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Day 9, January 16, 2006
By Krysta Cannon, James Madison University and Charity Gaston, Albertsons College of Idaho
Everyone got up at around 8:30am for breakfast. After breakfast, half of the group went to explore the city and the other half of the group went up to the Patcherkofel Mountain to ski and/or snowboard. The people who explored Innsbruck had to figure out how to use the public transportation and find their way around. It was good to see how different cities operate their transportation systems. Most people spoke at least broken English so it was pretty easy to find a restaurant to eat at. Some of the girls got lost and couldn’t find a restaurant. They ended up asking someone for directions and the guy walked them fifteen minutes out of his way to show the girls a pizzeria. Everyone around the city were generally very friendly and helpful.
The group that went up to the mountain to ski and/or snowboard had a great time. The runs on the mountain were great. There were runs for beginners, as well as expert skiers/snowboarders and the view from the top was one of the most beautiful things we have ever seen. We had a local lunch up at the top of the mountain and the food was really good. After a few more runs down the mountain everyone met at the bottom and took the bus back to meet up with the rest of the girls.
Around 5:30pm that night, whoever wanted to play the two matches went to the gym. The first team was VC Tirol who we actually watched play the night before. They were a good team but they must have been tired because we ended up winning 2-1.
In the second match (against SSK Feldkirch) the team wasn’t quite as strong as the first and our team ended up winning 2-1 as well. VC Tirol had Bonita Wise (from U. Cincinnati) and Rashinda Reed (from Georgia) and Feldkirch had Michelle Smith (from Weber State) and it was fun to play against other Americans and also be able to talk with them after the games to learn about their experiences overseas so far. All of these players had been on tour before, and were able to answer our questions and give us some good insights about playing on their respective teams.
Michelle Smith, formerly of Weber State University, now with SSK Feldkirch, with Cory
That night for dinner we went to a local pub/restaurant that the tour has never been too. We were served a traditional Austrian meat dish (“Wienerschnitzel”) with a cheese and flour mixture that was different than anything we have ever eaten but tasted good (“Kasespaetzle”). We also had some great German beer to go with dinner.
After dinner some of the girls went out to a tourist pub called Elerhaus. There were about 20 of us their drinking Radlers - beer with Sprite - a local favorite. It is very interesting to see what kinds of local people hang out at these pubs and who actually wants to talk to the Americans that come in. Around 3am the pub closed and we took a taxi back to the hostel.
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