Hilary Knight: Exploring Denmark
By Hilary Knight, April 2, 2015; TeamUSA.org
Oh my goodness, where do I even begin?!
After lots of hard work and also winning out our group in the world championship tournament, we received a day off!! It was a wonderful break from the usual schedule! We started off the day with my favorite breakfast (Swedish pancakes) and an April Fools’ Day prank. Good thing Vetter was on top of her April 1st game and our room did not fall for it as other rooms had. Following breakfast, we started our journey to Copenhagen, Denmark.
As we arrived at the train station, a crowd of familiar faces approached us…THE PARENTS! I truly cannot express how nice it is that the parents were able to join us on part of our stay/trip here in Malmö, Sweden. It is that warm embrace after a hard-fought game that makes a difference. Although my parents did not make the trip, I still get many hugs after the game as if my own (parents) were here. Sometimes we get caught up in too much of the wonderful game we play and forget about the people who support us, the ones who drove us to the rink at 5 a.m. or back from the rink at 11 p.m. Our loved ones are important to us and the day off lets us appreciate the trip and decompress a bit from hockey, hockey, hockey. Team and family as one, we boarded the train and headed to Denmark.
When we arrived in Denmark we headed to a nice spot to take a team picture! It was sunny and gorgeous out – a perfect day. Shortly after our picture, hail introduced itself in little ice bits pricking us as we took shelter from the weather. The sun came out again and everyone was free to branch off and explore. A group of us went into a few different clothing shops and then found a really, REALLY good coffee spot. We grabbed a coffee and per our barista’s advice, continued our journey to a local restaurant.
I almost forgot…a marching band appeared out of nowhere! They were marching to Tivoli Gardens, a fun theme park-type place. It was fun to see the different costumes. OK, back to the restaurant…
We had a solid meal then took off to grab another coffee from the same coffee place! Delicious!!! I ordered a mocha latte (I know, I know more like a desert). They put a stick in the coffee with a giant chunk of chocolate and some whipped cream – yum!
I do not know how we did it, but all the players and company met back together at the designated time to take the train back to Sweden. It was not a long train ride. Time flies when you have great conversation and good company.
After a nice trip to Denmark and back, we returned to the hotel to refocus and get some rest. And maybe Schlep, Vetti Spaggs, Lee Daniels, Coyneee and I went to the juice bar – really good smoooooothies!!
Tomorrow we have practice and then the following day we play Russia! It is a 1-0 mentality again Рwe win against Russia, then we live to play another day here in Malm̦, Sweden, for the world championship!!!
Stay tuned!
Hk21