August: Eurotrip 2.0

I can't believe September is already here! And it's definitely making itself known. I was lucky enough to spend the long weekend up north with family and friends. The weather was fantastic... until September 1st. Then temperature dropped about 10 degrees and the rains came down! Alright, alright, I get it! Summer is over :(
But that doesn't mean that our competition season is over.
Before I get in to what we have coming up, I'll share a little recap about where we were in the month of August.

First stop: BERLIN, Germany

We were in the qualifier for this Grand Slam and we faced a feisty team from Greece. We had to show some real grit and determination to win the first set. We managed to come out on top with a score of 32-30! Then we solidified the win with a 21-13 win in the second set. Because of so many game experiences we've endured together in the past (both wins and losses), we were comfortable and confident in ourselves and our abilities, even under some pretty intense pressure. This win felt really awesome. We even gained a few German fans who were watching!

A bird's eye view of some of the competition courts in Berlin.

Jamie and I even had a day to explore the city. Good food, great coffee and lots of history.
Definitely worth checking out!

Imitating a piece of the Berlin wall. 

Apparently this is legal? A keg bike powered by drunk guys. 

Next stop: OLTEN, Switzerland

Fact: You can open a bottle of wine using only a shoe.

After the event in Berlin, we headed to Switzerland to participate in a national tour event. Before making our way to Olten, Jamie and I crashed on my friend's couch in Zurich for a couple of days to recover. Thanks Andres for opening up your apartment to us! Our little break (which included an outdoor movie night, chilling by Lake Zurich and jumping off diving platforms was just what we needed for a little down time before getting back into training and competing. 

Such poise. Such grace.

Terror.

The event in Olten was so much fun! One court was built with stands surrounding it, right on the main road! Tons of people came from all over to watch some awesome volleyball. The vibe was pretty different here than in world tour events. There was definitely a party atmosphere, and you could tell that everyone involved was having such a great time, from the players to the fans to the DJ/announcer who was there all day every day (and night!). Unfortunately we ended up losing in the quarterfinal, but Maverick and Christian won the event on the men's side. Congrats boys, that was some seriously good volleyball. A well-deserved win!

Last stop in August: MOSCOW, Russia

The view from our hotel....

Russia is always... interesting. For some reason, Jamie and I flew into Moscow at 2am this year, so we were really hoping somebody would be there to pick us up from the airport to transport us to the tournament hotel. Luckily there was... a very large, very sketchy Russian dude who we had to convince that we were in fact the people he was looking for. No, of course he didn't speak English. And no, he didn't understand any of the universal hand symbols for "volleyball". Or if he did, he was unaware of the fact that he was sent to pick up two volleyball players.
Eventually he just grabbed Jamie's suitcase and we followed him to his black, unmarked car. I fell asleep almost immediately, but Jamie was on watch, terrified for our lives because a) he was going an average of 160km/h on the highways and roads and b) we still weren't totally sure if he was taking us to the right place.... Anyway, we made it to the hotel in one piece.

This made Russia all the more enjoyable!

We had a tough pool this tournament, playing teams from Germany, Russia and the Netherlands. We lost our game to the Neds by two points in the third set. Had we won that would have moved us on to playoffs! But, it was not meant to be, so we ended up with a 25th place finish this time.










So what's next? We are home for the month of September and will be training for the tournaments coming up in October and November. FIVB events in Brazil, China and Thailand are coming up! Followed by the NORCECA Finals in Trinidad and one last FIVB in South Africa. This month of training and being away from international competition will no doubt make us hungry to play hard come October.
I'm also so happy to be home because I get to spend some quality time with my friends, my family and my dogs!!! ❤❤

Little bro with poutine!