12Travels

03/04/2012

03/04/2012

While waiting for the bus in Vienna

03/04/2012

Hellllloooooo from Prague!

It's been an adventure to get here but we finally arrived late last night around 10. Once we were checked into the hostel we quickly changed and headed out for a drink.

The guy at the front desk guided us to this place called Bukowski's. It was the PERFECT place. He pretty much pinned me right on the head with this place. It was a small hole in the wall, hipster, good music bar. I loved everything about it BUT the smoke. I don't really know if I'll ever get used to people smoking inside bars.

THANK YOU HOUSTON for not letting people smoke in bars.

Well then it was back to the hostel for a good nights rest and now we're about to head off and see the sunny, lovely Prague!

:D I'll check in at the end of the day!!
Ciao.
Brittany

22/03/2012

Guess what I did today!!
I went SWIMMING!! :D Wow it was so much fun.
I took a train to St. Polten, met up with one of my team mates and she took me to this place with like 4 indoor pools and a slide! It was awesome. The water was perfect and we just lounged in the water for over an hour! It was amazing.

I couldn't believe it but every pool in there was made of metal and they were all like 'infinity' pools where the water over flowed into a drain on the sides. It was neat!! Oh and the slide, now that was one scary slide and I've been down many water slides in my life. :D

So much fun. Thanks to Julia for spending time with me at the pool today!
Practice tomorrow and two home games this weekend then I'm down to my last week in Melk. I apparently have to be out of my room on March 31. So my last week will be spent in Vienna with a short vacation to Prague with teammate Melli!! I'm so excited.

:D Miss everyone. Lots of love.
Ciao
Brittany

19/03/2012

How was everyone's weekend?? Hope they were eventful and satisfying.

This weekend we had exceptional weather, it got into the high 60's/low 70's and was GORGEOUS!! It is finally getting beautiful outside in the way that I like it!

Today is a little over cast and in the low 50's but that's okay, I've got stuff to do inside! I went to the grocery store a little while ago and bought myself some Tulips on my way out! I've put them by the window in my kitchen and can't wait to see them open up when the sun comes out the next few days.

Alright now back to my weekend. Saturday morning the team had to attend a GRAND OPENING of one of our sponsors stores that opened in Melk. Let me tell you, this store was HUGE!! It's a hardware store, lumber yard, and a sports store all under one roof. It was insane and reminded me of home. Oh and it also had a little cafe in it that serves pastries, coffee, beer, wine. It was also a warm, beautiful morning and the whole thing was a lot of fun!!

Once we were done there I took a load off my feet and watched a little Dexter before heading off to Vienna for our match. After a 3-0 win we celebrated locking our place in the first league for next year. And not only celebrating that we drank some Champagne to two team mate's birthdays!

To celebrate their birthdays we went to this night club called Praterdome, and this place was HUGE!! It was so much fun. One big room of house/techno music with laser lights, strobe lights, and all the lights you could think of. It was awesome!! We danced all night long.

Yesterday I just recouped and watched The Proposal in German! That was interesting. But it was very nice to not have a game on a Sunday!

Today I'm going to start a new work out regimen from www.bodyrock.tv Hopefully I'll enjoy it! :D

Keep checking in, sorry it's been so long since I've written. I'm going to write a little more frequently now that the weather is getting better and becoming alittle more inspiring!

Have a great Monday as well as week. Hope everyone's St. Patrick's day was great! Miss you all. :D

Ciao.
Brit

BodyRock.Tv is a free fitness blog focused on helping people from all walks of life get into shape at home (or wherever you happen to be).

12/03/2012

So this weekend was a successful one, we went 2-0 with three girls missing.

One of our setters was out of town in London while two others are suffering from injuries. Both of our middles are out due to injury. One of them broke their pinky finger in practice two weeks ago and the other one rolled her ankle pretty bad in practice this last wednesday.

So without the three of them it was a little more difficult to win this weekend but we sure did do it!!

After the game on Sunday I headed back to Vienna with my team mates Melli and Lina. I'm staying with Melli until practice on Wednesday.

Today we are heading out to go sight seeing with one of her friends. I don't know what we will end up seeing today but hopefully what we don't see today we will go see tomorrow!! :D I'll make sure to take plenty of pictures so you guys can see what Vienna is all about!

Miss you guys. And I can't help but count down the time till I'm home! It's just natural. 28 days!

Oh and did you guys have day light savings this weekend?? Does that mean we are only 6 hours apart instead of 7? :D

Love you. Ciao!

06/03/2012

This weekend was a great weekend. With 2 home games and 2 wins added onto the W column it was a great weekend.

This last week was interesting, the girl that left the team originally and gave me the opportunity to come here and play, returned this week. Now our team has three setters which always makes it a competition in practice and warm up!

