Note: UMass sophomore Austin Plevy agreed to do a journal from the hockey team’s tournament in Belfast,Northern Ireland. Here’s entry No. 2:
Austin Plevy’s UMass Hockey Belfast Journal – Winter is Coming and so is the Friendship Four
Day 3: Thursday November 24
The day started with another team breakfast at 8:30 a.m. in our hotel. We then proceeded to the rink for practice. It was nice to be the first team of the day to practice as the ice was in fairly good condition, opposed to Wednesday when we were the last team and it was pretty chewed up.
The team had a really good practice, working on some systems and strategy for our first game against Vermont. Thursdays are typically a day where we work on more tactical parts of the game like breakouts and power play.
After practice we had another free afternoon to explore the city. Some guys checked out the Titanic museum, as it was pretty close to the rink. The guys were pretty intrigued by their museum visit because it displayed and talked about a lot of aspects of the ships construction right here in Belfast, including the exact spot the ship was originally built.
Others explored the shopping mall and Christmas Market some more, while some guys took the time to catch up on some rest. I headed out for the afternoon with my family again and our first stop was lunch. Earlier in the trip, a certain food item caught my eye and I decided I had to try it. It was a kangaroo burger, which was something I had never seen before.
I’m not exactly sure if its an Irish delicacy or not, but it was actually pretty tasty. I think my parents judged me a little bit because I couldn’t even convince them to try a little bite, but that’s okay, more for me. After they picked up some boring regular burgers, our next stop was the Crumlin Road Prison.
It was a guided tour through the prison that closed in 1996. We were able to check out several areas of the prison, which were mostly still original structures that haven’t been touched since it closed. We saw the different cells blocks, inside some cells and the execution chamber, which was a little eerie but pretty interesting.
At 5 p.m. the team bus picked us up and we headed to our Thanksgiving feast at the Winterfell Castle (where they filmed parts of the Game of Thrones for those that aren’t familiar with it). Upon arrival we were greeted by several men dressed in medieval clothing and they walked us into the castle area. We were all provided with our own fur-hooded cloak to wear while we ate dinner.
The main course was wild boar, chicken, vegetables and salad and it was all delicious. In a somewhat inconvenient yet funny experience, we weren’t provided with forks and had to eat with our hands like people did in that time. When we finished dinner we were free to explore the area, which included several fire pits, an archery range and the actual Iron Throne as seen in the show.
It was another great day spent with my team and family and now we’re ready for a good night’s sleep and our first game against Vermont tomorrow at 4 p.m. local time. It will be broadcast on NESN at 11 a.m. on the East Coast and at 8 a.m. on TSN2 for my friends and family back home on the West Coast in Vancouver.