January Expsoure Tour Journal
Vienna and Maribor (Days 4-5)

Day 4, January 11, 2007
Vienna and Maribor, A Big Drive Day
Quick Update by Tim

Today saw us load the bus early for our long drive to Vienna. It was an unseasonably warm and nice day for mid-January and the girls had about 3 hours to walk around Vienna and get some lunch. Then it was time to rush down to Maribor as we had two matches planned for 8:00pm.

We divided the girls into two teams and played Nova KBM Maribor on one court and OK Benedikt on the other. Nova KBM has two American players and Maja Gustin, a Slovenian that played at Hawaii, so it was as good chance for our girls to ask them some questions. Its always tough to play a match after 7+ hours in a bus, but both groups did a nice job and we were off to dinner for pizza and pasta at Padrino before pulling into our hotel at the base of the Pohorje Mountain for a much needed night’s sleep.

Day 5 January 12, 2007
By Erin Brosz, “White Team”

This was our first full day in Maribor.  We arrived the night before, so we were anticipating actually being able to “see” the city.   It is very relaxed here, so everyone had many different choices of what they could do during the day.  Some chose to sleep in and go to the spa, while others took a bus into the city to shop or simply walk around.  Maribor doesn’t have a ton of things to see compared to some of the other places, so it is a relaxed atmosphere.  I was on the Spain Tour in March ’06 and had a great time, but what I really enjoy about this tour is that we stay in each place longer.  In Spain we traveled to a different city each day, so it seemed like we just “skimmed” the surface. 

We are broken up into two teams, the red team and the white team.  I am on the white team and this specific night, we played against the Nova KBM Juniors which is a level two team in Slovenia.  The girls are very young and ranged between 15-19 years of age.  They weren’t as good as the other teams we have played, but we served and passed well, which led to a victory. 

We have played on the same team now for two nights, so it’s nice to get into somewhat of a rhythm.  Unfortunately I am the only true middle on the team (Emily and Bria are in Austria trying out for VC Tirol right now) so the other girls had to fill in and play out of their comfort zone. Everyone did a good job adjusting to this.

After the game, our team went half way up the mountain to a small little cabin that overlooked the city and had a wonderful meal.  It consisted of salad, two different types of chicken wings, and sausage.  Everyone was laid back and had a good time.  We got back to the hotel where we met up with the red team.  Some of the girls decided to go out on the town, while others stayed in the hotel, checked their emails and talked.

Day 5, January 12, 2007
By Keva Humbert, “Red Team”
           
This morning I slept in until 12:30 and got some much needed rest since we have been staying up on average until about 3:30am each night. The Hotel Arena is a very nice hotel with big windows in each room that overlook the ski hill. Too bad there is not any snow right now!. I then walked down the hill to the pizzeria with Kris, Kayla and Kelsie and had lunch. It took a little longer than expected so I had to jog up the hill to get ready for my game. I am on the red team and we left around 3:00 for Ptuj which was about a 45 minute drive. We purposely arrived early so we could check out the town but instead ended up going to a café and having cappuccino and hot chocolate for about an hour. We then set off to find the gym.

The team we played was called Ptuj (after the town) and they ended up being pretty good competition. We served and passed better today than the night before. Everyone is connecting well with our setters and we are trying to focus on having fun and bringing a lot of energy to the court. Poor Sidney is sick and has lost her voice. She sounds like a seal when she tries to talk, but despite this temporary shortcoming she played really well. We ended up winning all four games and feeling good about it. The team then decided that we wanted to go straight to dinner so Tim asked one of the middles from the other team where to eat.

We ended up following her to a restaurant where we had a very filling meal. The waitress first brought bread (with no butter, which seems to be the norm in restaurants). Next we had soup that reminded me of chicken noodle soup but with long angel hair pasta noodles. The next course was a bowl with four types of salad; greens, beans, shredded cabbage, and potatoes. All tasted very good and had unique flavors. She then brought out huge meat platters that consisted of big hot dogs, chicken, pork chops, and something like chicken fried steak. This food was a nice change of pace since we have been eating pasta and pizza for most of our other meals. We finished dinner and headed back to the hotel after a quick picture with the waitress and the people from the opposing team that ate with us. The van ride went by quickly because we sang the entire way back to Maribor (Casey has an amazing voice by the way).

When we got back to the hotel, some girls went into town to the bars and some stayed and hung out. Erin and I drank a bottle of wine that the other team gave us as a gift and went to bed around 2:30. It was a good first day in Maribor. I really like the slower paced atmosphere of the town which is very different compared to Prague. I am looking forward to being here for a couple more days.