If you'd like to look at the pictures from Sunday's game here's a link.
http://www.uvf-melk.at/alben/UVF-Salzburg_4-3-2012/ #

I must warn you, my uniform is a size too small! So don't make fun of how I look. Believe me it's the most uncomfortable thing, I don't enjoy being so self conscious all the time. :D But at the same time, who cares, I'm playing volleyball!!

Enjoy the photos. Miss everyone!!

05/03/2012

The Melk Abbey is a Benedict Abbey and 30 Monks currently live here. This is also where I play volleyball every week. It's absolutely beautiful!!

26/02/2012

You're never going to guess what I did today!

So my morning started off with my earliest wake up since I've been in Melk, 8:30am. Some of the girls stayed the night here in hotel and we woke up at 8:30 and headed to breakfast at a local cafe around 9. Had a huge breakfast with tons of bread, ham and cheese! HA sounds like lunch right? lol

After breakfast we met the rest of the team for our road trip to our game. So I don't think I've told you but the snow here in Melk has been melted for about 5-6 days or so now, and well on our trip, we saw TONS of snow!! ha we headed up through mountains to a city I'm not even sure of. But most of the ride there, it was snowing.

Oh and let me tell you, I was NOT prepared for snow! ha I was wearing my TOMS shoes with NO socks, sweat pants, a sweatshirt, and didn't have my heavy coat, just one the team gave me, which isn't too heavy.

So once we arrived we had to get out and take a little walk because we were all green faced from the hills and twists and turns it took to get where we were. :D

After our walk we went into a cafe and I had a cappuccino, and let me tell you the cafe was part of a car dealership or shop and there was a Lamborghini and Porsche in there. They were pretty sweet!!

Now it was off to the game where we won 3-1. Game 3 wasn't too pretty that's why we lost and had to redeem ourselves in set 4. Came out with a win and now was time to head home, and you guessed it, in the snow!!

About 45 minutes into the drive we are trekkin up hill in this HEAVY snow and you'll never guess, we stopped! Yep there wasn't enough weight/traction in the snow to drive up. So who got out, in the snow, and pushed the van? That's right, the 4 players in the van. HAHA Probably pushed it 200meters, I don't really know! But we PUSHED a VAN in the SNOW!!!! it was crazy, but so much fun at the same time. Oh and let me remind you, my only shoes besides volleyball shoes were my TOMS! lol

After a good push we got the van going and had to run to jump in the side door! What a blast. Then it was smooth, slow, sailing from there on.

What do you guys think of that?? Anyone ever had to do that? First time for me!! I must say today will be a day I won't forget. Brittany Collins pushed a 9 passenger van up hill in the snow! :D

Hope you guys are all doing well. Miss you guys!! This weekend we went 2-0, so overall 5-1.

Love you. Ciao!!

23/02/2012

Hello Readers!!

So let's just say this week was a little more eventful than last week! ha
Monday evening I had an hour of setter training that went pretty well. The other setter Melli came in all the way from Vienna for the hour training and once it was over Melli, Renate (our coach), and I all went for some food and a beer. Thinking Melli could catch her train every half hour we didn't think much of it to just sit and talk. Well I guess we were wrong, after about 7:30 the train only comes every once in a while, so the next train out was 10:50. So Melli just stayed at my house for the night.

In the morning we decided I would go back with her to Vienna for the night to celebrate Faschings, what we call in America, Mardi Gras! It was fun, I got to meet her best friend Mario and her family. We went out for a little bit and had a lotta fun dancing.

The next day we sat around and watched some tv, then it was time to head to practice and man what this girl has to do to go to practice. She gets on two trains and then meets up with a friend who drives her another 50 minutes into Melk. And I thought my 15 minute walk was bad! ha But it was good.

Then we had practice, we were missing a few girls so it wasn't that great of a practice so hopefully tomorrow will be a lot better.

This weekend we have two away games that I hope we can win. I know nothing about any of the teams here so it's kind of interesting walking into matches not knowing anything. Definitely proves you just have to be able to play good volleyball.

Anybody have any good ideas for what to give up for lent this year? I know it's already Thursday but I'm just not sure what to give up! Let me know what you think.

Miss everyone. Ciao!

19/02/2012

So we lost tonight, in 5, 13-15 in the 5th. Not going to blame the loss on the refs but they were awful.

Played a little the first two sets. Brought us back from a deficit in the 4th and played the 5th. I'm getting more comfortable the more I play. Learning the girls slowly.

Now we're on our way back to Melk. 2-3 hour haul. Maybe some time for some decent sleep.

Current record 3-1. Let's keep up the wins.

Love you guys. Ciao!

18/02/2012

So we won tonight!! 3-0. Played a little and had tons of fun. After the game, enjoyed a sandwich and some 'frankfurter' aka a thin hot dog in links! It was very good!! Along with those, a beer, while at the gym!

Over all a very good night! :D Now some of the girls are staying at the hotel I live in and are currently watching SUPER STAR on tv. The European version of American Idol!

On to the next one tomorrow!
Ciao!