Day 1 – Copenhagen, Denmark

As the EAAA team had turned over the flame, the festivities started. Not that the Vikings didn’t like the company, more like finally having the torch for themselves. Many great Vikings had gathered in Copenhagen to be a part of this equinic movement.

As usual, when the feast is about to start, an orchestra played the magnificent residential hymn, “I Am A Viking” written by the only true Viking in the music business, Yngwie J. Malmsteen. Wilder than anyone can imagine the crowd sung along:

“I am a warrior, my mind is set to kill
Life and death is on the line
I am a slayer and you will taste my steel
I’ve got your life right in my hand”

No words can describe what happened that first night and no one actually remembered who did what and why.

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Day 2 – Copenhagen, Denmark

Early in the morning, about noon, someone – on what seemed to be a battle field – started to move. Soon another person raised its head and gazed through hazy eyes. Someone woke up with a scream, and a few didn’t wake up at all, not until late in the night.

Marre was the first one to come to his senses. He got everyone to walk (stumble) down to the harbour. The queen of the sea, a mighty dragon ship, was used to take the touch on a tour through the land of the Vikings.

“Wait”, Marre said, “where is the torch.” He looked for it among the crowd, but couldn’t see it.

“I have got a clue”, someone said.

“Now that is typical”, Marre said. “The first we do is to lose it. Now we have to start searching for it.”

The problem was no one remembered anything, and that’s not a good start when you are looking for something you’ve lost. So they all went back to the place they all woke up. After three hours Kronprinse found it in the bathroom of a bar nearby. How it ended up there will probably stay a mystery forever, but Sherlock would have had one main suspect: Toalettskrubbaren, more known as TS.

Everyone was happy about finding the torch. This called for celebrations! So from out of nowhere bottles and glasses started to appear. They say Jesus preformed miracles turning water into wine, but that is nothing compared to what Vikings can: They can turn nothing into something to celebrate, and loads of wine and beer.

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Day 3 – The Baltic Sea

Early in the next morning, before anyone had gone to bed, the Vikings walked down to the dragon ship and started their journey to Finland. No one wanted to have to look for the torch yet another time. Not long after leaving the shores of Denmark everybody had fell to sleep, rocked in a cradle by the sea.

In the evening some of the Vikings woke up to eat and drink, but they didn’t stay awake for long.

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Day 4 – Helsinki, Finland

“Wake up! Land in sight!”, Marre screamed.

Slowly people started to come to life, instinctively looking for what caused this outbreak from our captain. There at the horizon one could see the shoreline. Sleepy and confused Vikings went to the bathroom (the Baltic Sea). To make sure nothing was wrong everybody looked for the torch, at least once, and talked about it with someone else, at least ten times.

When the dragon ship entered the harbour of Helsinki the fins went berserk! They screamed like maniacs for a short while before being silenced by the bottle. Not many know that fins actually drink very seldom, but when they drink, they drink a lot – even more than the Swedes. So if the nights in Denmark were wet, you’ll probably figured out the night in Helsinki was wetter than wet.

To get back on schedule the Vikings had to leave Finland in the middle of the night. It was hard to get all residents to get on the dragon ship in time. Sabbath seemed to be lost, but was found disco dancing on the dance floor. It interesting how gin and 7-up can do to a man’s judgement. Jaka, or the Phantom of the Opera as he is usually called, was also hard to find, or shall I say impossible to find. Someone saw somebody with a mask in the City Hall, the Vikings assumed it was Jaka, but when the dragon ship left the harbour Jaka wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

This time the Vikings didn’t fall asleep at once. No, they found themselves sitting up all night to chat, drink and look at the torch. Many stories from great times were told. People lied and spoke the truth. FL Stables remembered a time in Gent when Sabbath, himself and his wife ate tons of spare ribs. The Gotlandic brothers (except Jaka) remembered those beach soccer games. Brad just laughed.

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Day 5 – Stockholm, Sweden

In Stockholm the royal family waited to welcome the Vikings and the torch. The king and the queen started waving long before the dragon ship was in sight. When the Stockholm crowd set up a roar louder than a thunder storm the royal family was forgotten. Everyone was thinking about the torch and dreaming of glory in Italy and Vermont.

Though the Viking crew hadn’t done anything to deserve it they were welcomed as heroes. Outside the castle all Viking Equinics champions had been assembled. Billy Cayenne, Belle Trumpet, Sister Rum and High Cozzene from 2000, and Saddle Tetecate and Your Boundaries from 2002. As the Vikings walked up to the castle many of the spectators couldn’t keep back their tears – they were touched by memories of past victories.

“The good old days”, a spectator said, and all of a sudden people around him started to cry.

“I can still remember Roger as he came back with Billy Cayenne and that gold med…”, another spectator said and fell into tears.

But no days should end in tears! As the castle opened their gates for everyone it seems as if everyone had forgotten those glorious days. With big smiles and laughter (hahahahhahaha) echoing the crowd entered the royal halls. The night was one of the longest in Swedish history.

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Day 6 – Oslo, Norway

Early in the morning the Vikings went on board the dragon ship for they had one last stop – Oslo, Norway. The sandman came before anyone even noticed.

Awoken by a shining sun, dry and tired, the Vikings had to think of something else then that fact they soon had to hand that torch over to someone else. So they started to sing that great Yngwie J. Malmsteen song again:

“As the shores of my home disappear
I sail over the sea without fear
Dragon ships are charging through the waves
Just want to sail away, far away, into the sea, yeah!”

As the dragon ship come nearer the Harbour of Oslo they could see thousands of people standing on the shores by the fjord. The Norwegians – who have been a free people for 101 years – is a happy people and they cheered the arrival of the torch and the Viking team. In a tradition, they just invented, they had invited people from around the sim horse racing world. It was time to celebrate the torch, the Viking team and all thing one could possibly celebrate.

The strangest things happened that night. The Toalettskrubbaren was handing out drink as usual, but this time for free and with out putting people on hold just the chat by the computer. Socalslew didn’t have too much to drink. Roys spoke in sentences with less words that one hundred and fifteen. Kronprinse and Glfstrmdoc talked to each other as civilised persons, they even cheered for a life-long friendship. Ace didn’t brag about here non-winners. Ldysecret wasn’t thinking about the Equinics. Snowchief never even tried to get someone to write for her, not even her checks. Epic, the odriew, didn’t get into any fights, not even with him self. Taffy didn’t complain about putting great horses in claim races. Jaka was actually spotted at some times of the night. Twinhollow and Techranger actually drank non-Irish liquids. Winterhart danced while the band played ballads. The Cokers stayed in one place the entire evening. Rock63 wasn’t cooking. Yochem wasn’t recording statistics. Manni and Sal wasn’t being picked on for having too many…drinks. Sipe was humble. Eraser didn’t breed a single offspring.

Only one thing was normal, Meguire laughed.

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Day 7 – The North Sea

Early in the morning the torch and the Viking team left the party, but the party carried on. The torch was off to England and the Viking team aboard their dragon ship to sail to Italy and Vermont. In their horn helmets they ware saying farewell to their home lands and trying to prepare for a being outclassed in the Equinics by singing the residential hymn:

“You are a loser and it’s such a shame
That you’re a fool and you don’t know
That in a Viking I’ll walk all over you”