Pre Game Dining
Before the game, I headed to Irish Oak to meet up with friends. As I was walking there, I thought there was no way the game would start in this rain – it was not a hard rain but one I thought would delay the game. For some reason, Irish Oak was not showing the game, so I was unsure whether I should enter the stadium or not – I refuse to enter Wrigley until the first pitch is thrown since you never know how long the rain delay will be and there is so much to do in the neighborhood.

My friend and I then headed over to Mullen’s where the pre-game was on television. The players had been announced and the national anthem was currently being sung. Thus, we knew the game would start on time and headed over to the ballpark.

Pittsburgh Pirates at Chicago Cubs
Since this was Opening Day the game was played. Any other day of the season, the game would (or at least should) have been delayed. It was raining for about an hour before the game and throughout the entire game. But, since the Cubs were charging big money for Opening Day they would not possibly delay or postpone the game.

Instead, the Cubs lost 6-3 as Ryan Dempster gave up a grand slam to Neil Walker in the top of the 5th inning and that sealed the game for Pirates. That was the first Pirates grand slam on Opening Day since April 10, 1962 when Roberto Clemente hit one in a 6-0 win over the Phillies.

Post Game Dining
We were headed to Moe’s Cantina to meet some people when the line to get in was at least 30 deep. So we cut over to Mullen’s to meet up with my friend who manages the bar. By the time we left Mullen’s, Red Ivy still had a line of about 15 people long so we went to Irish Oak where we could easily get in. Clearly waiting in line for a bar in Wrigleyville is a mistake – so find a bar selling reasonably cheap drinks and get inside.

Beg, Borrow and Deal
Under normal circumstances I would have parked in the Target parking lot across from the arena for free. However, today I did not feel like lugging the stroller from the free parking lot to the arena so I chose to pay for parking – $11 for Chicago Wolves games.

As I approached the ticket office, I ran into Broker Ben who had a good seat in section 103 which has a box office face value of $26. I bought the ticket for $10 which saved me $1 off the cheapest seats of $11.

I ended up sitting in section 216 (a $16 seat) since it was the best place for me to sit and “store” the stroller near me.

Rockford IceHogs at Chicago Wolves
It’s a funny position to be put in. Cheer for the Chicago team or cheer for the Chicago Blackhawks minor league team. I found myself cheering for the Wolves as they lost 3-2 to the IceHogs.

Pre Game Dining
Since I did not have the Ultimate Sports Baby, I decided to go to one of the bars around Toyota Park. I ended up at The Krash Inc. located at 7122 S. Harlem – a dive bar just south of the stadium. The main benefit of going here was that the owner of the bar told me I could park for free in his parking lot while I attended the game. Since beers are only $2 each that is a hard deal to pass up moving forward.

Beg, Borrow and Deal
I walked across 71st Street to Toyota Park. When I got to the main box office, I bought a ticket for $5 from a fan who had an extra ticket.

Sporting Kansas City at Chicago Fire
Chicago took 2-0 lead into halftime which was too much for Kansas City to come back from. The Fire won the game 3-2 but never gave up the lead.

Post Game Dining
Since I had parked for free I felt obligated to complete my end of the bargain which was to come back to the bar and buy one more $2 beer. It may not have actually been part of the bargain, but I also needed to warm up after sitting outside for two hours.

The next game between VCU and Florida St. is the first time a #11 and #10 seed have played each other in the NCAA Tournament.

Post Game Dining
By the time the game was over, Nicole was back at home and getting ready for bed. I decided to stop by MC Restaurant & Lounge located at 1401 S. Ashland Ave. The restaurant is on my way home from the United Center. This place is a Vietnamese restaurant and served Vietnamese drinks at their bar.

Pre Game Dining
As soon as the babysitter arrived, I left the house as Nicole was still working on her dissertation on Northwestern’s campus. I went to Billy Goat Tavern for a pre-game burger and beer.

Beg, Borrow and Deal
Most scalpers on the walk from Billy Goat Tavern wanted around face value ($80) for their tickets. I wanted to pay $20 if possible. After walking around the United Center, I had not found a fan that would sell for that low. However, I did find one scalper who offered me a ticket for $40 and would not go lower on price so that is what I paid.

