12th Annual January European Exposure Tour 2011
Journal Entries
Day 0, January 7, 2011
This year's airline fares seemed to make it cheaper for many to arrive a day early, so we invited about 10 of the girls to land a day before the official start. This allowed us to have a quick practice on the 7th and start working on getting to know everyone and learn names. With 40 girls on the way, this was a great idea...
Arrival Day, January 7, by Melissa Zenz
I arrived at the airport at 4:40pm in Prague. The trip was 15 hours and I was exhausted (I had the classic "baby on flight" experience). Since I arrived a day early no one was there to pick me up so I had to navigate my way from the airport to the hotel via public transit. Luckily, 2 other girls (Swags and Abby) both waited for me and we made the trip together. When we got off at our stop it took us a half hour to find the hotel! The directions were literally, "get off the train, look for stairs. Go down the stairs, find the main road, and take a left"; well, we walked down the wrong flight of stairs so when we took a left we had already passed the hotel. We walked around the block in the dark for a half hour with all of our luggage before finally finding it; welcome to Prague!
We got to the hotel at 6:30pm and Cory met us in the lobby. He goes, "so are you ready to play in a half hour?" This is very indicative of what to expect on this trip. Since we had arrived a day early there wasn't supposed to be a practice, but there were 9 other girls who got in early so they decided to put something together "last minute". I thought he was joking and laughed, but nope, he was dead serious! We ran upstairs, got changed, and we were on the court by 7:15 playing ball after a 15 hour trip! Playing does help with the jet-lag though...
The gym was about a half hour away and is a 1 court small facility tucked away off the beaten path (Olymp Prague's Gym). They don't let you wear regular shoes on the court so all of the coaches who didn't have gym shoes on had to wear these little teal booties over their shoes; hilarious and very fashionable. I am from Cincinnati but everyone on the tour is from all over the country. There are actually quite a few California girls. Everyone played college at different levels. I and a couple others played D1, there are a couple of NAIA girls, some D2, and I think even a couple of D3. The first night of practice was interesting because we literally had no middles. We had 4 setters, a libero (me) and the rest were outsides. It was fun getting to know everyone though, and funny watching Swags (setter) try to hit a 1 ball when we did finally scrimmage. The practices are run by the guest coaches on the tour. They don't coach technique; the practices are set up so that we can get used to playing with each other on the court before we actually have to be cohesive in a match. Its nice practicing and not having to worry about a coach riding you :)
We got back to the hotel around midnight Prague time (3pm our time), popped some Tylenol PM (a MUST on this trip) and went to bed. The hotel is apartment style, 2 rooms per suite and 2 girls per room. My suite planned to go site seeing the next day before training at 2 so we went right to bed. Welcome to Prague!!!
Day 2, January 9, by Alyssa Meuth
I had just arrived in Prague last night around dinner time so I didn¹t have a chance to practice yet. Today we woke up in our cozy Hotel Prokopka and went downstairs for a grand breakfast of bread, yogurt, and water. A few of us girls wanted to walk around and find something to eat for lunch, so we adventured around the city. We settled for a sandwich with some mystery yellow sauce, and it was definitely a new experience for me.
A few hours later it was time for my group to practice at the Hall of Volleyball and I was really excited but nervous at the same time because it had been about a month since I had played competitive volleyball. The girls in my group were easy to play with and everyone was eager to be in the gym and compete. I had to adjust to the new volleyball but it felt good to get in the gym again and play.
For dinner we went to an Italian restaurant and had delicious pizza and pasta (and some wine to top it off). Later that night a few of us went to "czech out" the nightlife at the Pub Crawl, and met some fellow Americans, as well as more people with fun accents! We had a fun night at the Pub Crawl and were even given some t-shirts as a souvenir.
So far this tour has been great getting to know everyone and finally getting to play competitive volleyball again. I can¹t wait to see what else is in store!
Day 3, January 10, 2011
By Samantha Kirby
Today was our last day in Prague. It was a day for sightseeing and afternoon
games so several girls woke up early to sight see. After running to catch
the tram, we traveled to the Charles Bridge. We then continued to wander up
the bridge to the top of the Prague Castle. The hike up to the castle was
definitely an experience in its own after practicing the day before, but
with some will power and laughter we made it to the top. The view from top
put every other sight to shame and we all stood in amazement at the city
below.
