Daily Journal: Alabama European Team Tour Day 6
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 6: 5/26/06
Bridget Fuentez #7
As I woke with a stuffy nose, a dry throat, and chapped lips, I was quickly reminded that Coach Green warned us that this would be 'the most challenging day of the trip.' After a long bus ride, we will be expected to compete against a very good Czech volleyball team --OK Brno.
With that in mind, Crystal and I continued to pack up our bags once again. Before leaving our cozy Slovenian rooms, she handed me a roll of toliet paper and suggested that my nose might need it for the bus ride to Czech.
Everyone loaded the bus with a smile because this time it was BIG!
{unlike the mini buses we have had that leave your knees screaming after being shoved against the seat in front of you.} Of course, we needed to spend the last of our Tolars, {Slovenian money} so we stopped at the market up the street. Everyone left satisfied with hands full of snacks. Brig even managed to come out with a new purse.
After a good two and a half hour drive, we stopped for a potty break. This was unlike any other one Rast Haus we had seen. We were in the beautiful country of Austria. Fin agreed when I said, 'this was the BEST rest stop ever!' Brook {our tour guide} told us that there was a slide you could go down to get to the restrooms! With puzzled yet excited faces, we jumped off the bus! This winding metal slide was AMAZING! Fin and I even went back for seconds, but this time it was head first!! Let’s just say that tears were falling from his eyes! Ha!
Another challenge hit us when we were a little delayed getting to our hotel and our warm-up was super short! But the team was pumped and ready to go from point one! The pace of the game was very fast from the very beginning and our energy and intensity was high throughout the whole match carrying us to a three to one win over the OK Brno! This is by far the best our team has played this entire spring and we came away feeling like we were a great team again. Everyone could sense that our team chemistry a major factor in our play today. It is amazing how much better we played since day 1 of the tour. After the match we went to eat with our hosts the Jirka, Michael, Ladi, Zuyana, Pavlina, Marketa and cousin Michael at a Czech Pub.
We feasted chicken and boiled potatoes and took in the sights and sounds of our surroundings. And of course we heard a little sweet home Alabama.
Tomorrow we are off to tour Brno and then out to Bouzov to see a most wonderful castle. Coach Green says we have a huge surprise for lunch at another Czech Pub.
At the end of the day, I am glad I can tell Coach Green that I think we just made this challenging day look pretty darn easy! Yeah Tide!!
Bridget Fuentez aka Daisy
