Daily Journal: Alabama European Team Tour Day 5
5/27/2006 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
The Alabama volleyball team is on a 10-day, three country tour of Europe. The Tide is traveling to Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovenia and will play five matches while visiting. To keep the fans informed, the Alabama players are writing daily journals about their trip of a lifetime. Due to limited internet access in Europe, some of the journals may be a couple of days late being posted.
Alabama European Team Tour
Day 5: 5/26/06
Brooks Webster a.k.a Bones
Here we are day 2 in Maribor, 10:54pm riding the bus back to the hotel. It is my turn to give the run down of events that took place today. Our day started at 8:00am because we had to meet downstairs for breakfast which we finished in 15 minutes. Since we finished early and weren’t planning on leaving until 9am, that meant there was enough time for....Yes, a nap! Naps for us are rare moments of paradise that can be taken anytime and anyplace. So, everyone headed back to their rooms to indulge in these blessings. As soon as we laid down, it was time to get up because we had a ropes course to conquer. We rode ski lifts to the top of the Pohorje mountain where the ropes course was located. What a spectacular view from the top we had of the city! When we arrived we put on harnesses and went over the safety guidelines, rules, and regulations with our instructor, Mr. Peter! When we first looked at the course, we thought we could complete it in 45min. Our instructor told us that it would be 2 hours. Boy, did we ever underestimate the ropes course. When you are high off the ground people’s true colors come out! All in all, it was a fun experience for our team. The exciting part was going down the mountain. We rode Pohorje Jets, which are like mini sleds attached to a monorail that zigzags down the mountain at demonic speeds with the wind in your hair, and tears streaming down the sides of your face. Zigging and zagging left and right, conjuring unexpected drops, and experiencing whiplash like jerks. The crush was scrumtrulescent (that is for Lindsey). After that rush of adrenaline, we saw some children playing and decided to join them. We all played a game of dodge ball! Man, some of kids could throw missiles. They should have been pitching in the Major Leagues.
After playing with the Slovenian kids, we retired to our quarters for a “siesta” afternoon nap before our game. We left the hotel at 4pm because our game was an hour away near the Ljubljana capital of Slovenia. We played the Slovenian Youth National Team and beat them 3 games to 1. Our team continues to improve in many ways on the court and today we served extremely well and ran our middle attack effectively. The Slovenian team was quite bashful after the match but we did manage to get them to chat with us a little. After our game we went to a pizzeria in town and enjoyed some old fashioned Slovenian pizzas! It was a great to have familiar food. When I ate the pizza, it was if angels were dancing on my tongue.....which now brings you to where I am now on the bus headed back to the hotel.
My experience so far has been good! People think Crystal and I are Venus and Serena Williams! People have also asked us to take pictures. I enjoy it... it is like we are celebrities. I think they don’t see a lot of black people and that is why they are excited to see us. Tomorrow we are off to Coach G.’s favorite place Brno, Czech Republic where who knows what will await us. Next up for the Tide on the court is OK Brno one of the top teams in Czech. Dobre noc! ( that is Czech for good night) ROLL TIDE!!
