Maribor, The Blue Team
By Abbey Slazenfucht (Charlotte) and Sarah Morgan (South Carolina)

Day 5 saw us waking up in Maribor around 9:00am to a buffet style breakfast with surprisingly a lot of chocolate and bread.  Tim gave all of us money for the next three days for lunch for which we ate either cheese, pizza, pasta, wilted, wet lettuce (but it was really good), or bread with spreads.  The first day we were to leave at 5:00pm so we either went skiing, to the spa, or into town. 

The Pohorje Mountain is awesome.  The sun was out and the snow was fresh so conditions were great.  I rode the chair lift with a German speaking man named Maximillion who knew about as much English as I know German.  It was an interesting ride up the mountain to say the least. 

A couple girls went into town together on the bus and enjoyed the scenery… over a river with mountains in the background.  There were unique little shops and many cafes plus a McDonald’s!  It is a smaller town with not many tourists or souveinier shops.  We bought clothes at H&M and ate excellent gelato in a little ice cream shop.

At 5:00pm we drove to Benedikt, a small suburb of Maribor, where we played in a really nice facility with locker rooms and wood floors.  The team was not as good as the other teams we’ve played but we still lost three of the four games.  The scores were 18-25, 20-25, 25-18, 23-25.  At least we won our first game! European volleyball is different from what we are used to.  This team ran all high balls to the outside and kept tooling us.  They also set a lot of backrow balls to their more experienced player who looked like she was 30 years old - cheaters.  They were shorter than the other teams we’ve played, but did play crazy defense.  Our coach Ray gave us a pep talk afterwards that helped get us motivated for the next day. I guess it helped because we were victorious, winning all four games! 

The second day we played in Mislinja, which is a very small town about an hour and a half away from our hotel.  The people are so nice although their gym is nothing compared to the one the night before.  This team was younger, with players ranging from 14 to 19 years old.  They ran all high balls - outside and in the middle.  It was fun because they had a cheering section of boys who kept yelling swear words at us because that’s all the English they knew.  It was funny.  Right after the game their coach took us upstairs and started pouring us glasses of red wine and Coke, a drink called Mish-Mash.  He had no hesitation with getting the party started early, which we are finding out is the common thing to do in Europe.   We ate dinner with the team we just played.  Most of them speak English and we exchanged email addresses.  The drive was an hour and a half but really pretty scenery of snow and mountains. 

One day we went to the spa and got manicures, massages, and went tanning.  The massages were excellent and good timing for relaxation.  There, also, was a sauna in the hotel where many girls went for relaxation.  Our hotel is awesome.  It is right at the bottom of the ski slopes.  They are having races as I write this with the local radio station hosting the event. 

It is one big party, not to mention the hotel is rented out to only BringItUSA players and coaches, so we hang out at the hotel bar in the evenings, drinking hot wine and beer. All the girls surprisingly got along quite well and we all have fun together.  Last night some coaches and girls went into town to a club called Disco Tek that is open twenty-four hours a day.  Whether going there or hanging out in the hotel rarely anyone goes to bed before 5 am!

The Black Team
By Morgan Jones, Syracuse University

Maribor was a great place to stay and most of us could see ourselves wanting to live there. The Hotel Arena is in a great location and really the four days that we were there didn’t seem like enough time to do everything that Maribor was offering.  It is really pretty, kind of cold, but there was so much to do there, you were always moving around.  The city was great; lots of stores and shops to see and the food was great.  Pizza and pasta are everywhere and you can never seem to get enough, its amazing! 

After all the fun and good times it was time to hit the gym and get down to business.  The first team that we traveled and played was in Kamnik. We played in a little building and it was really cold, but other than that the team was not too bad. They had some good players, but we ended up beating them 4-0.  Some things that were a little different were the height of the sets: they set the ball really, really high so the blockers on our side had all the time in the world to get there and block.  Another thing that we sometimes do, but is more emphasized in Europe, is the backrow attack: they use it a lot.  Even if it is a really good pass, you would find them setting the back row a lot, utilizing their good players as much as possible.

