Hockey: Italy vs. Germany

I originally planned to go to Turin to just hang out in the Olympics atmosphere -- until I heard about the possibility of scoring hockey tickets. Naturally, I assumed that tickets were sold out. Glad I was wrong.

I was hoping to catch either the Slovakia-USA or Kazakhstan-Russia games, but neither fit with our train schedule. Instead we decided to watch Italy-Germany.

Keeping in form with our spontaneous decisions, we arrived a few minutes late to the game because we purchased tickets at a location different from the Palasport Olimpico stadium, where the game was played. Italy was already leading 1-0 and we sat in an Italian fan section. It was only 1 p.m., so while the crowds were enthusiastic, they were not drunk and rowdy. The Italian fans were the most abundant and loudest, as they cheered, “Italia! Italia!” Several times cheerleaders led the 8,000-person crowd in the “wave,” which I probably did for the first time since I was five.

The style of the game was a lot cleaner than what I was used to watching. My friend Laura, who is from Minnesota, commented that she had seen high school games rougher than this. No fights broke out and there wasn’t a whole lot of checking. But the game was close throughout and fun to watch. The final score was 3-3.

The city atmosphere

I’m relieved that I went to a hockey game not only because I got to see an event, but I probably would have been bored just hanging around. I’ve never been to the Olympics before, but it wasn’t what I expected.

I thought there would be more hype spread throughout the city. I understand that many of the events weren’t in Turin, but farther west into the Italian Alps. Even still, with Turin being the official host city, I expected it to be crazier than what it was. When we were leaving the train station, there were only some banners posted along the median in the road. The only real signs of the Olympics were at the stadiums that we visited, Palasport Olimpico and Torino Esposizioni. I couldn’t even find a T-shirt to buy for my sister outside the merchandise shop within stadium gates. There were ushers only at the gates and within the stadium. I expected to see more Olympics employees throughout the city at major travel points and near the stadiums. However, the employees who were present were extremely friendly and helpful.

Traveling problems back

We had to ride on three trains to get back to Salzburg. The first was from Turin to Bologna, Italy. That train left Turin late. Now, this was where the weekend turned interesting.

We missed our connection from Bologna to Kufstein, Austria by one minute. It was the last train to leave Bologna, and at 1:30 a.m., there were no railroad employees in sight. Even when we were still on the train to Bologna, knowing that we were going to be late, we couldn’t find a conductor to help us.

We were forced to stay overnight in the deserted station until 6 a.m. when the ticket booth would reopen. Everything, including the bathrooms, was closed. However, right outside of the station was a 24-hour McDonalds. Ah, a little comfort from corporate America.

Surprisingly it was packed with people and playing American music from the ‘90s, so we made the best of our situation by chomping down some greasy food and rocking out to some old tunes. When it was time to settle our stomachs, we headed into the waiting area in the train station.

While we couldn’t find a station employee in sight, the room was hopping with a crowd of homeless people and a handful of travelers and policemen. We tried to sleep on the cold, metal seats by crouching into uncomfortable positions, but few of us were successful (luckily, I was one of them for an hour). I couldn’t spread across two seats though, because one of the homeless men walked around scolding anyone who took up more than one seat. There was another man who sat in several areas of the room because he threw up at each chair he sat in. Finally, after the man puked for the fourth time, a few policemen escorted him outside the building. It was an interesting night to say the least.

After three long and never-ending hours, the international ticket booth opened. We purchased tickets for a train that would leave in two hours for Verona, Italy, where we would connect to travel to Innsbruck, Austria. Once in Innsbruck, we could use our Vorteils card (a discount card for trains in Austria and Germany) to purchase tickets to Salzburg. We weren’t allowed to exchange our unused tickets for the new ones, but the agent did give us a group discount in which we paid 25 euros ($30) each.

None of our trains were delayed for our return to Salzburg. We arrived home hours later than expected, tired, dirty and hungry, but the experience was worth it. Our minimally planned trip had some surprising twists, but it gave us a great story to share.

Train ticket cost details

While 13 students and I traveled to Turin, we each bought our tickets in separate groups. I bought mine in the largest group with three other girls and paid the least amount. In our group of four, we each paid 114 euros ($136) and we had a sleeper cabin on Friday night from Munich to Turin. However, one of the groups of three paid 150 euros ($178) each and only had typical seats (no beds for the 13-hour train ride to Turin). The couple that traveled paid 175 euros ($208) each. We all had the same itinerary, but the group discounts were significant.

Fortunately, all 14 of us purchased our tickets from Salzburg to Munich together on Friday evening. When purchased in groups of five, travelers only pay 6 euros ($7) each (that’s cheaper than my cab fare from downtown Salzburg to my dorm). The ticket agent still gave us the discount even though we were off by one person for a multiple of five.

Another discount that we all used was our Vorteils card. The Vorteils card costs 20 euros ($24) and gives travelers half-off on trains in Austria and a 25 percent discount on trains in Germany. We used the card discount for our original tickets and when we traveled from Innsbruck to Salzburg.

On Monday, one of the girls on the trip discovered that we can get refunds for our tickets purchased in Bologna. Since we bought a group train ticket (even though we paid separately), we all have to go to the train station with that ticket and our unused individual tickets. That paperwork will be sent to Vienna and then one person’s credit card will be refunded with the total amount due to all of us.