Off to the Airport

We are finally leaving this beautiful town of Stare Jablonki....only to enter into Warsaw for the evening. Tomorrow we head to Berlin. Berlin is the first of 4 Grand Slams...........We are definitely feeling good and ready for our next event.

Traditional Polish Dinner!!

So....there was a free dinner for the players and tournament peeps. They drove us on bus to a restaurant 15 minutes out of Stare Jablonki..........there was polish dancing, polish music, polish food, polish drink, and the few of us that dared to go had a blast. We are heading to Warsaw in the morning, maybe some good shopping there.
Now, it it well past bedtime!

Polish sausage

We cannot seem to find them anywhere. Everyone has been asking what its like to eat Polish sausage in Poland. No have, only Polish Ravioli. Today was a rough one! Breakfast, internet, nap, 24, internet, lunch, 24, dinner, dessert, and now.....well, blogging! We really left our room only to eat breakfast and dinner. We had lunch in our room. No volleyball today. The break feels good. Our bodies are tired. Tomorrow, we will watch some and get a little workout in, then head to Warsaw on Friday. We will be sightseers for 24 hours before hopping on the plane to Berlin.

Stare Jablonki still

Yesterday was the qualifier and we were unlucky. We beat the Australians in 2 sets and lost to the LITTLE Japanese players in 3 sets. We did not play well, and they made very few errors. Not a good combo. Trying to figure out where to go in Europe next. We have one week til the Grand slams, so it is important to rest and recover. Talk to you lateskis!

Poland Day 2

Last night was good sleep, no dogs, no roosters, and we closed the curtains. After breaky today we headed to the courts, practiced for an hour, then had a pedicure and massage. Pedicure was nothing special but long overdue, massage was interesting. After returning to the hotel for a little rest and food, we headed to the meeting. Yeah the meeting that tells us who we play to qualify. Our first round should be Australia (but they play Poland first). Then on the other side of the bracket, Japan plays South Africa. Could go either way. Our goal is to play the way we can and to be in control, with confidence, and intensity. We have all the skills to qualify here in Stare Jablonki. To all of you who read this, just know how much I appreciate your support and love. Through all these travels, its easy to lose touch with those people at home cuz you get so into what is happening right now (in my time zone). I know back home, graduations have occurred, school years ended and seasons ended. Congrats to everyone for taking the next step in life. We are all moving right along. Ciao!

And check out our Hotel!

We have a very unique hotel room, hotel hallway, and route to the restaurant. Hotel Sanjimino. It is out in the middle of the nowhere, surrounded by fields of wheat, or corn or something. Here are some fotos of the inside and out. And our secret walk to the restaurant, through the kitchen.

A day in Stare Jablonki

Today was a very exciting and funfilled day except for the 8 hours we spent in our 2 star hotel room trying to watch 24 on surfthechannel website while it buffered every....mmmm.....4 seconds. We are still not finished with one episode. This website allows you to download and watch for free a ton of shows......the catch is that some take FOREVER to download. So, once we woke at 3:52 am to the alarm I had set in Barcelona, we quickly fell back asleep, only to hear the farm dog outside barking away. After that came the rooster. And, i believe the sun went down about 11pm and rose around 3am. Kind of like Alaska....! Well, we caught the shuttle to the site, which is surrounded by lakes and barns. Practice for an hour, lifted weights, swam, saunad, showered and headed back to the hotel for lunch. That's it!