Spring Break Tour
March 18, 2008 09:27 AM | General
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We’re Home
Posted By Tim Goodenow: March 31, 2008 (2:21 p.m. EST)
Ten days.
Five buses (Morgantown to D.C., Prague, Rome, Sardinia, D.C. to Morgantown).
Four plane rides (D.C. to London, London to Prague, Sardinia to London, London to D.C.).
One interesting ferry (Rome to Sardinia) across the Mediterranean.
And we’re home.
Oh, and minus three bags. British Airways lost luggage for seniors Ashley Banks and Ashley Neal, and trainer Liz Uczekaj. We’ll see how long it takes to arrive in Morgantown.
While many West Virginia students hit the beach for some sun and relaxation, the women’s soccer team bonded with one another on and off the field while exploring new cultures. We saw a lot in a short amount of time, making for long days. But in the end, it was well worth it.
The trip also allowed the team to get a jump start on the fall season as WVU must replace five seniors lost to graduation. The Mountaineers went 4-0 in foreign competition: two wins in Prague, one in Rome, one in Sardinia. It was a good break to the spring season while allowing the coaches to alter the lineup and try new ideas.
It was a once in a lifetime trip for many of us and I can honestly say I’d love to go back. Who knows, maybe I’ll be lucky enough to try this again in four years.
Ciao!
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The Final Day
Posted By seniors Ashley Banks and Ashley Neal, and junior Kelsey Fowler: March 29, 2008 (5:21 p.m. EST)
Wake-up call was 8 a.m. for breakfast! Don’t be late because there will be no croissants for you. At 9 sharp, we left for an hour and a half bus ride exploring the lovely countryside of Sardinia. For those who stayed awake, a.k.a. Mini and Neal, we witnessed Sardinia’s flamingo nests, which happened to be in the middle of a lagoon in the middle of Sardinia’s oil refinery…REAL NICE!
We finally arrived at Su Nuraxi, an archeological site from 18th century B.C. This site defined Rocks for Jocks. As Meesh put it, “At first I thought it was just a big pile of rocks, but after the tour I realized that it is an organized pile of rocks.” The site is a labyrinth of circular stone houses…without roofs. They actually had their own water supply and refrigerator system, a.k.a. a big hole in the ground surrounded by more stones.
Then it was time to go inside the main fortress, just ask Tim (our SID) about this…imagine fitting a 6-foot-8 dude into a McDonalds playhouse = SUPER FUN. Once everyone was inside the fortress, Mini and Chicky thought it was a good idea to hide and try to scare Banks. However, Banks got distracted and the first person to enter the trap happened to be the tour guide, poor girl didn’t see it coming. Obviously, the team found a way to entertain themselves while surrounded by nothing but rocks. If it wasn’t scaring people, taking pictures, or climbing the rocks; then most teammates found chasing lizards and killing snails to be quite enthralling.
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| The lighthouse we visited in the tiny town of Nora. |
After climbing back to the bus, we drove another hour and some change to another archeological site. This time we got to dip our big toes in the Mediterranean (because it was so cold) and take very scenic pictures. Ms. Alessandra, who has been with us since our arrival in Sardinia, then informed us that we could get sandwiches at the restaurant along the beach. However, we feel that they severely underestimated how much soccer girls can eat. They only had six sandwiches and then decided to make like 6 more. For what, 35 people? It didn’t work (obviously Banks and Neal are bitter…they were cranky pants because they didn’t get any food and were getting hypoglycemic)!!! Food deprived, tired, beaten, and broken (ok a little for the theatrics it wasn’t that exciting, but it was so gorgeous no words could define the beauty of this island) we took a tour of an ancient Roman archeological site and a lighthouse. The view was breath taking, and the serenity indescribable.
