Daily Journal: Alabama Volleyball European Team Tour Day 9
5/30/2006 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
Abbi Blackburn
Day 9: 5/29/2006
Even though we haven’t even eaten dinner yet, today has already been another busy day full of fun and more interesting experiences for us to take home. We started today with breakfast in the hotel. Poor Mary Beth barely had a voice this morning, but toughed it out to enjoy another great day. Breakfast was the usual??eggs, interesting meats, bread and of course cheese! After breakfast we headed out to sightsee and learn a little more history of Prague.
We went to an amazing cathedral (St. Vitus) that was built during the Gothic period and finished with the Baroque period. (Lindsey and I think that Baroque came to Prague to die because the city is covered in its feminine, guilded style.) The cathedral is easily my favorite place that we have visited on our trip. The outside of the cathedral was covered in small details. Even every single gargoyle was different. The inside of the cathedral had high vaulted ceilings and beautiful stained glass windows. The best part (or maybe the most tiring) was the tower.
Continuing the tradition Daisy and Finn began on this trip, every step leading to the top of the tower was counted. I’m sure I’m a little off, but I think the final count was around 282! That’s not normal steps either, but a steep, winding staircase that seemed to go on and on and on...well, you get the idea. The view from the top was awesome! It gave us a complete view of the city-beautiful! The tiring trip up the stairs was worth it but the trip back down had different effect??dizziness!
Oh, I forgot. Before we went to the cathedral we tried to make two guards outside the castle walls smile or laugh. The guards aren’t allowed to move or smile and must be serious all the time. Well, we didn’t make them laugh but Mr. Slack (good ??ole Walt) and Binks had a great picture with one of them. Binks and I also pretended to give one of the guards a kiss. Even that wasn’t enough to make him move. He was pretty tough.
Ok, back to the cathedral time. After we walked down the tower, we were “set loose” on the city of Prague. We split off into groups and participated in one of our favorite pastimes- SHOPPING!!!! Lindsey, Michael-our favorite Czech player- and I headed for the market shops to get classic Czech souvenirs. I got a witch for my mom to hang in our kitchen. Coach Green said in the Czech Republic that in every kitchen there is a hanging witch and if there is not one then the woman of the home is the witch. Hey mom I got you a witch so now worries! I took her word for it and got the ugliest witch I could find.
After some shopping we headed to a fantastic place for lunch??KFC!!! YES! We got familiar food to fill us up before we headed out for the oddest match of the trip. Before we left for our match we had to say goodbye to Michael. L We were all sad to see him go. Then we headed out for the match. We went to the opening of an outdoor sports facility. Yes, we played outdoor 6 v. 6. It was...different. The court was like an outdoor track??rough, “corky”, but good to jump on. We improved throughout the match and adjusted to our odd surroundings. We ended early because it began to rain. (Juice almost took out a few of us when she tried to jump and slipped instead.) Luckily we were presented with umbrellas before the match by the mayor of the Hanspalka that protected us from the rain. We were the dignitaries for sure!!
Now I’m sitting here getting ready to eat at a buffet in our hotel. It should be pretty interesting because Binks-the pickiest eater on the team-has to eat whatever Jill and Meredith want her to eat because the two of them gave up coffee and coke for the day. Well, my stomach is rumbling so I’m gonna get some food! That is, if I can even eat because Amy is already making me laugh. (“I’m sweating!”) Well, until the journal ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!
Abbi “Fet” #12