#11 VCU vs. #3 Purdue
On Friday, JaJuan Johnson and E’Twaun Moore dominated St. Peter’s for Purdue. Tonight VCU figured out how to contain both of them as they cruised to a 94-76 victory over the Boilermakers. A shocking win since VCU was a controversial entry into the tournament.

Pre Game Dining
Nicole needed to work on her dissertation all day so my plan was to bring the Ultimate Sports Baby to the WNIT game. Before the game, I met Nicole and one of her friends from San Francisco for lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings located at 1741 Maple Ave.

Beg, Borrow and Deal
I had to buy a ticket from the box office since there are never any scalpers for women’s college basketball.

Alabama at Northwestern
Northwestern fell short in reaching the third round of the NIT tournament losing to Alabama 72-70. Meshia Reed’s layup attempt was no good as time expired which would have tied the game for the Wildcats and sent it to overtime.

#14 St. Peter’s vs. #3 Purdue
The gates finally opened for the second session about 6 pm and the first game of the session tipped off at 6:20 pm – not much time between allowing fans to enter the arena and starting a game. This game was nowhere near close as Purdue cruised to a 65-43 victory over St. Peter’s.

The last time I attended the NCAA Tournament at the United Center was in 2002. That day, we had at least two hours in between sessions so my friend and I walked over to Cheli’s Chili Bar to hang out. However, for some reason there was no time in between sessions this year. In fact, not only was there no time, I realized there was no way Game #2 (which started at 3:18 pm) would end in order for ticket holders of the second session to enter by the time the gates were supposed to open at 5:30 pm. So I started strategizing on how I would delay my exit from the arena in order to be in the arena when they allowed people in for session #2.

I went to the bathroom at the top of the arena and then started to walk slowly down the back stairwells of the United Center. However, at each place I ended up some security guard would usher me down to the next level of the United Center. Finally, I ended up on the first level and began walking aimlessly around until I was ushered to the exit of the United Center.

Beg, Borrow and Deal
I walked in front of Gate 3 and found a family who had an extra ticket. I offered $20 for the $80 face value ticket and held firm on my price point. I told them I bought tickets last year in Milwaukee for $20 for each session. Of course, he did not like that argument but eventually agreed on the price.

#15 Akron vs. #2 Notre Dame
Notre Dame took a four point lead into halftime but scored the first nine points of the second half to cruise to a 69-56 second round victory.

Beg, Borrow and Deal
I went with a friend so we needed to buy two tickets. I was unsure how the secondary ticket market would work for this game since tickets just went on sale at 9 am on Monday. What I realized was that all of the UW-Milwaukee fans had bought too many tickets before driving down. The scalpers were selling their extra seats. We ended up buying two tickets for $25. Face was $20 each. Of course, as we entered the arena one guy handed me a free ticket but it was too late to try and sell it.

UW-Milwaukee at Northwestern
Northwestern cruised through most of the game defeating UW-Milwaukee 70-61. John Shurna scored 25 points and Michael Thompson had 20 points to lead the Wildcats.

Post Game Dining
After the game we went to Candlelight Chicago for dinner – which is actually a bar and not a romantic restaurant. This place is great if you are heading back to Chicago after a Northwestern game. They have nightly specials (Wednesday night was 2-for-1 burgers) and the food is good.

Beg, Borrow and Deal
Once again I went directly to the box office to see what seats were available. I thought I could beat the $27 SRO price point, but that finding three seats together would be difficult. Rather than try to find seats from scalpers, I decided to buy the SRO tickets. As soon as did there were supposedly no tickets left as the guy next to me tried to buy an SRO ticket and was denied. I felt lucky to grab the last three tickets.

However, trying to find three seats together did not work out very well. We ended up in the Madhouse Bar for the second period and finally found a relatively empty row for the third period.

San Jose Sharks at Chicago Blackhawks
It was a rematch of the Western Conference Finals from 2010 and both teams are fighting for playoff positioning. The Blackhawks scored 5 goals in the second period as Marian Hossa led the charge with two power play goals within three minutes. Patrick Kane scored the 100th goal of his career and Patrick Sharp had a career-high four assists as the Blackhawks held on to win 6-3.

Beg, Borrow and Deal
Of course, the magnitude of the evening made ticket prices much higher than I thought. The game was sold out so I ended up paying $80 for a $140 face value ticket from a fan that had an extra single. The scalpers wanted more than $100 for upper level seats.