As Banks just put it, “that’s good for that.” So back to the bus…nap time number three of the day. On our way back to the hotel, Joseppe, our bus driver, stopped by his buddies deli/market and we all bought local wine, spirits, pastries, and pasta (sorry if I ruined some of your gifts). It was amazing! Cramming 35 people into an itty-bitty shop, it was only a matter of time before a bottle of wine was broken. Shockingly it wasn’t one of us who did it…yeah for us! We’re pretty sure that the owner made more that hour than he does in an entire month. Tomorrow is going to be a holiday for him.
After the market, it was a short bus ride to the hotel (no time for naps). People decided to go exploring, but there wasn’t much to explore. For the fair weather fans, they got to see Mini pick up a stray dog and run across the street with it to return it to its home. But for the more adventurous spirits, they eventually found both food and the beach. Some hit up fresh fruit being sold out of some guy’s backyard, and others got stuck under fences (cough, cough Kelsey) trying to make it to the beach. Lisa, Beck, Neal and Banks were lucky to watch the sunset over the Mediterranean, culminating this wonderful trip.
P.S. Kelsey wants everyone to know that sardines come from Sardinia! (I thought the sunset was a beautiful finish to this blog but I guess sardines work).
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Ciao from Sardinia
Posted By freshman goalkeeper Kerri Butler and junior midfielder Lisa DuCote: March 28, 2008 (10:21 p.m. EST)
After a restless night on the rocking boat, most of us survived our night at sea. Those who happened to fall asleep, which were very few, were awakened by the captain of the ship informing the passengers of something in Italian followed by foreign music. Once all of us did roll out of bed, it was definitely an experience trying to get ready with four people in the tiny room.
After walking out of our room with bumps and bruises from trying to get ready and carrying luggage to our meeting point, we were upset to hear the bad news that the boat was behind schedule. It meant we lost an extra hour of sleep. After waiting downstairs for what seemed to be a lifetime, we arrived to a beautiful scene of water and sun. Finally, we had reached warmth!
The team immediately met up with our tour guide and our new bus driver named Joseppe (by the way this our second bus driver in Italy who’s name is Joseppe, is it ironic or coincidence?). While on the bus, our monotone-talkative tour guide started giving us the history of Cagliari. We all felt like we were at home in Morgantown, because of the numerous hills that the bus was climbing. Of course, some of that could be from the all of the weight on the bus after eating all of the food that we’ve eaten on this trip. Joseppe left us on the top of one of the hills, where we started our walking journey.
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| Sydney, Michelle, Natalie and Megan take a photo in Sardinia. |
The first place we visited while walking was to a beautiful view of the island of Sardinia. We stood over top of the island looking down at the beautiful water wishing we could be swimming in it. Having to look at the water all day was definitely torture! I think that was their plan. Once all of us were literally pulled away from the scene, we continued walking, which seemed to be more like a sprint then a walk.
The next place we visited was the Cathedral of St. Mary, which was very pretty, but no Sistene Chapel. There were paintings on the ceilings and walls, and there were statues on the walls of the Cathedral as well. There were many of us who either weren’t impressed or were about to pass out on the floor because we were very tired from the restless night we had on the boat. Those of us who looked like that were definitely just sitting around with eyes that were half open.
Finally, we left the Cathedral after what felt like an hour, and we continued walking down the hill to a little square. It was another wonderful view of the island. Like I said before, torture! While standing there, some of us felt as if the ground was swaying back and forth. I guess we were still in motion with the boat.
Perhaps the most exciting part was the team making a flying-WV on the stairs we had walked down. It was really neat, especially since most of us had blue on!
After that we met back up with Joseppe, and went the top of the island where we saw the prettiest view yet. It was picture perfect. Then, Joseppe dropped us off downtown to do some more shopping, who would’ve thought, us… shop?
There wasn’t really any shopping to do, so most of us just ate, since we were all starving! That seems to be all we do: eat, shop and play soccer. Pretty much all of us ate pizza and a many had a gelati or two, or three.
Then we went back the bus to be led to our new hotel, hoping that we would have a room that is bigger then my bathroom at home! Fortunately when we got there, it was definitely bigger than the night before. Then it was NAP TIME! Almost everyone napped because of the lack of sleep on the boat trip.
