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Today a group of seven girls separated from the rest of the group and ventured into Croatia. First, we drove to Izola, Slovenia, to eat lunch and check into our hotel that is situated right on one of Slovenia's ports on the Adriatic Sea. We ate lunch there and then hit the road toward Croatia.
When we arrived, we had a few hours to explore Pula. It was an ancient Roman city, so we walked to the coliseum that was in the middle of the city and also saw the brick wall that was built by the Romans that used to enclose the city. The sights were absolutely beautiful and Cory took the opportunity to teach us about the history of the region. Before leaving, we met in the town square for coffee and a chance to rest our feet for the upcoming match. |
The team we played had two girls that previously played in New York so a few of them were able to speak English. However, the Croatian that set for our team knew very little. It was an interesting experience to play with a foreign setter because everyone had to find a different way to communicate with her. This adjustment was difficult but was good practice leading to playing overseas.
As the tour is nearing its end, we have learned to play well with each other and enjoy everyone's company on and off the court. The tour has really been a way for us to connect with fellow volleyball players from around the nation and share our passion for volleyball and use it as a way to connect with others and make friendships that will last long after the tour is over.
Today we woke up and had to load all of the vans by 9am. That was definitely a task because everyone has a lot of luggage and we had to fit it all in 3 vans. We grabbed some breakfast from the hotel. It was the usual European meal consisting of cereal, yogurt, pastries, fruit, meat, cheese, tomatoes, green peppers, and bread - lots of bread. After everyone ate, they loaded the vans and headed to Ljubljana without 6 of us. Cory had informed me the night before that since I wanted to come back and play in Europe starting in August that I would be taking the train to meet up with the team. He wanted to allow me to experience real European travel and he told me to pick 5 others to come along. So as the vans left the hotel, Rachael Moss, Bridget Fonke, Sammi McCloud, Elyse Cusak, Devon Farrell and I were on our own in Europe. Cory told us to take the bus to the train station and buy a ticket to Koper. The 6 of us walked to the bus stop and rode it all the way to the end of the line and walked a little bit farther to get to the train station. We purchased the tickets and the woman we bought the tickets from told us we had 2 transfers, one in Ljubljana and the other in Pikva. We had about an hour to kill before our train left so we walked around Maribor a little more and went into a café to order hot chocolate and coffee. The hot chocolate was so thick and rich and it literally think it was melted chocolate with nothing else added. We stopped and grabbed donuts (we are really healthy) from a small shop and then made our way back to the train station.
Now it was time for the journey to really begin! We found our first train to Ljubljana, got on, sat down, and realized that traveling by train was really great! The seats reclined and were comfy and we had outlets and tables in front of us! It was great - until the attendant came and told us we were in first class! Whoops our first mistake! So we walked to a different train car and tried to get comfy for our 2 hour train ride to Ljubljana. Most everyone slept or read and 2 hours later we were ready to transfer. Ljubljana was a huge train station so it was a little stressful finding our train but we asked an attendant and he told us the correct train car. We were on that train for about an hour and a half and the attendant who helped us earlier even came to get us and tell us when we were supposed to get our stuff ready so that we would get off at the right stop in Pivka. We got off in Pivka and we were the only people at the entire train station. We had about an hour to kill so we tried to find food. There was a pizzeria and a café, but apparently everything is closed on Thursday! So we just hung out in the deserted Pivka train station and entertained ourselves. We actually had a pretty fun time even though it was the coldest I had been all tour. It was so windy and Bridget¹s hands were turning purple - apparently she has really poor circulation. We were all super excited when the train actually arrived because we were definitely skeptical at this point. Our train ride was about 1 hour from Pivka to Koper and most of us slept. When we finally arrived in Koper we were so happy we made it successfully!
Once we arrived we drove to Izola and had about 20 minutes before we had to leave for our match. We were starving so we all ran to the supermarket so grab snacks because we didn¹t have enough time to eat anything else. We were super rushed but made it in time and headed to play our match back in Koper about 10 minutes away. We split into 2 teams and my team lost 2-3 to OK Koper's 1st Division Team. It was cool because there were two Americans on the other team: Mandy Bible from St Marys and Jessica Barrera from Houston Baptist). Out other team won 6-0 against the OK Koper Jr Team I believe! My team should have won but we just weren¹t able to pull it out in the 5th. After the match we headed back to our hotel and had a delicious dinner! After dinner some people went out and others called it a night. What a great day! |
