Sarajevo...sort of

So this morning (which as I post this, almost a week has passed...oops) I had to go to the physio with a few other girls and Nikola to get my shoulder looked at. Good news! They weren’t able to translate it into english exactly, but the diagnosis was “I don’t know for english, but not dangerous”. Ummmm, ok? Bojana explained to me a little bit better that it is from repetition and it is just a muscle tightness. So what is the up side of this? I think I will be getting daily massages. (I can deal with that!)

For treatment, I undressed and they wrapped this really hot towel around me for a little while, which felt great considering it was snowing outside. Then, the physio came in and did some stem for a little while, then proceeded to give me the weirdest massage I have ever received. He poured on literally half of the bottle of baby oil to where it was dripping off of me (no exaggeration), then he gave me little slaps all on my back. Every once in a while he would throw in some traditional massage, but mostly it was just like he had brooms for hands and was slapping/sweeping dirt off of my back. Strange. After that, we went to Sarajevo to meet up with the team.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time to see the city. We walked through old town which is the Muslim part of the city, called Bascarsija. There were mosques throughout and we heard the call to prayer while we were walking though the little windy streets. Everywhere they were selling little trinkets made of gold, silver, nickel and copper. There were pepper grinders, tea kettles, and other various things that were beautiful. Each was handmade and looked like something you could never find in America. 

Then I went to a hookah cafe, which is typical for the Balkans. I sat in there and enjoyed a cappuccino and then met up with the rest of the girls and headed to lunch. We went to a little restaurant and Luka told us we had no choice, and he was ordering us all cevapi, which on the english translation of the menu it said “minced meat fingers”. Sounds delicious, right? I’ve actually had these before and I know they’re delicious so I didn’t really pay much attention to the awful translation. They’re like little sausage links served in a pita. It was the first meal we ate outside of our “dorms” and it was awesome! 

Sarajevo as a whole seemed really fun to explore. It had a great Balkans feel with a little more Muslim influence, which was new to me and exciting to see. Hopefully we will be going back on Saturday so I can explore a little more. If not, at least I was able to see a little piece of the city. 

BLINK!

Today was the third day we’ve spent in Pale (Wednesday), and things were getting a little too routine for the Americans. We have this uno-like card game that I brought, so Lauren and I decided we should make a tournament for the girls. It was a double elimination bracket with a “physical challenge” to determine who got bumped back up into the winner’s bracket. We hyped it up for a little while, so it seemed like everyone was ready to play and of course the whole team was super competitive (that’s the downside of being athletic....it comes with the curse of ALWAYS being competitive). 

We explained the game (with the help of Maja’s serbian translations) and everyone was really into it. It’s only a two player game, but it ended up being that half were helping one person, and the other half helped and cheered for the other. It was so much fun!!

explaining the rules...everyone is focused

things got serious so I was the referee

maja and lauren playing a super intense match

Next, was the physical challenge. We played a “Minute To Win It” game to determine who would advance. It’s the one where you put a golf ball (we used a kiwi from my homegirl Rose at the fruit market in Bar) into a pair of pantyhose, put it over your face and swing it to knock down water bottles. Of COURSE it ended up that I had to take part and I lost by ONE SECOND. sad! 

Maja was the winner of the tournament and chose a chocolate bar as her prize, Anja (a younger girl on our team) won some Plasma --cookies, not blood--- Milica won a lollipop and Cvijo won a different candy. Overall, it was a big success and they said they also planned something for us!!! It was a concert of a song that Maja always sings super over-the-top. Vule tickled the ivory, and Milica, Bojana, Djule and Cvijo did a little choreographed dance. It was a perfect end to the night and they got a good laugh out of everyone.

maja claiming her prize on her winner's podium

 We are officially halfway through our stay, and I think we are going to see part of Sarajevo tomorrow. Unfortunately, I have to go to the physio tomorrow for my shoulder. Hopefully it’s nothing too serious, but it’s really been bugging me lately. I really hope I get to get out and see the city too! 

In other news, 

• I finally used that "toilet" I swore I would never use
• Luka told me and Lauren that we needed to clean our room. Not that it was messy, I would say “disorganized” at worst
• We had “footing” again today, and then we did some conditioning with the team in Pale that we’ve been practicing with.
• I miss the internet like I never thought I would! Luckily, I found an internet cafe, but unluckily its about a 25 minute walk of steady uphill (yes, uphill both ways). 