The quick snooze followed with our last game of our European trip. After our usual pre-game talks, we walked out on the field knowing we had about 20 minutes to warm up. However, like most of the games we’ve had here, we had a good feeling it was going to start late, especially since the other team was no where in sight! About two minutes before the game was supposed to start, the other team trickled onto the field, in outfits that were going to kill me! They wore pink shirts, with blue and red shorts, and all of them had different colored socks. Socks probably weren’t necessary since most of them didn’t have shin guards on!
Oh yea and watch out Joe Brown, Nikki found herself a new man! The coach of the other team seemed to take quite the interest in Nikki. He kissed her on the cheek and admired her a little bit!
The game itself was, let’s say, interesting. We started off a little slow, and unfortunately got scored on – boo. But we picked up the pace and defense scored a goal before half. Then in the second half, we really started picking up the intensity because most of us were angry, not only because they weren’t all that great, but also because the ref was their coach and was calling everything in their favor. However, we got back at them and scored five goals in the second half! Deana, Morgan, Minnie (Cassandra), Megan, and Carolyn all scored goals in the second half!
Finally, the last game of our trip was over! We went undefeated in four games. We are good! We then came back to the hotel and ate some more food, and this time we had fruit for dessert. Time for bed after a long day and a night of no sleep!
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Remembering Rome
Posted By juniors Michelle Molinari, Deana Everrett and Amanda Cicchini: March 28, 2008 (7:47 p.m. EST)
RING-RING! 6:45 A.M. wake-up call. It didn’t matter though because we only had 30 minutes to get all dolled up for our day in ROMA. We had a little taste of the city the day before after taking a quick bus trip around the streets and we couldn’t wait for more. After only having a selection of cold hotdogs and milk that tasted like butter in Prague, the breakfast we were served in Rome was a dream. We grabbed a quick croissant and had a few shots of espresso, loaded our stuff onto the bus (yet again), and set out for a day of touring the ancient city.
First stop - the Vatican. When we arrived at the Vatican there was a mile long line, but thanks to our VIP status we hopped the line and got the hook-up with some sweet head phones. Our headphones were used so we could hear the best history lesson ever about the Vatican’s art. We saw lots of great pieces, but most importantly, the Sistine Chapel, which was breathtaking…BUT so were the guards outside the door (who shamelessly flirted with us asking if we were sisters).
We saw a lot of other cool things such as St. Peter’s Square, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Pantheon, and the Trevi Fountain. These were amazing don’t get us wrong, but there were some other small treasures we would like to share with you about Rome.
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| The team takes a photo outside St. Peter's Cathedral. |
We only had two and a half hours to cover however much of Rome we could get through, while still making it back to the bus on time. First, we booked it to an ATM because now that those Karuni’s (really crowns) from Czech were useless, we needed some Euros in order to eat all the gelati we planned to inhale. So naturally, the first place we went to was the closest gelati shop. Now pleasantly filled, we were ready to get our shopping underway…in the stores and for cute Italian BOYS (which there were plenty of).
We visited as many stores, bought as much stuff, and bartered those prices down as much as we could. (Us: “How much for this?” Him: “60 Euro.” Us: “No way, we’ll give you 20.” Him: “SOLD” Us: “Actually we don’t want this anymore.” Him: “COME BACK…I give to you for 10…”).
Now that we have our Gucci sunglasses and Prada bags (fake…but who cares?), we were able to fashionably continue our way through the city. To sum up the Rome part of the day, there was a lot of shopping, gelati, cute Italian boys, and historical landmarks around every corner.
Now onto the boat adventure. The party boat we all highly-anticipated turned into the carnival ride from hell. Needless to say the water was a little rocky. Dinner was delicious, at least what we managed to get down in between sways. After dinner about half the team stumbled to go to bed or put their head in a toilet. Our rooms were a bit of a tight fit but we made the most of it. So, while some of the team was rocking away in their cribs the rest of us decided to do some exploring. What we soon discovered was that there was not in fact any exploring to be done because we were pretty much the only people on the boat. (No boys!).
