I'm on a boat!

... Well, it's a ferry. And it's huge! We're on our way to the next stop on the World Tour. We flew from Kristiansand, Norway to Stockholm, Sweden, and from there were are taking a ferry to an island called Åland in Finland. The ship we're on has a restaurant deck, several viewing and sleeping decks as well as a sauna!! I'm sure there's more I haven't discovered yet. This 5 hour trip will go by in no time.

As I'm writing this, I'm looking out the window to breathtaking Scandinavian scenery. It almost reminds me of the Muskoka lakes in Ontario.

After spending a week in Kristiansand we are moving on to Finland. We're leaving behind enjoyable and unfortunate experiences, both being equally memorable. Last Monday we played in a Country Quota match. The FIVB only allows 4 teams per country to enter the tournament, any excess teams play off in order to make the Qualifier (Canada has 5 women's teams entered here so the teams with the lowest amount of points had to play each other for the 4th Qualification spot). It worked out that we would have to play Jamie and Liz.

This was a match like no other that I've played before- I'd never been so nervous for a game! It felt like there was just so much to lose: win and make the Qualifier with a chance to make the Main Draw, lose and your tournament ends right there. The match wasn't pretty- there were so many unforced errors on our part and we lost the match in 3 sets. Kacie and I were pretty upset with the loss. It was tough to hang around in such a small town while everyone got to play, and we weren't allowed! We did manage to go watch most of Canada's games- they were all very exciting! Jamie and Liz actually made it into the Main Draw, which is a huge accomplishment!! Congrats to them, and to Heather and Liz, who also had an excellent tournament.

It's also hard to stay upset in Kristiansand for too long because the town is just beautiful! The buildings and restaurants were so quaint (however expensive!) and the people were also pretty friendly. Also- I've never seen so many blond people in my life!! It was a refreshing change from traveling is Asia. I felt like I blended in a little better here!

Kacie and I spent the week training with some other teams. We're ready to move forward and take on Jamie and Liz in the next Country Quota game in Åland!

On the road again...

Two weeks after playing in Vancouver, Kacie and I made our way up to Kelowna for the Centre of Gravity tournament. This is a festival that happens every year for a whole bunch of different sports including wakeboarding, jetskiing, dirtbiking, bmx and of course, beach volleyball. My parents and Austin came for the weekend to cheer us on (even after suffering some injuries and illnesses during the trip!).

We ended up having a pretty good tournament, coming in 3^rd place. We lost to the tournament champs (Heather and Liz) in the semifinals and beat our former partners (Asya and Rebecca) for the bronze.

After getting back home we had less than three days in Toronto to do laundry and pack for the next 3 weeks! Now we’re in Kristiansand, Norway and it’s absolutely beautiful!! The weather is cool (about 20C) and slightly cloudy, but it’s a nice break from the muggy Toronto heat.

The only thing not so nice about Norway is how expensive everything is!! Walking through the streets, we checked out some of the menus of local restaurants: the average meal was about $40 CAD. A club sandwich was $30!! We’re going to have to start getting creative with our meals here….