The next day we played the MB Tabor Juniors in Maribor’s City Center, and they were good.  We ended up beating them 4-1, but we had some good, tight games against them. In most of the games the scores were only a few points apart.  They had some awesome warm-up music (polka) and the played in a nice gym.  They were very disciplined and had very good ball control.  They too, utilized the back row as much as possible.  One weak point that they had though was serve receive and that is where we started to beat them and pull away in the last couple games. 

On Sunday we played against Nova KBM Maribor which is considered the top club in Slovenia and they were one of the best teams that we had seen on the tour. Unfortunately our team was not up to par that day and we got spanked.  This team was tall, skilled, disciplined and just down right awesome. To sum it up in one word they were SOLID.  They didn’t make very mistakes and we were beating ourselves.  As the games progressed we got better, but it was not good enough to even take a game away.  We were all excited that we got to 16 points, let alone double-digits.

After our game we went back to our hotel and showered and went back into the town to find out that all the stores were closed.  We were able to eat at McDonalds, and then we headed back to the hotel to get some rest for our big night on the mountain.  We met at 8:15pm and rode the gondola to the top of the Pohorje Mountain. It was freezing, but it was so great to see the mountain. It is really high and I’m afraid of heights, but it was awesome.  Once we were up there, we got to ride on these little ski-sleds and it was so sweet, you could ride forever.  I crashed but it was still fun.  When the whole team finally made it to the top, we went into a restaurant and they had set tables for us and it was amazing. The food was all traditional fare and everyone was having a great time.  We eat, some drank and we were most definitely merry. What a great way to end our stay at Maribor.  After the celebration we rode the gondola back down to the mountain and retired to our beds where we were to arise in the morning early to catch the bus by 8:00 to leave for Innsbruck, Austria.

The Red Team
By Jessica Weeks and Anna Bellum, Eastern New Mexico

We didn’t know what to expect when we headed out for Slovenia. Most of our drive to the country was done at nighttime. We ended up at the bottom of a ski slope. The slopes were still lit and skiers were still out having a great time. The next day some of us skipped the slopes and headed into town to experience the ‘Slovenian’ culture. We tried our best to avoid American fast food and ate at a cafeteria style restaurant named “Franch”. The restaurants we visited did not have English menus and we figured that if we could see what we were ordering we wouldn’t go hungry.  Thankfully, the woman behind the counter spoke a little English.

That night our team played the Nova KBM Maribor Cadets. They were the youngest and weakest team we’d played so far. We played five games and unfortunately lost the last two. However, it was the first time we’d played together with this group as the Red Team.

That night we ate at an Italian restaurant in town, Padrino. They had excellent pizza, pasta, salad, and really thick hot chocolate. It looked like they had taken chocolate pudding and just heated it up. It was a very joyous time as we shared many laughs around the table. This restaurant was delicious. So delicious in fact, that we ate there again the next night.

The next day we took advantage of the nearby hotel spa and wellness center at the Hotel Habakuk. We only got the twenty-minute massages and it just didn’t last long enough! We again took the bus into the heart of Maribor and this time spent our time spending our tolars (Slovenian currency) on souvenirs and clothes for our families back home.

That night we drove to another nearby town call Ptuj. The road was very curvy and the “muzak” was blaring! We played the Ptuj Professional team which is currently the #1 team in the Slovenian 2nd Division. It was our best game performance so far. Our team really came together and made some things happen. Despite the gift they gave us before the game, they had no intention of making us feel at home and beat us 3-1. It was one of the most fun games so far.

The next day we played in the morning there in Maribor. We played a team mixed with some of the Nova KBM Juniors and also some of our very own Black Team members. We played four games and went 3-1. Afterwards we ate pizza at a restaurant near our hotel for lunch.

Dinner that night was exciting as mentioned above. We rode the gondola and ate at a restaurant at the top of the mountain. It was a great time! Later that night some of the players headed out for a night on the town. The next day we were to leave for Austria. Overall, we found Slovenia to be a great country filled with really hospitable people. Someday we hope to go back!

Liz Gobeaux with BIP’s Future in Slovenia: Nejz and Nika

“Ray From Chicago” DJ’ing it up at Bongos