So, after another amazing day on our foreign tour we decided to call it a night and rest up for another busy day. Now we know what we would do, WHEN IN ROME...
We’ve Landed
Posted By Tim Goodenow: March 28, 2008 (5:29 p.m. EST)
The ferry didn’t sink…although there were times I thought it might. The ferry across the rough and rocky Mediterranean took roughly 15 hours. We landed in Sardinia around 9:45 a.m.
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| The team walks the streets of Cagliari. |
We loaded onto a bus and headed for the city of Cagliari – considered the most important city in Sardinia. Again, we had a tour guide to give us a history lesson. The natives of Sardinia speak their own language that is very similar to Spanish. In fact, there remains a heavy Spanish influence stemming from four centuries of rule in the past.
One of the spots on our tour was one of three well-known towers in the city. The tower we viewed was the highest point (137 meters above sea level) of Cagliari. We also took a tour of a beautiful cathedral built in the 13th century – Cathedral of St. Mary. There was one wall and a few doors that remain in tact from the 13th century. The rest of the church has been restored on a number of occasions, including a beautiful ceiling that was painted 50 years ago.
The team eventually took a break for lunch with some free time for shopping. Today’s meal was the best of the trip. We ate at a place in Cagliari called Ci Pensa Cannas. It was a trattoria, meaning it was family owned and run…no outsiders. It was one of the best penne and red sauce meals I’ve tasted.
Heading to our final game now...the girls will check in later.
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When in Rome…
Posted By Tim Goodenow: March 26, 2008 (8:41 p.m. EST)
It was a busy day for the women’s soccer team but we’ve made it to Rome. After a short one-hour, 45-minute flight, the team quickly gathered our bags and met our new tour guide, Ms. Alessandra. We were able to take a brief tour of Rome on the way to our hotel – the Coliseum, Arch of Constantine, St. Peter’s Square, etc. We are staying in a suburb of Rome (about 15 minutes away) in an area known as Lazio.
The streets of Rome are crowded and the cars are like Matchbox cars. Good thing is they park themselves anywhere. There are no parking spaces and these mini cars just use the sidewalk. On the side streets, there are no stop or yield signs. It’s a game of chicken to get out into the intersection and hope somebody eventually stops when you nudge out there.
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| The team enjoys a buffet meal at Hotel Summit. |
We arrived at hour hotel with enough time to check in, change clothes, eat dinner and hop back on the bus for tonight’s game – our third in as many days. The pre-game meal was excellent, perhaps our best meal yet: bow tie pasta with red sauce and kalamata olives, “little ear” (close to tortalini) with pesto sauce, roasted chicken, string beans with potatoes, bread, salad and desert.
Tonight’s win, a 2-0 victory, was held at a multi-sport complex, mostly soccer fields varying in size. Traffic caused us to get there about 40 minutes prior to kick off but we didn’t need much help. We dominated the Italian team from the opening whistle.
On the way back, Coach Izzo-Brown arranged for us to stop outside the Roman Colosseum (or Coliseum as we call it). Wow! What an amazing site. I can’t get over this massive man-made arena. Can you imagine the pulley system they develop to pull this off? The one-time white marble arena is now a sandy, brown color from the pollution in the city. I hope to see it in the daylight tomorrow.
We were also able to see the Arch of Constantine, nested in between the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill. Constantine the Great would ride through the arch into crowds cheering his name.
The late stop to see the Colosseum excited the group to see the sites tomorrow. We’ll be taking a Vatican City tour in the morning, breaking for lunch and then have some free time. At 6 p.m., the team hits the ferry port of Rome for an overnight boat trip to Sardinia.
This is probably the last entry until we arrive in Sardinia. The ladies will have more to share though. Ciao!