We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon exploring the city and
different sights. After taking an overload of pictures we headed back to the
hotel to prepare for our games. We all left at different times and went to
different gyms for our games. My team was pretty evenly matched with
the competition and ended up splitting the match. After, we were able to
cheer on another Bring It Team.
In these European matches they operate on the honesty system when it comes
to tip, line, and net calls. This was extremely different for all of us, but
we fit right in and made sure that we respected the difference in rules.
After the games we all showered at the gym and headed to an authentic Czech
Pub where you would NEVER find a tourist!
The pub was small, smoky, and AMAZING! We all started out with water, beer,
or coke and had French fries as an appetizer (they even had ketchup!). By
this point on the tour we had been joined by three Polish girls that were
hoping to play in the States next year. One of them spoke really good
English and we had a great conversation about the differences in Europe and
America and everything they were looking forward to in the States. Our table
tried to learn how to speak some Polish words, but it was a total failure
and it definitely made for a great laugh.
The main dishes at the pub were turkey, ham, and "steak tartar" (raw meat,
egg, different spices, onion, and mustard). The meat is in the middle of the
plate with an egg yolk on top. The majorities of us tried it and were
pleasantly surprised! Everything was really good and left us all very full.
Cory and Tim informed us that we were leaving very in morning for Vienna,
Austria so we all turned in early for the night. Tomorrow is going to be a
long day on the bus so we all packed up and got a good nightıs rest!
Goodbye Prague! We will miss you!
Day 4, January 11, 2011
Today saw the bus leave the Propopka at 7:00am to head south. We were divided again into 4 teams, and the idea was for 1 team to meet up with Radovan Gacic in Vienna for an over-nighter to Melk, Austria; another team to spend the night in Vienna playing a match there; and the other two teams to sightsee a bit prior to heading down on the bus to Maribor, Slovenia for 2 matches there...
The Maribor Group, by Emily Callaway
We left our Hotel Prokopka in Prague bright and early. The drive to Vienna was only four hours (almost everyone fell asleep) and we stopped at a gas station to spend the rest of our Czech Crowns. In Vienna Todd and Tom's teams got dropped and the rest of us had the afternoon to sight see. We started at the Museum Quarter and walked through a section of the city called the inner ring which includes the Imperial Palace of the Hofburg Family (famous royal Austrian family) and St. Stephen's Cathedral (Stephansdom). At this point we split up into several groups and had a little time to wander. My group decided to be brave and try some street vendor food, I personally got kebab durum (kebab meat, lettuce, tomatoes, and yogurt sauce in a grilled wrap) and another girl got pizza, all surprisingly tasty and cheap. We saw the Vienna Opera House and the Mozart Garden on the way back to the pick up spot.
We drove another three hours to Maribor and unpacked at Hotel Dras; the gym both teams played at was in the hotel. Melissa and Val's team played three games in their match and Beth's team played four. Cory purposely didn't schedule hard teams to play since we had been driving for a total of 7 hours to get there, and that was definitely smart - we were all really tired! The facility is really interesting; a gym right inside the hotel and the hotel is at the base of a ski resort but we couldn't see it yet because it was dark when we got there. Following the games we ate dinner in the hotel restaurant. Luckily they had pizza's waiting, we were starving!
The Melk Group, by Abbie Wright
Girls in Radovan's Van: Abbie Wright, Larissa Nordyke, Jessica Howard, Kara Wall, Vanessa Dorismond, Jane Chafeh, Cara Hackmann. Coach: Todd Chamberlain.
Today was very fun, eye-opening, and also exhausting. We left from Prague very early in the morning to make the trek into Vienna, Austria. Once in Vienna, our specific team was told that we would need to grab lunch and hang out for a bit because we were being sent into a little town called Melk to play one of the teams there. Lunch was incredibly good; we feasted on authentic Italian food and were served by a waiter who insisted we try something new rather than what we normally would get at any other Italian restaurant. He claimed their pasta was unlike any other because it was freshly made, and it did taste really different than ordinary pasta; very good.
Once in Melk, we were given a tour of an old monastery, which also housed a school. The gym in which we played was right nearby. We were given a grand tour of the small little town (could walk through the whole thing in 20-30 minutes) by an American girl, Justine Burkhart, who had been placed to play here a year ago from the Bring It Tour. She showed us her favorite cafes, explained to us her daily routine, and talked about playing in the quaint little town. We got to hang out for a bit before we had a meet and greet with her team that we played later in the evening.
