Our lovely day of travel started at 11:30 when all of the girls met up in the airport. Some were earlier than the others, so the few that were early went to Starbucks. Nothing like a hot coffee and bagel to get your traveling started (And when we say traveling we don't mean in first class with leg room oh no... we mean a 10 hour plane flight squished together between complete strangers and little to no sleep). Don't get us wrong, we had a fun time. After everyone had gotten there and checked in, we made our way over to the security line.
We saw a lot of interesting people going to some far away places, but none were as interesting as the elderly woman in a headdress tripping and falling backwards on the up escalator while it was still moving. It was really scary, but when we knew that she was okay, we burst out laughing. Once we had finally made it through the security line (well some of us did) we checked to make sure that everyone was there...but Kayla had been caught trying to smuggle on a 40 ounce tub of Jiffy Peanut butter. Let's just say that that was confiscated right away. Meanwhile, McKenna was disinfecting her feet with Purell after walking on the dirty floor.
We all went to our gate and all took off in small groups to get something to eat before the long plane ride and go to the bathroom. We got on the plane and after some switching around most of us were in comfortable places. There was no problem with taking off on the huge plane, which had an upstairs for first class, and then we were served dinner. On board movies, games, and music were able to pass some of the time in the beginning, but if we couldn't fall asleep, the hours of staying awake started to make us go a little crazy. After 10 hours, we finally landed in Amsterdam and had to wait about an hour for our next flight to Prague.
While we were waiting in the airport, we saw some really cool police guys. They were wearing black, leather combat boots and matching blue uniforms, but the coolest part was the hats that hung over the sides of their heads and had badges on them. Some of us wanted pictures with them, so we started walking over with our cameras. They must have known what we wanted because they rejected us before we got within ten feet of them. That was a huge disappointment. How many opportunities do most people get to take pictures with foreign security gaurds carrying giant, loaded machine guns? The weather in Amsterdam was cloudy and rainy and due to that we had to switch gates. We took a bus to the other gate and got on a much smaller plane. A majority of the girls slept, which passed the time a lot faster and made the flight seem like nothing. We finally got to Prague and retrieved our luggage. Brittany started to worry when her luggage didn't come with the rest of ours. Luckily it came with the next wave.
With our passports stamped and our bags in hand, we met our guides and loaded into the bus. We had only been in Prague for a little bit, but we could tell it was really beautiful. The cobblestone streets and gothic architecture were very impressive. When we got to the Hotel Prokopka after a smooth ride in the bus, we paired off into rooms and then into groups of four for the suites. Brittany, Taylor, Emily, and Anjulie shared a suite. Allie, Amber, Kayla, and taller Maddie shared a suite. And finally, shorter Maddie, Willow, Maggie, and Mckenna shared a suite. We all got settled and then met downstairs to go to practice. We took a bus and then walked a little ways to get to the gym which seemed very strange compared to what we were used to. The court was orange and green and seemed to be made of some rubbery material. Glass windows let in some very nice natural light which most of us couldn't truly appreciate due to lack of sleep. Practice went well, but we sweat a lot...no air conditioning. Some showers were definitely necessary at this point so our guides took two trips to personally drive us back to the hotel. The first wave hurried to shower, so that by the time the second wave got to the hotel, they could quickly get into the shower.
We got into some comfortable clothes and walked a couple blocks to dinner. Unfortunately, it started to rain on us. We made it to the restauraunt and sat down around a couple tables. Dinner consisted of a nicely seasoned starter soup, chicken with mushroom sauce, and ice cream with bananas for dessert. Our trip back wasn't as dry though. It was actually raining a substantial amount. Once the lightning and thunder started, we definitely picked up our pace. Before returning to the hotel, however, some of us stopped by the market next to the hotel to get water, redbull, oranges, and kleenex. Paying for that took some time though. The cashier wouldn't take Euros. Who doesn't take Euros as an acceptable form of payment in EUROpe? This cashier doesn't! Some money was lent to us from our team mates, and we ran back to our hotel shrieking in the heavy rain. By this time, Brittany and Taylor had been up for 30 hours (having been unable to sleep on the plane), and everyone was ready for bed. The weather decided that it wasn't time for bed though by booming with thunder and flashing blinding lightning. Actually, the lightning wasn't just flashing periodically, it was more like a strobe light. The thunder got so loud that we heard screams from the street and other parts of the hotel. Lightning must have hit the hotel somewhere because the power in Willow, Maggie, McKenna, and shorter Maddie's room went out completely. With no light and intense sleepiness, we set our alarms and went to bed. It had been a long, but very fun first day (Well technically it was two days, but most of never slept, so it felt like one day).
This is Brittany and Taylor signing out! Nighty-night to all!
PS the lightning did NOT hit the hotel or we all would have been up a creek - Val
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