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll have another post about Sarajevo tomorrow!! 

"Training Camp"

My team just arrived to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Hercegovina for seven days where we will practice with local teams and get some competition/team bonding that we otherwise wouldn’t have a chance for. Everyday we will have “morning footing” (which is an extremely fancy way to say we will go for a team walk) and then in the night we will play with other teams from the area. So now, onward with the details of the trip...

We left Bar at 1:00 and loaded up on the trusty bus/van and headed out. It took us a little longer than anticipated because we had a few roadblocks to get around. First we came across some billy goats that were in the way, next was a hitchhiker (highchecker as the volunteers would call them), then was a lengthy stop by the policija outside of Niksic (Nikola’s hometown, so I’m sure we couldn’t have gotten in toooo much trouble considering he is what we would call “well-connected”), and a big pile of hay. After we successfully passed through all of that we had to stop at the Bosnia border control. Usually it takes a few minutes, they peruse the stamps and no big deal. Well NOT this time! Lauren and I got more than a few suspicious stares and they made us pull over and fill out some paperwork. 

Next, we stopped at a gas station to use the bathroom. The girls were taking an especially long time and I was getting a little perturbed! When it was my turn at bat I realized what the issue was. There was no toilet! Just a little square with a hole carved in it. No thank you. Not really my cup of tea, I passed and went back to the bus. 

About 7 hours later we were finally there! Lets go over the facts we had to work with about what the situation was going to be like:

1. The facilities were “dorms” on a university campus
2. “They are not the best...maybe one or two stars” --Luka told us this
3. We are staying in Pale, which is a little town about 9 miles outside of Sarajevo

Hmmmm....clearly this could go either way. Lauren and I were really optimistic! We packed our pillows juuuust in case, brought our ethernet cord and we were ready to battle whatever was thrown at us. ......That was until we arrived. 

The girls told us that we got the “luxury room”, which consisted of a space heater, a couch, and our own bathroom. SCORE, right?! We moved all of the furniture into one room so we could both reap the benefits of the heater and I guess its not SOOOO bad, but it definitely makes me thankful for what I have “at home” in Bar!

Dresden!

I made it safely to Dresden! Who would have thought I would have become such a master of the German train system?! (just a sidenote: it rocks! soooo easy to figure out thank goodness). As soon as I arrived, I fell in love with the city. I stayed in the center, which was super close to the old town. The buildings had SO much character, and there was such a rich history that it was instantly one of my favorite places. I took a little walk around the city but stayed pretty close to my hotel. 

I met a girl named Anna who I played against at Gonzaga who happens to be playing in Dresden this season. It was nice to meet yet another american and hear her story. She had two american teammates, so we all met up for dinner and had a great time. We at at a “california buffet” and it had garlic bread, pizza, and hamburgers. oh yea--and a “sacramento salad” (it had salmon and the owner told us all that in sacramento they have the most salmon in the world...i’ll store that fact in my brain’s attic until I need it again--which i’m guessing is never). 

The next day Anna had a match so she was busy doing pregame things so I walked around Dresden on my own. The city was AWESOME! 

[[[just as yet another history lesson, Americans destroyed the city during World War II, but those crafty Germans rebuilt it! Now every building in the old town is built to look exactly like the original, and pretty much half of each building is new, and half is what was left standing. For all of you readers, this is the book that Slaughterhouse 5 is about]]] 

It had soo much history and that European charm that you know I love so much. The buildings all had domed tops, extravagant carvings, statues galore etc. I think that’s the euro way and I love every bit of it. Here’s part of the old town:

isn't it gorgeous?! 

I met up with Anna for lunch (which was good timing because this was just about the time I needed to thaw out) and we went to an italian restaurant with delicious pasta. It was a great life decision. After that, she had to leave to start preparing for the match and I went back to the hotel and took a little nap before I headed to the game. 

Anna’s team was playing a team from Krasnodar, Russia, which happened to be the team that Cynthia Barboza is playing for and she also had a Brazilian teammate. Both teams played well, but the team from Russia won in three sets. They play each other again in Russia sometime soon (I’ll keep you posted on the results if I remember). After that we picked up the Russia girls and went to a tapas bar in the city. It was nice to talk about volleyball and the funny things we’ve experienced while playing overseas. It was also awesome to speak in speedy, slangy english and be completely understood! Those girls all had to wake up early so I headed back to my hotel to pack up for the train to Prague in the morning. 