After winning our match, we went out to eat at one of the restaurants in town and most of us ate the traditional Wiener Schnitzl meal which essentially was smashed/fried pork served with fries. It was fun getting to hang out with Justine and a couple of the girls on her team. Overall, it was a good end to a fun filled day. We are now sleeping in a hostel in town getting ready to head back to Vienna tomorrow!
The Vienna Group, by Chloe Smith
Tim's Vienna Group: Chloe Smith, Tara King, Jo Bangert, Caitlyn Vann, Becci Burling, Bethany Fuller (left early to take a night train to Lugano!), Amy Graham, Vanessa Murray, and Ana Seniloli. Coach: Tom Hilbert
After leaving Prague in the morning the bus arrived in Vienna, Austria around noon. At this point two of the teams from the previous day were dropped off to play in Austria while the other two were to sightsee and continue on to Maribor, Slovenia for their matches of the day. The team on which I was placed, Tom's team, was to play a team in Vienna while the other team staying in Austria was to go on to Melk to compete. After a couple of hours of sightseeing around the Ring we were met by Jamie Morrison, the assistant coach of the US Women's National Team, who led us to the gym via the city's public transportation.
We entered the playing venue confident we had worked out the first-match-as-a-team jitters from our previous experience in Prague (which we regrettably lost) and started the match around 7:30pm. After a rocky start in the first two sets that were lost by a margin of about 5 each, we were able to bounce back in sets three and four to beat the Austrian team. The final set was a close one but we managed to push through and take the fifth set 15-13. After the match we said our goodbyes to middle blocker Bethany Fuller, who had to leave to take an all-night train for a tryout in Switzerland. We then went on to dine with six US National Team members who play in Vienna for the club we had just scrimmaged. It was great to hear from more American players currently residing in Europe to get their view on the European lifestyle and the foreign club experience.
Tomorrow four of us will continue on to Maribor to train and watch a match while four will join the other team that played in Melk before rejoining the rest of the tour group in Slovenia. It should definitely be interesting to witness the European style of playing from a spectator's point of view instead of a player's; hopefully it will help us all gain some insight as to how we should approach our competition in the future.
Big ups to Justine (far left) for coming back to Vienna with the girls and hanging out!
Day 5, January 12, by Megan Henderson, Troy '11
Today was our second day in Maribor, Slovenia. We got to sleep in until noon
because the only plans we had were practice sessions throughout the day by
position. First though, the option for breakfast was available until 10:00am
so my four roommates and I took advantage. It was pretty much the same meal
as Prague with a few more options. Lunch meat, cheeses, tomato and cucumber,
pastries, chocolate cereal, and lots and lots of bread!
Anyway, after breakfast, the middles and setters and our one libero in the
group went from 12-2 and the outsides/rightsides and setters went from 2-4.
It was nice to get a lot of reps in before really getting into the main part
of the tour which is playing multiple matches in a day. It allowed the
setters to connect with hitters they haven't necessarily played with yet.
Practice was followed by a van ride to the main gym in Maribor where the
Maribor (Nova KBM Maribor Branik) team plays their matches. They were
playing against a team in Russia, with a coach (Nikolai Karpol) nicknamed
"The Russian Bear". You can only imagine how pleasant he was to his players.
It was interesting and super entertaining to watch. I learned so much about
the differences in culture and how players over here interact with each
other, whether they speak the same language or not. For example, the Maribor
team was very energetic and you could tell they enjoyed playing together and
celebrated every point with cheers, comparable to American volleyball teams.
The Russian team however, was very quiet overall. They would get a point and
just come in the middle without saying much and go back to their spots on
the floor. It was like they were used to it and they weren't allowed to be
too happy. Even when they were up 10-3 in the fourth game, their coach was
yelling at them.
After the match, which Maribor lost in 4 exciting games, we went back to the
hotel to eat dinner. Our choice of risotto with seafood and chicken with
pasta, fruit, and salad. The cool thing about tonight's dinner was we got to
ask a bunch of questions to two American players that play for Maribor (big
ups to Lindsay Stalzer and Sarah Ammerman for hanging out with the girls!).
It was really fun to learn and get the inside view from girls not much older
than us that have already played in several different leagues. They told us
about payments, visa trouble, meeting new friends, finding your way around
the cities by yourself, the age ranges on their team (16-32 years old!),
team dynamics, and much more valuable information than we could've found out
on our own.