Utah Jazz at Chicago Bulls
The Bulls took a 68-41 lead into halftime which was quite fitting since the celebration was coming up next. Halftime, of course, took a lot longer than I thought it would. They originally put 20 minutes on the halftime clock and stopped the clock at 5 minutes for awhile before the ceremony was finally over.

It was a big evening since Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan were in the building. Even Phil Jackson made a video that was shown on the scoreboard. My question is where was BJ Armstrong? What could possibly be better?

After the celebration, I left my seat to walk to the concourse when I was face-to-face with Chicago Bears’ head coach Lovie Smith. I asked several people if they would take a picture of me but nobody would for some reason. Thus, I snapped a picture with my camera phone quickly.

The Bulls did not relinquish their lead in the second half and cruised to a 118-100 victory of the Jazz.

Post Game Dining
Nicole was asleep by the time the game was over so I headed over to Billy Goat Tavern for a post game beer and burger.

I arrived in Gothenburg at 8:40 am and had about 45 minutes to walk around Gothenburg.

My train was supposed to arrive in Copenhagen at 12:38 pm but for some reason we were delayed in Malmo, Sweden for about an hour. We ended up arriving in Copenhagen shortly after 1:30 pm so I immediately walked to my hostel to check in. The delay was not that bad, since I could not check into the hostel until 2 pm anyway. I planned to stay at Danhostel Copenhagen City since it was a short walk from the train station and reasonably priced at 161 Kronas (plus 35 Kronas for a International Hostel one day membership card).

After checking in, I went straight back to the train station so I could get out to Brøndby for the Brøndby IF soccer match which kicked off at 4 pm. I had planned to buy a train ticket to Brøndby, but the trains are free on the first Sunday so I could just hop on.

Beg, Borrow and Deal
I arrived at Brøndby Stadium thinking I could buy a ticket from a scalper, but not speaking Danish did not help matters. Thus, I had to buy a ticket at the box office even though there were extra tickets on the secondary market. But, each time I tried to buy one, someone who spoke Danish beat me to the ticket.

Lyngby at Brøndby
It was great to attend the first match after Denmark’s three month winter break. It makes sense why they break for three months because it was cold at this game. Brøndby scored the equalizer in injury time to tie the game 1-1 which was the final score.

Post Game Dining
After the match, I needed to warm up so I went to Brøndby IF Cafeteria Klubhuset – basically the bar attached to the stadium. I stayed there for an hour before heading back to the train station.

Getting Back to Copenhagen
Of course, since I waited, getting back to the train station was not as easy as it could have been if I left right away and followed the crowd. I had to wait for a bus before getting to the train station. Luckily, there were a few other match stragglers who helped me out with which bus to get to the train station so I could get back to Copenhagen.

Copenhagen is a much better city to hang out in when you cannot sleep at night than Borås, Sweden. After napping for a few hours, I headed out to enjoy downtown Copenhagen. One place that was opened and had a good band was Streckers Pub & Brasserie aka The Old English Pub.

After that I ate at Shawarma Grill-House located at Frederiksberggade 36 at 2:30 am before heading back to my hostel for the night.

I was pretty jetlagged so I was up most of Friday night. Thus, rather than touring Borås on Saturday morning I slept most of the morning and even woke up to the point where I had to rush to the arena to be on time.

Davis Cup Saturday: Sweden vs. Russia
Sweden did not win the doubles match in straight sets. Sweden’s Simon Aspelin and Robert Lindstedt defeated Russia’s Igor Kunitsyn and Dmitry Tursunov in four sets which extended the day slightly. The win gave Sweden a 3-0 victory over Russia. But, both teams would still come back Sunday to play two best-of-3 singles matches. It is a good thing I already planned to go to Copenhagen on Sunday.

Post Game Dining
After the match I went to The Bishops Arms. This pub is one of the closest to the arena that is still in the city center. However, after realizing it cost around $11 (63 Kronas) for one beer, I decided I would tour Borås since I missed it earlier in the afternoon.

Borås is not in the tour book but is a great Swedish town. They have a great park in the middle of the city, shopping and many places to eat and drink.

After touring, I decided that I wanted pizza for dinner. Close to my hotel was Restaurang Pizzeria Alléterrassen located at Allegatan 32. The restaurant had a Kebab Pizza (75 Kronas) which was basically ordering a Kebab plate at a Greek restaurant but in a pizza form – it was delicious.