Sachsenhausen

the entrance gate. "work will set you free" 

Since we saw pretty much everything in Berlin we wanted to see thus far (which was completely unexpected considering how little we had seen on new year’s day), we decided to go to the concentration camp that was just a little way out of the town. 

It was downright FREEZING that day, but we thought it would be a good day to see what the prisoners had to go through and we got a much better idea of what they had to battle while they were imprisoned. First, I think it would be wise to give you a rundown of a few of the facts:

• The camp was more than 500 soccer fields (it was HUGE)  
• 200,000 people were imprisoned throughout the duration of the camp's existence 
• It was also the blueprint for how many other concentrations camps would be built
• It was mostly for Soviets because it was in Prussia and was also initially run by National Socialists, not the SS (the SS eventually took over)
• When the SS heard that the camp was going to be liberated, they made the 33,000 prisoners go on a death march in which only 3,000 survived.
• Swiss efforts were made to liberate before the US came, but they were only able to take out a few people.
• It was indeed an extermination camp, complete with gas chambers
• Another form of execution was to make the prisoners step up onto a platform and they were told they were being fitted for new uniforms. In reality, there was a room behind them with an armed SS soldier that shot them in the back of the neck through a small hole in the wall
• There was an attached political prison

As we were walking there we were diligently reviewed the facts we had researched (as gruesome as that sounds, we wanted to be well prepared for what we were about to see). When we got there we saw the layout and then headed through the gate, all the while telling each other “wow, they walked RIGHT here”, “this is really where they were lined up” -- it seemed so surreal. 

We eventually found a little building that was once the kitchen, but now was used as a movie screening room where you could watch a little documentary of the history of the camp. It was very informational and helped guide the rest of our tour. 

Eventually, we found the political prison, the mass grave and memorial, and some barracks, and then it was SO cold that we decided that there probably wasn’t much more to see. Then, we saw that there was a little detour you could make. It turned out that that was where the execution room, crematorium, and execution trench were. These were all preserved so well and both of our hearts sank as we read the information signs that explained exactly what each room was: the gas chamber showers, the “changing room”, the room where they tried on their new uniforms (only to be shot in the head), the mortuary, and the crematorium. It was awful, and I think that was when it finally clicked as to what exactly we were seeing. 

the mass graves and memorial for those who died there

the execution trench 

floor plan of the foundation (which is in back) of the execution building.  on the top left of this floor plan is the gas chamber, on the far right is the mortuary where they extracted gold teeth and other valuables, and other rooms were "doctors offices"and "examination rooms". awful. 

The BIG day!

The order of this day is a little foggy, so I’ll just not mess with chronology at all. Here's a simple list of some of the things we saw that day....

The Berlin Wall:

As terrible as this is, my first encounter with the infamous wall was in the form of a vending machine. Amy and I were walking back from the Dome and we saw a vending machine advertising “bits of the wall”. Of course we HAD to buy it. It was in a little bubblegum machine and what you received (for the low cost of 2 euros) was: 

1. two bits of the wall 
2. a pin saying “i jumped the wall” 
3. a certificate of authenticity        ...and last but not least...
4. a coupon for ice cream! 

We were pumped and thought this was a great deal. Who else can say they bought the wall from a vending machine?? (well, probably lots of people, but add my name to that list!) Later that day we saw much more of the wall and chunks that were scattered throughout the city in the form of art and historical displays. 

Alexanderplatz: 

This is the part of the city that was built when the wall came down. It was supposed to be the new and modern part of the city. Once we got there, we both did a double take and thought we were for sure mistaken. It was by far the most industrial-looking city I’ve ever seen in Europe. We walked a little off of the beaten path, but still much of the same look prevailed. 

Berliner Dom:

This church was awesome! It was a little further out of Alexanderplatz and this was definitely on the list of things to see, so we were excited about it. It was located right on the river. We went inside and took a tour, which included my first view of a crypt. Spooky, right? It was in the church’s basement (which I’m assuming all of them are..) and had about 50 caskets which were all labeled so you could identify who it was. I think it was mostly leaders of the church and their families, and it was super interesting. You all know my love of foreign funerals and cemeteries, so this was another notch in my belt. It was a little creepy, but really interesting. 