We also got to speak with one of the Russian assistant coaches. He's
actually American and coaches at the University of Santa Barbara as well. He
has been my favorite person to meet so far because of how honest and up
front he was to perfect strangers. He asked us what schools, positions, and
intentions we had on this tour. He also asked numerous questions from
several girls that told the rest of us a lot about playing over here in
Europe on the various different levels and what the demands are. My
roommates and I talked about how much we learned in 20-30 minutes and how
amazing it was.
After dinner we stayed up a little longer with some of the girls and then
went to get some sleep. We have four matches tomorrow!
Day 5 for Christy Swagerty-Vilas, on the road to Belgium
Day 5 started at 4:00am for me, with a quick wake-up and into a taxi for the airport. My flight to Brussels was early, but comfortable as the plane wasn't full and I had my own row of seats. Once I landed, I was unsure about who was picking me up, so I sat by the exit for about 15 minutes. There were two men and a woman talking and who kept glancing at me, so I kept glancing at them, and finally one of the men approached me and asked, "Miss Swagerty?" in a French accent. The two men turned out to be the coach and manager, and the woman, Martina, was introduced as my potential roommate. We drove from the Brussels-Charleroi airport to get Martina's car and started driving to the apartment. Again, I was unsure what city we were going to, and how far it would be from Brussels, so I was pleasantly surprised when our drive only lasted 10 minutes!
Martina (she is Czech and speaks pretty decent English) and I talked quite a bit, then went to lunch with our Coach Olivier. We ate at a Belgian cafe in Charleroi, and had a fun time trying to figure out what the "aubergine" on my panini was because neither of them knew the English word for it, and I didn't know what it was by eating it - turned out to be eggplant! The rest of the afternoon, Martina and I went shopping and I moved all my stuff into the closet at the apartment. At 7pm we left for training and arrived in Farciennes at 7:20. As soon as we walked in, the men and women players began greeting each other, and I realized we were in the kissing zone. The gym has a bar in the front hallway, and my coach and a photographer came out, gave me my uniform to wear, and wanted a picture of me in my uniform in the bar. I am the first American woman to join their club, so I am "the news."
Before training even started, Coach Olivier had debriefed the team in French for about 10 minutes, telling them I would be the starting setter before I had even touched a volleyball. My team only had a real setter for their first 2 games, then their opposites had been setting the whole time, so they were very excited to have me there. The women were all really great, and several of them at least knew the word "superb," so figuring out what sets they wanted was not too difficult.
After training, the manager wanted to speak with me, and they offered me a contract, which includes a car! Of course, now I not only get to learn French, but also how to drive a stick-shift! All the men, women, coaches, physical therapist, etc., hang out in the bar after training for at least an hour. We had some great laughs about maps, and nobody understands why I love drinking water so much. Martina and I went over to Coach Olivier's parents' house after this for dinner - it was already 11:30pm! His mom made us delicious spaghetti while we watched CSI: Miami in French. Tomorrow I meet with the press, have my first French lesson, and go to optional training with the boys' teams Coach Olivier also coaches. Saturday is our first match together, and we have a chance to do really well in league. It was a great first day, and I am excited to be the latest addition to Volley Club Oxyjeunes Farciennes!
Day 6, January 13, by Jessica Kagarise, Wyoming '10
Some of us woke up this morning a little under the weather from the great
night last night! Luckily we have until late tonight to get it together for
our game. We have the day to rest or go into town to see the city of
Maribor, so a couple of girls and I went into town to do a little shopping.
The weather was awesome and it was a great day to walk around town. We went
into a couple local stores that had some great deals and then the biggest
H&M ever!! After walking around a little, I went back to the hotel to take a
nap and make sure I was ready to bring it in our game later. (This hotel has
the most amazing pillows btw.)
Our game was in a really nice gym that had bleachers and three courts, by
far the nicest gym I had played in so far. My team played a team from Graz,
Austria with an American on the team (Ashley Genslak, former BIP JEET star)
that we had had dinner with earlier on the trip. We dominated the first
game, but then really fell apart the second and third games and lost. We
ended up losing the match in five which should not have happened. The team
was young and small, but they could pass and serve which got us out of our
system.
We headed back to the hotel to have dinner with some of the Americans from
the Nova KBM Maribor Team; Lindsay Stalzer and Sarah Ammerman. After dinner,
we wanted to enjoy our time with the Americans but take it easy so we just
played some drinking games in the hotel room. It was nice to just hang out
tonight but still enjoy our time here! We are leaving to another town in
Slovenia tomorrow (Izola) and stopping through the capital of Ljubljana for
lunch. Excited to see some new places!
