Player Journals from Volleyball's Trip to Czech Republic
8/25/2003 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
PHOTO GALLERY
Erin Moore | MONDAY, AUGUST 25 I must admit that I, along with the rest of the team, was ready to see Yost Ice Arena and Cliff Keen in lieu of the Charles River and Prague Castle. Although the monuments hardly compare, it was a welcome site when we arrived home yesterday. Looking back, I think that biggest thrill of the trip would have to be the boat ride on the Charles River. Terezin, the castle tours and shopping in downtown Prague were great too, but cultural experiences aside, the matches we played will help us immensely. Everyone knows what they have to work on, and more importantly we got a chance to compete against other teams before it shows on our record. As for today, we are all relaxing and trying to catch up on laundry, not to mention snacking on our favorite foods that we couldn't find in Czech. We're definitely glad to be home but we'll be more than ready to head to Florida in a few days to take on Kansas State in our first regular-season match. Hope to see you all soon at the Pepsi Challenge. Go Blue! |
Erin Cobler | SUNDAY, AUGUST 24 The day has come for us to leave Prague. We woke up early this morning and had breakfast in the hotel for the last time. Our first flight was from Prague to Amsterdam, where we had about an hour layover. Then it was time for our seven-hour flight back to the states. Because of the time change we were told not to sleep for more than an hour and a half. We kept ourselves busy with movies, coloring books and in-flight yoga. Our flight landed around 5 o'clock local time. After getting our bags and going through customs we were on our bus at about 6:30 and back to the gym at 7. Although Prague was a great experience for all of us, we are all excited to be home again in Ann Arbor. Thanks so much to all the Blue Aces and friends who made this trip possible -- it was such a great experience for our team!! |
Megan Bowman | SATURDAY, AUGUST 23 Today we woke up around 7:30 a.m. and were bused off to a prison called Terezin. It was a deportation holding place for prisoners caught for political reasons many years ago. Terezin was interesting because we were able to learn firsthand the struggles that the prisoners went through when they attended the camp. Each one of us went into the solitary confinement cells and shut the door. It was scary and we understood how some of the prisoners went insane! Quite a learning experience. After an informational guided tour, a historical movie, and a visit to the souvenir shops, we ate lunch at the cantina of the camp. The lunch consisted of stew, chicken and rice and was excellent. It was probably a lot tastier than what the prisoners received during their visit. We returned to the hotel to prepare for a two-hour practice. We worked on a ton of offense and teamwork skills to finish out the week of volleyball in Prague. Once practice was over, we showered and went to a cookout at our tour guide Jirca's house. He was very hospitable and we had salad with homemade ranch dressing and chicken off the grill. It was very relaxing and some of the girls played croquet. Also, Jirca had us play a charades game which was fun. After dinner, we traveled down to the Old Town Square for some last-minute shopping. We were planning on going to an authentic Czech discotheque, but by that time we were all pretty tired. Therefore, we returned to the hotel, packed and went to sleep. We are all ready to come home but will miss all the fun activities in Prague!! |
Candace Gay | FRIDAY, AUGUST 22 Well, friends, today has been yet another adventure in the Czech Republic. The day started at 6:30 a.m. We ate breakfast and then started our one-hour trek to Brno in order to play the top team in the country! The match went pretty well for the most part, even though we ended up losing the match three games to two. After the game we ate a small lunch, got cleaned up, and then headed over to visit the ancient cave site 30 minutes from Brno. The cave was freezing inside but well worth the trip. We got to see stalactites and stalagmites that had been forming for 350 million years. It was educational and fun. We took a boat through a river through the rest of the cave, then headed back to the bus to go back to Prague. After our two and a half hour bus ride back, we all went into downtown Prague for dinner on our own. Now, back at the hotel, it is time to sleep and prepare for another full day in the Czech Republic. |
Sarah Allen (with Danni Pflum) | THURSDAY, AUGUST 21 Well, this morning was good because we got to sleep in an extra hour and a half. We got to do some shopping as well as ride the subway. Lunch was at the same Italian restuarant where we ate on the first day ... yummy! Volleyballwise, our match today was not pretty. We played Olymp Praha again (same team as yesterday), but we lost in three. Unfortunately, we did not play well (it was "one of those days"). Also, Poke (Nicole Poquette) sprained her ankle in the second game ... a bit of a bummer. :( On a happier note, we did get to go "bobsledding" today. Basically it was a big metal half-pipe doing in all kinds of twists and turns, and you ride down this pipe on a little scooter that could fit up to two people. It was fun; as you can imagine, a lot of us have a need for speed (and now a need for a lot of band-aids!). Some of us went speeding around the corners so fast that we practically fell off the scooter and skinned our knees and elbows pretty badly ... especially us! Overall, it was fun, and turned out to be a good day. We returned to the hotel for a pizza picnic out by the hotel fountain, and we are now about to go to bed because we travel to Brno tomorrow for a match against the top team in the Czech Republic. We have to be up at 6:30 for breakfast! Good night! |
