hotel and arena. When I had almost finished the full lap around the Globe I saw a group of people standing at a side door... and I guessed that that was where the skaters would come out. But I was thinking, there is NO WAY I´m going to go over there.... I´m waaay to old to be a "crazy fan"
So, I kept on walking,and as I turned round the last corner I saw two guys walking through a side passage right next to me..... it was
Plushenko and a friend !!!!! ....oh my..... I´m ALONE with them??!..... gosh, I must SAY something....
So, I went up riiiiight next to Plushy and just said: "That was a great performance tonight, ....a great show!" Plush answered " Thank you very much!! " .....and then..... I just walked on by.... ;D
(as two Japanese girls with cameras and autograph books came running...) I went back inside the hotel lobby, which was now completely crowded. Lot´s of fans, and I spotted
Aliona (or was it
Tatiana? ..gosh, they look alike from behind!!!) signing autographs and being photographed, and
Sergej Yakimenko was standing at one side with his trampoline in a HUGE bag (that bag is why I recognized him...,I´ve never seen him before this show.). So I went to the "lift area" in the corner of the lobby, and there, waiting for the lifts to come down were
Adrian and
Kristoffer.... pretty much with their backs up against the wall looking as stunned as two "deer caught in headlights" with a crowd of people standing around staring at them ;D. As soon as the doors to one of the lifts opened, they rushed inside.... I overheard a mother saying to her young daughter..: " You wanted to meet them in person, so hurry, get into that lift with them now!!!!"
I got into another lift and arrived in the dead quiet of the fifth floor corridor and went back to my room again.... how boring was that?.... After a little while I thought, "What the h**l am I doing here in my room when EVERYBODY else is in the lobby? Go down again!!!!" So, I went...
. As I approached the fifth floor lifts again I heard some guys speaking English with a Russian accent.... and as I turned round the corner there were three guys by the lifts. One stranger, "Plushys friend" and....
Plushy himself
. Plush was sitting on top of a big suitcase (
) .... They all stopped talking as I turned the corner.... I squeezed past them to press the "down button" waiting for a lift door to open...
....Awkward silence....
This was just one of
those moments... I would have loved to turn to them and say "Hey, I´m actually staying at this hotel too, and my room IS in this corridor... I´m NOT stalking you!"
but, of course, I said nothing! A few seconds, that seemed like hours, went by, and then the boys started talking again..... They apparently have some "portrait project" going on, together... Finally a lift door opened and I got inside (Plushy and friends went on with their little conference in the fifth floor hallway). There was a man already inside the lift and he sighed and said something like "Oh, it´s going to be a noisy night at this hotel with all these "figure skater kids" staying here!!!" I was thinking that he probably didn´t realize that these "skater kids" are real professionals and world top class, and I´m sure that they don´t party all night after every show!.... I just said, "That was one of the worlds best skaters right there outside the lift, just now, did you notice?" He answered; "...that boy sitting on his suitcase? ....yeah...,I thought I recognized him from somewhere...." ;D ;D ;D Down in the lobby again, not so many people there now..... almost empty.... strange....
That´s when I noticed the MOB outside... And I believe I recognize that cute young man in the middle of the mob...
Stephane Lambiel!!!! Yes, I went outside too
. I was watching this mad horde of people (girls)... and Steph looking really exhausted and, as I wrote before, the look on his face said it all..."enough already,...get me out of here".
Salome was standing by, smiling
, a few steps away. Finally he made a RUN for the hotel doors and disappered inside... (I got my phone out and texted eevun
!!!!!)
And that was IT for the evening... When Lambi was gone, everyboody else left too and I went back to my room to watch my photos and vids. (Got a textmessage on my phone from
PureMorning who was at the show too... Hiii!!!)
Next morning it was time for me to leave Stockholm and the breakfast experience
this morning was NOT "breakfast with the stars" it was "The Breakfast from Hell"!!! Two hockey teams (they were soo many it must have been two teams!!!) had arrived last night and they, and a hundred or so "easter-shopping tourists" all wanted to eat breakfast at the same time... I had to fight my way to get some coffee and some bread, and ate squatting at a small table in the restaurant lobby...
The FUN was OVER!!! I packed my bags and checked out!
At the Central Station, waiting for my train...
Getting ready to find platform no 11, were my train was supposed to be, I decided to take one last walk around the big "waiting area" .... and then ,I spotted somebody I recognized.... A young man with short cropped blond hair, backpack and headphones in his ears.... All alone, heading towards platform no10 where the 12:10 train to Gothenburg was coming in....
Adrian Schultheiss!!!!
He went to his train, and just a few minutes later I went to mine...
The last thing I saw, before I dozed off in my train seat, was the great dome of the Globen arena, like some gigant golf ball dropped from space, disappearing in the distance.... I woke up a little while later, hearing the girl in the seat in front of me, on the phone, telling somebody all about the GREAT show she had been to last night....
STOCKHOLM ICE 2010 !!!!
That´s all folks!