Day 7, January 14
by Megan Henderson, Troy ‘11
I can’t believe it’s already been a week on this tour! Over the past week, we’ve been playing matches on various teams of different girls against already professional teams. It’s been nice to see what kind of level we could be subject to if we get offered a job.
Today, we woke up and had our usual breakfast in Maribor, Slovenia: lunch meat, fruit, yogurt, cheese, and a ridiculous amount of bread. After breakfast, we packed up our stuff and piled in vans to drive to another small town in Slovenia. The town was called Ljubljana (‘Lube-Lee-ana’ is how you pronounce it, and it’s the capital of Slovenia, you know just in case you ever play Slovenian trivia) and we were there for just a few hours. Sightseeing and lunch was our agenda and it was definitely an experience.
We saw these random statues around the whole town. The town was known, though, for the four dragon “gatekeepers” and there are four guarding a certain bridge near the center of town. After being “those” Americans and asking around, we learned that the dragon is a symbol for the city. The legend with the Dragon Bridge is that when a virgin crosses the bridge, the dragons will wag their tails.
For lunch, we stopped at this little vendor-type place on the way back to the vans. It was basically the Chipotle of Slovenia complete with freshly shredded chicken or pork, lettuce, tomato, and some other toppings we didn’t recognize, but of course got them anyway. The wrap was amazing and turns out, the majority of the girls stopped there at different times to get them. That place definitely made money off the BringItUsa girls!
After lunch, we got back in the vans and drove to Izola and checked into the Hotel Marina. The name speaks for its location, we were literally right on the edge of a marina complete with beautiful boats, water, and small shops. Meghan Gilroy and I roomed together and we clearly got the smallest room in the place (not discovered until we saw other girls’ rooms). But, hey, free wireless internet...can’t complain!
We divided into 3 teams for playing that night. One team went to Porec, Croatia to play and the other two teams (including mine) went to a gym in a town called Koper. My team played against a younger team from the area. We played 5 sets against the junior team and beat them pretty easily every set. After we were done playing, we went over to the other side of the gym to watch the other BringIt team finish up their match. Mandy Bible and Jessica Barrera (both BIP clients) play for the Senior Koper Team and would come meet up with us for dinner later...
We were then rushed out of the gym by Tim so we could eat dinner at a decent hour, plus we were all very hungry by then and welcomed any idea of food, even if it meant not showering. The meal was different than any other that we had on the tour. Us Americans were ecstatic to find out it was a BUFFET! It featured seafood, bread, salad, soup and dessert. After dinner, most of us stayed in the lobby and bonded over some glasses of wine...good times and I’m sure the hotel staff loved us.
Day 8, January 15, "The Bologna Group", by Christine Vaughen, UNC '10
Our group left Koper, Slovenia in the morning to head toward our hotel in
Anzola, Italy. We were a group of eight who were interested in potentially "staying to play". After arriving at our hotel in Anzola, which was a
government apartment in their city hall, we made a quick trip to a pastry
shop next door, because we were in Italy, duh. We had various pastries and
cannolis with espressos and macchiatos; the Italian way. From there we drove
to Idea Volleyball Club's gym to practice and then watch them play a match.
Idea is a Serie C team, so we were able to get an idea of the level of play
in Italy's C Division.
After the practice, we had some time to spare until Idea's match so we
headed to the gym's bar. That's the interesting thing about sports clubs and
gyms in Europe. They all have bars in them. However, we ended up crashing a
kids' birthday party which was going on in the sports club's bar. So we
listened to "Gasolina" and other awesomely bad kid songs and drank some
beers until the match started.
We watched the first set and the entire time we were incredibly distracted
by the team's bedazzled jerseys. Like front and back of the jerseys, and
maybe also the spandex I can't remember, were completely blinged out in
rhinestones. Apparently their sponsor, a jeans brand, uses a lot of
rhinestones in their clothing so they also made their jerseys totally
blinged out. It was a bit distracting, but "fabulous" nonetheless. Tim
decided then that next year's Bring It jerseys would also be bedazzled. We
decided that "Bring It" bedazzled on our spandex could be pretty awesome,
although some disagreed.