Jennifer Gandolph | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20 Today we woke up and had another wonderful breakfast here in our lovely hotel. We loaded up the bus and headed to the gym. We played two matches today and they both went very well. The first match was against Slavia Praha, the team we played and beat yesterday. We had a little extra motivation today because they believed that they just had a bad day yesterday and are actually a better team than us. So we basically went out and took care of them in three games. We played a fourth and got a chance to change the lineup around a little and won the fourth game fairly easily. After the match we headed to another gym to play a much better team. It was Olymp Praha and they finished second in 2003 in the 1st Division Czech leagues. This team consisted of much older, experienced players. Their best player was actually 35 years old! I only hope I can move as well as her at that age. We ended up winning the match in four. We lost the first game and had to come back from behind in the third game. It created some great situations for us to be in. All around I think we played very well as a whole team. For our nighttime activity, we had the chance to do something extra special. First we took the city transportation train to the Charles River. We went on a dinner cruise that went up and down the Charles River. We were on the boat for about three hours and we able to watch the sun go down and see all the beautiful lights from the city. The buildings were all lit up and the castles in the distance we absolutely amazing. We took some great pictures tonight and danced to the music of the band that was on board. I think today was my favorite day so far and I'm happy that I got the chance to write about it. I guess I'll be seeing most of you soon. Go Blue!! |
Chantel Reedus | TUESDAY, AUGUST 19 Prague was beautiful today. We played a match this morning against the third-place team in the Czech League. Our play was really good and we ended up winning in three. The style of play here is a little bit slower, so I think that we benefited in a lot of ways. It feels really good to be playing personally; it's been about eight months since I have been in a game situation and there's nothing better than playing well with my teammates in Europe. After we played we visited Karlstejn Castle in the countryside of Prague, about an hour away from the city. It was beautiful, located on rolling hills in pretty much the middle of nowhere to us, but probably the middle of everythng to the locals. It was wonderful to see how people lived in the early 13th century. Inside the castle I could feel the tradition that once lived there. Overall the trip has been a very unique experince and I think that our team is growing closer together with every day. Hope to see everone in Cliff Keen! |
Ashley Buckingham (with Kristina Sabbagh) | MONDAY, AUGUST 18 Dobry den!! This morning we started out at St. Vitus's Cathedral. The stained glass windows and cathedral ceilings were absolutely beautiful. Our workouts started earlier today than expected -- we climbed 287 spiraled stairs to reach the top of the bell tower. Though winded at the top, the view was amazing. Next we went to the Prague Castle. There we learned some history about the city and its rulers. Going to St. Charles Bridge was very enjoyable. Scenes from "Mission: Impossible" were taken there. We were tempted by vendors to buy their hand-painted pictures and jewelry. After getting some rest we headed off to our first match of the week vs. Olymph Praha Juniors. We played five games and were victorious in all. No doubt tonight we will sleep soundly. Dobrous noc! Good night! |
Nicole Poquette | SUNDAY, AUGUST 17 After getting some much needed sleep we woke up to our first full day in Prague. We had breakfast, which was a little different than back home. No waffels, but there was bread, cheese, meat, yogurt with cereal. It just wasn't the same but we dealt with it. Then we went off to practice. It started off slow but we got over our tiredness and got some good time in at the gym. We had lunch at the hotel and everyone was getting used to the smaller portions, the different foods, no ice in drinks and asking for water with no gas. After that we all went to a mall to shop, and for those of us whose bags got lost we had to buy some necessities. Then back to downtown Prague were we all got to explore on our own for awhile. Everyone could get what they wanted for dinner. Some ate at cafes or delis and others went for some home cookin at KFC. Prague is a beautiful city and we get to explore more of it tomorrow plus have our first match! GO BLUE! |
Alicia Boswell | SATURDAY, AUGUST 16 Well, it is hard to separate the end of Friday evening and the beginning of Saturday morning, but we were still on the plane to Amsterdam, somewhere over the Atlantic. After arriving in Amsterdam -- groggy and not sure what part of the day it was exactly -- we found out it was late morning, and we were now six hours ahead of Ann Arbor time. Grabbing a quick lunch in the airport before our flight to Prague, we had our first experience with the Euro and enjoyed the duty free shops. Our flight to Prague was quick, especially when it is spent napping. Arriving at the baggage claim, we discovered we were missing seven bags, including two players' bags as well as our training bags. Pretty tired but exhausted and relieved to have made it to Prague, we loaded what luggage we had into the van and drove to our hotel, on the way viewing our first sights of Prague, which included beautiful homes, as well as very tall, cold-looking apartment buildings, reminders of the Communist years in the Czech Republic. The striking contrast of appearances between the buidings is amazing. Checking into our hotel, we found the European standard single bed with only one cover! It is actually very comfortable; we all slept very well that evening. Changing for a quick workout, we also discovered our swollen ankles due to our traveling and had a good laugh. Dinner was amazing. We ate at a family style Italian restaurant and then toured Old Town Prague. It was so beautiful all lit up. The difference between the architecture really amazed me, displaying the different time periods of the buildings. My favorite was the gothic style Catholic church which looked like a temple. It is tall, with dark spires and other dramatic features that was just so incredibly striking and seemed so powerful. Following our quick visit to Old Town we returned to the hotel and went immediately to bed. |
Lisa Gamalski | FRIDAY, AUGUST 15 Well, today was nothing short of interesting. We all had a great time packing in the dark. Everything was running smoothly until we came to the exit to the Detroit airport, where we proceeded to wait for an hour and a half to find that we needed to find another entrance due to the fact that the tunnel was closed. In our wait, (assistant coach) Leisa (Rosen) decided to sprint to the terminal to try and check the team in. Needless to say she ran for a good 2 miles only to be turned back by the oh-so-helpful airport police. As it ended up, we were able to have the plane held while we hurried into the terminal for a rushed check-in and boarded the plane an hour late. Fortunate that the whole team made it on, but as it turns out, we would later find out that some of our bags did not. |
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