May 19, 2007
Women's Volleyball Travels to Europe

Day 11 - May 19 - Kristin Rinne's Blog
Day 10 - May 18 - Megan Pollard's Blog
Day 9 - May 17 - Devon West's Blog
Day 8 - May 16 - Rachel Bonertz's Blog
Day 7 - May 15 - Ashley Scheible's Blog
Day 6 - May 14 - Kristin Wolf's Blog
Day 5 - May 13 - Meagen Tracey's Blog
Day 4 - May 12 - Nakia Thompson's Blog
Day 3 - May 11 - Brett Starbuck's Blog
Day 2 - May 10 - Jill Nyhof's Blog
Day 1 - May 9 - Laura Obert's Blog


European Blog #8 - Brno, Czech Republic - May 16 - Rachel Bonertz

We woke up today in the beautiful city of Vienna. The sun was shining and not a cloud was in the sky. My three roommates and I headed down to breakfast in a small room across from the receptionist desk. In there we were seated down to a plate of two types of bread and some jam, not a typical American breakfast, but a good one at that. Many of the girls found it to be too small of a breakfast, but I on the other hand fully enjoyed it. With the bread and jam we were given some hot chocolate, which was amazing! After breakfast we loaded up the vans and headed to the Czech Republic. The drive was about two hours, but the scenery was beautiful, green rolling hills and trees everywhere. About every couple of miles there will be some sort of garden. I find that most of the countries here grow their own food and are constantly eating fresh food! The bus ride was a quick one at that. When we arrived in Czech we were taken to our hotel, Hotel Continental Brno, and checked into our rooms. All of us are on the tenth floor which allots to a beautiful view, where you can see for miles. All of the houses’ roofs are a bright orange, much different than that of our typical grey or black roofs. After we checked into our rooms and settled down and had lunch. We were given an interesting salad and some mushroom soup for starters. Then for the main meal we had chicken and some rice with a wonderful creamy pineapple sauce poured all over it. It was delicious. Once done with our lunch we were off to our match. We went to four games with this Czech team wherein we won three of the four. The match was very fun and we all seemed to be enjoying it. After the match we went back to the hotel, quickly changed and were taken on a tour of the city. The building that stuck out most to me on our tour was a beautiful church. We climbed to the bell tour and had a view of the city that went on for miles. This church was amazing. It had the appearance of a gothic structure. The city of Brno itself is about 700 years old, but some of the main buildings date back over a thousand years. Our tour was pretty quick, but by the time it was over our bellies were grumbling and we were given 200 crowns ($10) to go eat some food. My teammates Kia, Dev, Megan Pollard, Meagan Tracey and I went to this wonderful restaurant and had a fabulous meal of turkey, chicken, soup and some yummy dessert! For such a cheap price the food was to die for. After our lovely dinner we all headed off to a volleyball match for the finals of the spring cup. It was Azerbaijan versus Spain.  The match went to five games and Spain ended up winning the spring cup! These two teams were amazing. They had such precision and accuracy. They swing with great power. Games like these are so exciting and exhilarating to watch. We were given the privilege to play Azerbaijan tomorrow, which is an added match to our tour. Not many people are given such a wonderful opportunity so we are all going head first into an exciting start to our last day in Brno, Czech Republic!