"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!