After the match we headed to dinner in Bologna with Timıs friend Andrea
Celani, the president of the Italian Coaches Association, and his entourage
of friends. However, our retarded-sized bus could not fit on the streets of
Bologna so we had "drivers" take us into downtown. (You need a special
license or permit to drive on these ancient Bologna streets). So we were
shoved into black Audis and Mercedes with drivers to take us into town. My
driver did not acknowledge us whatsoever and had slicked back hair into a
ponytail as he raced us through the streets. Iım still convinced he was
Italian Mafia.
We got to the first bar and we noticed they had a small buffet at the bar.
We learned that basically, if you drink, you get to eat for free. The food
is all you can eat as long as you order drinks. Apparently this is a popular
way for the hip crowd to eat in Bologna, and on a Saturday night, we weren't
complaining. And the drinks were incredibly strong and had almost no ice in
them. One of the girls we were with explained, We in Italy think, hey I'm
not paying for ice, I'm paying for alcohol! Personally, I liked this new
drink concept.
On a side note, one of the items in the buffet bar was a bologna sandwich.
Do you know what that means? That we had bologna in Bologna.
From there we went to another local hot spot with hundreds of wine bottles
littering the walls. The served us antipasta with parmesan which was
apparently worth like $40 a pound, the "real thing." It was pretty damn
good.
After drinks and dinner we walked around the town of Bologna. It was POPPIN!
Like I've never seen the streets of a city so busy and crowded on a Saturday
night, there were young people everywhere. It was a really exciting and fun
place to be on a Saturday night, Italians know how to party! But since we
had to play the next day we did not partake in all the festivities. However,
we did see the various churches, buildings, and the main square that were
all built around 500 AD. They were gorgeous. We ended the night with a ride
back to our oddly-shaped bus and went back to our city hall hotel.
Day 9, January 16, "The Cortona Group", by Christine Vaughen, UNC '10
After having decided to sleep in the night before we all got up about 8:15
to head towards our gym in Tuscany. We hit the road and ate breakfast at one
of those Auto Grill restaurants and gas stations. With fresh orange juice,
espresso bars and fresh sandwiches, these aren't the grimy rest-stops of the
states. We finally got to the Tuscany region and visited a beautiful home
overlooking the Tuscan countryside. We were informed that the house was
built in the early 1700s and is frequented by the President of Italy. From
the house we could see the town where New Moon was filmed (Montepulciano).
All the Twilight nerds of the group were very excited about this
information. We all agreed that it would be really cool to find a yellow
Porsche and drive up to the town. We asked Tim whether he had ever seen the
movie Twilight, because we were very excited to see the town where the
Volturi resided. He said, "Hell no!" Oh ya, he's a guy.
After visiting the home we went towards town and ate at a delicious family
owned restaurant that had Tiramisu which "was like crack." The portions were
enormous, however, and we were forced to roll ourselves out of the
restaurant in hopes of walking off some of the Tuscan meal. We then headed
up to the main town up high on the hill; Cortona. The walls holding up the
hillside along the winding road were built before the days of Jesus. The
town was where the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" was filmed and many movie
stars had visited. The cafe in the main town square had countless picture of
such stars as George Cloony and Queen Elizabeth. The people were very
inviting and friendly, but the pigeons were not. KC was the victim of some
unfortunate pigeon mess while were sitting outside the cafe. Next to the
cafe though was the original town meeting house, built in 700 AD, which is
still being used today for town meetings and legislation.
We finally made it to the gym for our match and mixed in with the local team
for four sets. We learned that a "super" is a fast four, a "fast" is a
slide, and "seven" is a three or thirty one. The girls were all very nice
and we all had fun playing with and against each other.
From the gym we went straight to Florence for a run through the city for two
hours. As soon as we got there we had pizza and an 8 euro gelato. But in our
defense the gelato had a fresh baked waffle plopped on top. So with our ice
cream we toured the main square and a few of the key sights, while
bargaining with the sketchy purse sellers as we walked. Some of their
Burberry bags were pretty legit though. After racing through the city for
two hours we made the drive back to Venice. We decided to spice things up
though on the drive, and while some of the girls were attempting to sleep,
the front row decided to stop for some wine and beer and play Mumford and
Sons songs on repeat. These activities were met with varying enthusiasm by
all travelers in our strange sized bus. When we got to Venice, we learned
that there was nothing to do on a Sunday night so we all just hung out at
the hotel until our Venice adventures the next day.
