Euro Blog Day 4: Jennifer Doris
May 24, 2009
Hi Longhorn Fans! Greetings from Maribor. Saturday we woke up around 9:15 a.m. to enjoy a wonderful breakfast which consisted of omelets, scrambled eggs, croissants, yogurt, cereal and fruit. We had a little down time and then we headed over to practice with the Croatians again. We had a good practice and the Croatians seemed to enjoy being mixed in with us. Afterward, we had a short workout session with (athletic trainer) Deann (Koehler) and (assistant coach)Brian (Hosfeld). We did agility work, general strength exercises like push-ups, squats and crunches, and then conditioning. The gym we practice in is not air conditioned, so needless to say we were very sweaty and it was hard to find a dry spot on the floor. We then ran upstairs to have lunch, it was again very tasty. We had salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing, mushroom soup and spaghetti with meat sauce. We followed that with a scoop of gelato from the ice cream stand downstairs. Gelato, in my opinion, is the best stuff ever. I'm a huge ice cream fan and I am pretty much obsessed with it. The pina colada and banana are my favorites. I wish we had more of it back home in the U.S. I'm hoping we will get some more of it before we depart for Croatia. We had the afternoon off to do as we wanted. Our hotel is at the base of a mountain, so our team took a gondola to the top and went to the bolfenks, it's the Slovenian version of a wellness center. Inside there was a luxurious spa and sauna. Rachael (Adams), Syd (Yogi), Koch (Michelle Kocher) and I laid by the indoor pool in our reclining chairs for about an hour and fell asleep. Amber (Roberson) and Bailey (Webster) came up around 5 p.m. and we swam for a little while before going to the sauna. We were fascinated by the vents on the bottom of the pool that would move around and blow up bubbles. I guess it does not take much to entertain us. We then decided to spend a little time in the sauna. I had never been in one before, so it was a brand new experience for me. We sat in there for about 30 minutes talking and laughing about everything possible. After profusely sweating, we decided to get out and shower up.
We met up with the rest of the team, coaches and our tour guides around 8:15 p.m. and went to a restaurant up in the mountains. It was a very special place for Cory, our head tour guide, because that is where he and his wife were married. We had a very traditional Yugoslavian meal that took about two hours to eat. We had prosciutto and cheese, pizza, schnitzel, beef roast, crawfish, rice and noodles, apple strudel and some form of cheesecake for dessert. They don't have real cheesecake here. Instead, it is baked, sweet cheese. It was delicious by all means and we were definitely stuffed by the time we left. Juliann (Faucette), Pao (Lauren Paolini) and I all got in the same gondola and rode back down to our hotel. The view as you are riding down is just gorgeous. We often joke that the city looks like a backdrop or a scene in a movie. It is unreal how the city is all lit up. Once we arrived at our hotel, we had a short meeting about Sunday's agenda and then we all split up. Some of us stayed downstairs while others went to bed. Those downstairs were entertained by Ella (Hosfeld) and Parker (Elliott) putting on a dance concert for us. Those kids are adorable! This trip has been a blast. We are enjoying every minute of it and there never seems to be a dull moment. Hope all is well back home, thanks for following us. We can't wait to see you at Gregory in the Fall. Hook 'Em, Jen Doris |
|
