January Expsoure Tour Journal
Prague Update (Days 1-3)
By Tarin Keith

Day 1, January 8, 2007

After a long day of travel some of the girls that were on the same flight as me were waiting to be picked up and found some others from our group at the airport in Prague.  Naturally my bag didn’t arrive so I went and filed a report.  I found out that my bag was still in Chicago and wouldn’t be there until the next afternoon.  I really don’t know how I get so lucky sometimes.  Thank goodness for all the wonderful girls on tour that let me borrow the things I needed.  We arrived at the hotel around 4 and those of us that want a position immediately went to practice at a gym right near our Hotel Prokopka.

It was a short training, but got the rust off from the full day of travel.  We walked back to the hotel and had a little while to rest before going to another gym to practice again.  The rest of the girls arrived half way through and we scrimmaged. 

Afterward, we went to a restaurant in Prague and had some wonderful pasta and pizza.  Tim and Cory went over how things were going to run during our trip and the girls all bonded over dinner.  I think everyone was so tired after the food coma set in that most of went back to the hotel and crashed.

Day 2, January 9, 2007

Around 5 in the morning I received a text from my parents and my roommate Ashley and I couldn’t go back to sleep.  We were starving and had a little snack since breakfast wasn’t open until 7.  We got ready and went downstairs, sent some e-mail to our friends and family and had breakfast.  We decided to go explore downtown Prague and try to figure out how the transit system worked.  

Ashley, Sam and I found a little restaurant for lunch and tried some interesting Czech cuisine.  I must say the bread and Maslow (butter) was awesome.  It was a very different dining experience from the U.S.  It took us about two hours to have lunch.  I have found that eating in Europe is an event in itself.  They take their time and enjoy the food and company and the waiters don’t rush you out the door. 

We wandered around and found the Charles Bridge and Prague castle.  The history and culture in Europe is absolutely amazing. 

That night we split into 2 teams and played our first matches of the tour.  We played against the Olymp Praha teams and they were pretty evenly matched.  Both of our teams split 2-2.  I must say that my team, between Casey, Natalie, Holly and me, was the loudest and best cheering team I have ever seen.  We had a lot of fun and played well that night. 

We all met in the hotel lobby that night to go out to a smoky little hole in the wall bar right down the street from the hotel.  Some of the girls met a couple American guys and developed a new drinking game.  Some of the other girls and I went to a restaurant around the corner to “quickly” grab a bite to eat.  After we got the menu translated into broken English we ordered some food and patiently waited and waited and waited some more for our food.  While we waited we received some dirty looks and stares because we were a little too loud for their restaurant.  Poor Allie, Erin and Emily were subjected to the common trend of low pants that expose things they really shouldn’t.  After another 45 minutes of blinding torture we received our food.  I must admit it was worth the wait, we were all very hungry.  I’m pretty sure our waitress couldn’t wait for us to leave.  After we finally paid our bill we went back to the bar and hung out with everyone.  We finally went back to the hotel when the lights came on and they started to smoke us out.  I must say that my bed was calling my name after such a full day.

Day 3, January 10, 2007

We slept in until about 9 or so and went down for breakfast.  They had a great selection of salami, cheese, bread, cucumber and tomatoes, warm milk and OJ, cereal, Nutella (a chocolate spread) and pâté.  Yes you read that correctly.  Needless to say we went out to find some food.  Ashley, Natalie, Nicole, Deja, Sandra, Sydney and I decided to walk to the mall down the street from the hotel.  We went to the food court and tried to decipher the menu.  I had a chicken gyro that was wonderful.  We sat and ate, then Natalie, Ashley and I walked around and explored for a little while.  We decided to go to the supermarket and see what unique food they had.  I really don’t know what some of the things I was looking at were.  We grabbed some snacks for the trip and started to walk back to the hotel. 

Along the way we walked by a cemetery that was intriguing and oddly beautiful.  We went in just to see what it looked like.  We don’t have cemeteries like this in the US.  There were beautiful statues and monuments everywhere.  You could tell it had been there forever because the trees were huge and the ground was covered in Ivy. 

We went back to the hotel and get ready for our games.  They split us into 3 teams to scrimmage another club from Prague.  Two of our teams played at the same gym (Zizkov) as yesterday, which was very close to the hotel.  My team started by scrimmaging their junior team, which we thoroughly beat.  Then we switched with the other team and played against the higher team.  They were a solid team and we gave them a run for their money, but came out winless against them, as did the other team. 

After the matches we got ready and met for our last night in Prague.  We were on our way to have dinner and had all piled into the big red van.  We turned the corner to go down a little alley and passed a cop car.  The next thing we knew we were being pulled over.  A very angry female cop told Jara in very angry Czech, that we had too many people in the van and we all had to get out and walk to the restaurant. 

Thank goodness we were only a couple of blocks away.  Tim and Cory worked their magic and he got away without a ticket.  After an awesome Czech dinner at the “Czech Pub”, a bunch of us went to the largest club in middle Europe. 

We danced so much that everyone looked like we had played a full 5 game match of volleyball.  We were all soaked, and had a great time.