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Mountaineers Down Slavia, 2-0
Posted By freshmen Megan Mischler and Sydney Metheny: March 25, 2008 (6:49 p.m. EST)
Tonight we stepped onto the field as our teeth chattered and snow was falling around us. Our opponents were a good local club team called Slavia Prague. We got warmed up and hit the field ready to play. Deana Everrett had a phenomenal goal when Carolyn Blank sent the ball up the middle to Everett who beat one player and slid it into the back of the net. Our roaring crowd of 12 people shouted Ole Ole Ole Ole! Natalie Cocchi, one of our fans, kept warm with a blanket she stole from the hotel bed. Slavia was dropping like flies because they could not handle our physical American soccer. While the referees were talking on their cell phones during the game, they never seemed to miss a call against us. We closed out the first half with a 1-0 lead.
In the second half, we kept the pressure on Slavia. We had many close opportunities, especially Michelle Molinari. She took an excellent shot that hit the post and rolled straight across the goal line, but unfortunately did not go in. Moments later, defender Kelsey Fowler played a one-time ball in the air to Everett who came up big with another goal. We ended the game with a 2-0 victory. Our goalkeepers, Kerri Butler and Mallory Beck, made key saves and our tough defense earned a well-deserved shutout.
Now for today; no wake-up call! Our day started at noon when we revisited parts of Old Town Square for lunch. Sydney and I both agreed that today’s lunch was our favorite meal so far. It consisted of pork with tomatoes and mozzarella on top, with a delicious sauce, scrumptious mashed potatoes, and a fabulous dessert of fat pancakes and strawberry sauce on top.
After lunch we headed to the shopping area to spend our last crowns (Czech currency). To begin the day, Sydney and I practiced defense moves in case we came across any pick-pocketers at the market. We went searching for amber jewelry because that is what Prague is famous for. We chose not to buy from the crabby storeowners that did not seem to like Americans.
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| The team enjoys a boat ride on River Vltava Monday afternoon. |
Then we took a trip down Prague’s version of Rodeo Drive. We looked super, high class in our baggy sweats and rain jackets, so the storeowners followed us and watched our every move inside the shops. Sydney almost died when she saw Burberry, her favorite store. Too bad everything inside was a little out of our price range. We could not reason buying a scarf for $580. As we looked around in awe at the Dior heels and sunglasses, we noticed heels that cost $900. After we had enough of the glaring storeowners, we decided to head out.
When we got back to the market I bought a Trdlo that looked like a huge hollow, roll of dough with sugar on top. Because we could not say the name, we just called them “turd rolls.” It seemed appropriate for this tasty pastry.
We ended our last day of shopping in Praha to rest up at the hotel before our big game. Prague has been a wonderful experience, and now we are ready to head to Italy! Ciao from Sydney Metheny and Megan Mischler!
Random Soccer Notes
Posted By Tim Goodenow: March 25, 2008 (6:11 p.m. EST)
*A scheduling conflict put West Virginia against Slavia Prague tonight instead of the full Czech National Team. Slavia is a local club team that sits atop the highest competition league in the Czech Republic. Seven members of the National Team did play Monday night for Sparta Prague.
*The Mountaineers continue to play well without the services of three players who are on injured reserve – Robin Rushton (defender), Amanda Cicchini (midfielder) and Stephanie Burgess (forward). Although, Cicchini could make a return to the field in Italy.
*The locals have said this past Easter weekend in Prague was the coldest in 50 years. I’ll have to agree. I swear it has been colder the last two nights than the frigid night of West Virginia’s Elite Eight game with USC back on Nov. 30.
*I’d be remiss to not mention the play of Kelsey Fowler in two games here in Prauge. The junior has been outstanding along the back line at defender for the Mountaineers.
*WVU will play its third game in as many days tomorrow against Roma Calcio Femminile in Rome. The team was able to squeeze in two practices here in Prague before their first game. WVU will take a two-hour flight to Italy tomorrow and will play a match later that evening.
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