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 #1 - Traveling to Europe - May 9 - Laura Obert

So my first experience going to Europe started out a little bit interesting to say the least... When we went to get on our connecting flight in Dulles airport we got on the largest airplane I have ever been on; then proceeded to sit there for quite a while getting real hot only to be told that we had to de-plane to get on a different one. So we got off and spent a few more hours just chillin in the airport before getting on another one. Well, we finally did and it was pretty cool. That seven or eight hour flight to Frankfurt, Germany didn’t seem like it took too long at all. I actually slept on the plane truth be told. It wasn’t bad. But because our connection had been delayed arriving to Frankfurt, we weren’t really sure if we were going to be able to get 15 people on the same flight going to Budapest. After much confusion and with the help of one very helpful German, we were all on our way to Budapest.

When we landed in Hungary we were all just so excited to be here that no one really cared that we hadn’t really gotten more than a nap on the plane for the past 24 hours or so. Brooke, our tour guide who will be with us and show us around for the next 12 days met us at the airport. On our way to the hotel she explained a little about herself and what Bring It USA is all about. She also gave us a little insight into what to expect while we are over here. We pulled up to the Tulip Hotel and unloaded our bags, came downstairs, and ate a truly Hungarian lunch…apparently French fries are this country’s "potato". We started out with soup, then moved onto the Hungarian lunch of chicken piled on top of French fries-very good! After lunch we went back to our rooms and had two hours to ourselves….basically we slept for two hours. We definitely needed it. After our naps we met back up and started on our way to the gym for our first and only practice of the trip.

We got to really experience the city on our way there. We walked a little ways to get on the subway or metro, and then hopped on it for a while till we got off above ground and took another bus. Well, to go along with our previous travel experience, one of the buses brokedown so we had to get off of that one and onto another one. After taking some pictures and looking around and just taking in some of Budapest, we arrived at the gym and that was another experience. We were told the ball was going to be harder but it wasn’t that bad. So we had practice and then walked back home to the hotel to eat dinner which ended with a dessert told to us as being a Hungarian Special. Overall, our first two days in Europe went by extremely fast and we’ve had a great time so far but we were definitely ready for bed and a good full nights sleep-even though it was 6:00pm at home!