Topography of Terror:

the entrance to the museum with the berlin wall behind 

This was a great exhibit of the Holocaust and what made it unforgettable was that it was located on the site of the main SS quarters. It was eerie to think that Hitler had been coordinating everything from that very spot. Amy and I learned a lot about the Holocaust in all parts of the world and we both realized how much of the world was affected by (and involved in) the war. The museum was definitely insightful. This is also one of the only places where the wall was kept intact. 

Checkpoint Charlie: 

As much research as I’ve done, I should have it down pat as to what this was. I’ll try to explain because even now I’m a liiiiiittle confused. Four countries had sectors in Berlin (USSR, US, France, and Great Britain I think...maybe you’ll have to do some google research) And this was the checkpoint where East Berliners left through the American sector, and entered into another sector. It was the point in the border where the most East Berliners crossed over into the western section. It was nice to see, but since I was still learning exactly what it was, it was a little confusing (just as a warning: you DEFINITELY have to brush up on your history before visiting Berlin). 

Other random things we did that day were: inter tubed down this ice slope in alexanderplatz, ate at an “american” diner (we ordered nachos, sandwiches, and a burger. you can criticize me for not eating german food, but I do not regret this decision....not even a little bit), got a little bit lost on a train, and tickled some monuments, among other random things. 

Berlin Day 1

Amy and I got the the main train station the night before New Year’s Eve just to get settled in before we had our crazy night. We had a difficult time finding our hotel, even though if we would have just kept walking we couldn’t have missed it. Once we got settled in, we rested up for our big New Year’s Eve. 

We woke up the next day and thought it would be a good idea to do a little test run because we heard things got pretty hectic as the time got closer, and we wanted to see the Brandenburg gate before it was dark. When we got there it seemed strange because such a historical site was overwhelmed with lights, stages, soundchecks, and other things preparing for the night ahead. The area for the party was a mile long, so we walked the whole thing and grabbed some lunch (bratwurst, of course!) and then we got a “doughnut”, which was really just a pretzel with some chocolate on top of it. 

We regrouped at the hotel because we knew we were in for a pretty intense night. We knew that it was supposedly the biggest New Year’s celebration in the world which means we would literally be one in a million at this party. We got there at about 5pm (looking back we did NOT need 7 hours!!!) and walked around, drank some gluwein (which is hot wine that tastes a lot like apple cider), and tried to battle the frigid cold. Every once in a while there were big tents where everyone congregated and danced to the very finest of German music, which is much better than Serbian music! We were dancing to lots of unknown music when all of the sudden the YMCA started. It was surprising but those germans ROCKED out to the Village People. We had a good time seeing everyone singing every word of such a random American song. 

loving the gluwein! 

We eventually left there and made another lap around just to check everything out and then we decided we needed to buy some champagne and battle the crowds to get to a good place by midnight. We bought two glasses of champagne, shoved it into a water bottle and set our sights on the prize: a coveted position as close as possible to the Brandenburg gate where there is the show at midnight. We slowly inched our way through the crowds and finally settled in next to some sweet germans and then eventually a group of kids from England. 

(Let me take a second to explain how many people there were: for most of the night I could literally pick up my feet and almost be held up by all of the surrounding bodies that were squished so close to me. Also, moving 3 feet forward was considered making some SERIOUS headway!) 

I asked Amy how to count down in German, but I don’t think that was ever necessary... Why not? Because we counted down in English because the special guest was none other than DAVID HASSELHOFF!! He sang a song, counted us down, the gave little plug for his upcoming tour before saying “The Hoff is back!!” and exiting the stage. Amy and I (as well as the British kids) thought this was the biggest joke, but the Germans seemed to be loving it! Who knew? 

At midnight there was an awesome fireworks/lights show above the bridge. It was really pretty, but Amy and I decided it took away from the history of the gate. The show lasted a few minutes and then we were out of there because it would be too hard to fight the crowds if we waited around. We got back to the hotel and were SO excited to put our feet up. Day 1 of Berlin was successful! 

at midnight! happy 2011!