Day 10, January 17, 2011
By Christine Vaughen (signed in Finland)
We headed downstairs for breakfast on our last day of the tour in fabulous Venezia. Our hotel was just outside the city, in between the airport and main city. Like all European breakfasts, the buffet had a wide assortment of bread and Nutella. Nutella cereal, Nutella croissants, and Nutella spread for your bread. After breakfast we caught our bus outside our hotel and headed toward the enormous maze of Venice. KC and I knew that we would need some cash while in Venice so we went straight to the ATM. We tried to put in $70.000 to withdraw but the bank said "that exceeds your limit." So we tried AGAIN to withdraw just 70.000 and got denied once again, both saying to ourselves, "No I'm not overdrawn on my account." We started getting frustrated because none of us could seem to withdraw our desired amount and we were creating a line. Then the Italian girl behind us then said, "Uh, excuse me, the period means a comma in America." Oh, oops we had tried to withdraw $70,000. Genius. So we finally got our desired amount and headed into the streets feeling like complete retards.
The first stand we get to had the standard Venice souvenirs such as masks, shot glasses, and Italia shirts and jerseys. It seems though that many of the merchants in Venice are from India and like large American girls. One such merchant popped up in front of me and said, "You, you nice, you take my friend," pointing to his 5' Nothing friend. I said, "oh, your friend likes me, then do you like KC?" The 4' Nothing Merchant grins and nods his head yes. We told them, "Well I think you guys are a little SHORT for us." He tells us, "You very big, thick girls, good for us." Um, THANKS little Venice merchant! We told him we'd only date them if they gave us a good discount on Italia shirts. So after being told we DON'T need any more Nutella products that day, we began winding through the streets toward Piazza San Marco.
Once arriving at Piazza San Marco, we toured the beautiful main church and then along the waterfront looking desperately for some purse sellers. We unfortunately soon found out why there was such a lack of sketchy illegal fake purse sellers around. The one seller we found informed us that when it's overcast they don't really come out. I suppose running from the cops AND being outside in the chilly overcast weather is like a double-whammy of suckiness for them.
But although we failed in our purse search we did encounter the epitome of what I like to call an "Italian Stallion." He looked like a runway model from Milan and was posing in front of the famous Bridge of Sighs. For about the next fifteen minutes or so, I have to admit, I visualized myself playing volleyball in Europe with an Italian Stallion boyfriend, zooming through the Italian cobblestone streets on a yellow Vespa with our Cannolis, Italian wine and espresso. Okay, anyways, that daydream was burst when suddenly we found ourselves, um, LOST!
We decided to hang a left down one of the side streets off the water because we knew that we'd be heading in the right direction. So we headed down the first street, then took a left down another, walked through about 5 neighborhoods, over two bridges all while saying, :ya were almost to the bus stop at the edge of town." But then, suddenly, me and KC were like, "wait, no, damn it!!" We had come out exactly back at Piazzo San Marco, and right next to the church. At this point we had truly demonstrated our incredible intellect that day.
On the way back we decided to have our second Tiramisu for the day. Particularly after our encounter with our merchant friends, I was not feeling that I really needed two Tiramisus for the day. But as Ron Burgundy would say, "When in Rome." We also considered doing a Gondola ride, the Gondola guides hustle you constantly as you walk through the streets, but doing a ride with just two people is a little too expensive.
We were almost at the bus station when we ran into quite the scene. We saw Jessica and Vanessa, and Vanessa was very upset. When we arrived at the stand she said, "Oh my god, I can't believe it, the guy said this was made in Venice! (holding up a Venetian mask in box) but it was made IN CHINA!!! Like what the heck, made in China, I don't want anything made in China when I'm in Venice, I didn't really think anything of it when I saw it said Made in PRC on the back before I bought it. That stands for People's Republic of China! Do you want it, I don't! (Offering the made in China mask to one of the Indian street merchants). He shook his head no. Who knew Venetian masks in Venice were actually imported from China.
Venice is really the ultimate shop 'til you drop experience. Like if you're a guy and hate to shop, it's probably your worst nightmare because chances are, you'll get lost in the maze of shops at some point. (I keep telling myself that everyone gets miserably lost in Venice). So once we got back to the hotel we took about a 3 hour coma nap and woke up for the finale dinner. Our group headed to the local dinner place for a good Italian meal of red wine, Lasagna, and bread. Unfortunately, the local destination club was not poppin' on Monday nights, so everyone pretty just enjoyed each others' company in our hotel lobby after dinner for our last night together.
