On the Road

6/15/11

We left at 9 pm on Monday evening head to Europe for training and our first opportunity to qualify for the Olympics. After an 11 hour flight to Munich, Germany, then a three hour layover, we flew another hour and a half to Trieste, Italy. As we flew into Trieste the full moon was glowing over the Mediterranean Sea. What an glorious sight... Wow.
After landing we jumped on a bus and then travelled another two hours to Rijeka, Croatia. We finally arrived at our hotel at 1:30 am on Wednesday morning. What a journey. The guys were in pretty good spirits and all went right to bed.

This morning we woke up to the beautiful Croatian coastline. It is amazing to me to think that I visited this city in 1979 for the first water polo world cup. I remember the pool sitting up on the hillside looking down over the Adriatic. After a nice breakfast at the hotel we headed over to the pool (after waiting an extra 15 minutes for Ryan Bailey and Jeff Powers who apparently slept right through there wake up call and missed breakfast). Anyway, the pool is about a 20 minute bus ride.

We arrived at the newly rebuilt pool and were blown away. Apparently the city of Rijeka has pumped 44 million Euro into redoing the pool. There are four pools. Two indoor 50 meter pool with a retractable roof and one outdoor 50 meter pool and a diving pool. Incredible. There are cafes attached to the pool building and it is a place where families hang out and enjoy the water sports. After we swam a good long stretch we all decided to walk down and play catch in the Adriatic which is about a five minute walk down the hill. I have attached a picture that is the view from the pool deck. More pictures will follow. Not bad.

We returned for lunch and after a nice nap we will head over to the pool for training with Croatia. All is well. Everyone is healthy.

As for me personally, I am catching up on my sleep. So far I have logged 7 hours on the first flight, 1 hour on the second flight and almost 2 hours on the bus. Then I slept till 9 am this morning so that is another 7.5 and then a 2 hour nap this afternoon. So that is a total of about 20 hours sleep out of the first 36 hours on the road. Not bad. I think that I am catching up.

Off to the pool.

Coach