Again, I’m sorry to have no photos. But this time we’ve got at least a partial journal.


Itinerary for Rob Patrick and Brian Hosfeld’s Eastie Trip:

Partial Journal from Brian:

The first half of our tour is over and we've seen a lot of volleyball throughout the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, Slovenia, and Croatia. It's been a gym to gym, country to country exploration that has more than satisfied the "seek and destroy" part of the mission. Although we haven't done a lot of sightseeing because of the rigorous recruiting schedule, we've definitely experienced the culture of the various countries.

We are now on the last leg of our tour. We passed through Hungary just long enough to learn that Budapest is actually the combination of two cities, "Buda" and "Pest" that are separated by the Danube River. Just a little history for you. From there we traveled on a night train to Bucharest, Romania, and were greeted by some rather shady looking characters...but alas they were driving a Mercedes, as promised by Tim before the trip. He just forgot to mention that the Mercedes might be a 1973 BEETER! The odometer on the Mercedes read 344,315 kilometers (which is about 215,000 miles), but it was stuck on that number and had been running for who knows how long after that. We were quite sure that we'd never make it through Romania without SOME incident in the car, and sure enough it broke down about half way through. With the resourcefulness of the shady tour guide, though, we were able to travel throughout Romania (albeit in a Daewoo with 5 people + luggage!) and still manage to see some volleyball. Overall I think we were all astonished to find the conditions so oppressed (and I'm not just talking about that '73 Benz!). It's no wonder the people were more responsive to leaving their homeland. I think that in the entire time we traveled through Romania, we never once saw a semi-truck for transport but instead saw at least 100 horses pulling wagons. Definitely a different world.

We are now in Sofia, Bulgaria and this is where we'll be ending the tour. The volleyball players here seem much more knowledgable about what it takes to get to the States and to be eligible by university standards. There seem to be adequate resources for them (either via internet, previous players who have gone overseas, or people in the federation) to find out information on SAT tests, TOEFLs, college applications, etc. It also seems that some of the players would have come home in our luggage had we offered the chance to do so. The unfortunate part is that very few of the athletes we saw were impact players at the D-1 level. Nonetheless we've had a great experience here and have done some sightseeing at a monestary (according to our tour guide--who's known for embellishing just a little--it's a world famous monestary and just missed the "7 Wonders of the World" list), had some time to shop, and seen the remnants of the Communist era in Bulgaria.

This trip has been long, my clothes absolutely reek, and I'm ready to get home where I won't have to live out of a suitcase for a while. But all in all it's been a great experience, everyone has made good contacts in each country, and I'd do it again (maybe minus the shady Romanian tour guide) next year. Thanks to Tim, Rob, the "Rad-Man," "Doc Martin," and all the others who made the trip what it was!

Brian Hosfeld
Head Volleyball Coach
Baylor University