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Thursday/Friday August 13-14 |
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Well,
it’s been quite a long and arguous journey to Nymburk. I’m going to
have to write a little now and then start again in the morning because I am
just wiped out. We
started by getting up at 2:45 Thursday morning and arrived at the airport in
San Francisco at 4:00. We checked in and boarded the plane bound for
Chicago at 6:00, but sat on the plane for over an hour while they repaired a “maintenance
issue in the cockpit.” Not a great beginning. We arrived in Chicago in plenty
of time though and met up with the team. Everything went smoothly and we
boarded the plane to Frankfort, Germany at 3:00 in the afternoon. We
were supposed to take off at 3:45, but were informed of a delay, and then
were finally told that the cargo door wouldn’t close. They said the
electricity to the door had failed and so they were trying to close it
manually. That was proving difficult because of the weight of the door
and so they were bringing some sort of machinery over to lift the weight of
the door. We spent 4 hours in the plane, on the tarmac with very little
ventilation. Needless to say, it was quite miserable. We were
finally on hour way at 7:00 Thursday evening. The flight was not very
comfortable. We had middle seats and it was too warm. Neither of us
slept a wink. The flight attendants were really great. They were very
friendly and tried to accommodate us all. One of them told Courtney and
me about a favorite drink in Germany called a apvelschwater which is apple
juice and sparkling water. It actually was good. She said it is a good drink
for sports. We actually asked for it on our flight from Frankfort to Prague
and the flight attendant knew what we were asking for. Pretty fun! You
should have seen the procession we took through the Frankfort airport. Five
team members with wheelchairs, some of us road an electric cart and some
walked. We were escorted to customs where they took dealt with our passports
and then to our gate. It seemed like miles before we finally got to our gate,
cut it was a great way to pass the time. When
we got to Prague, around 2:00, we played the waiting game again. The bus
to pick us up couldn’t be back until 4:00. We to our chances with the ATM
machine and were successful in getting enough kc, but not too much, for a
couple of waters and a Big Mac for Courtney. We
were expecting the ride to Nymburk to be about 45 minutes, but it was 1 ˝
hours with all the traffic. There was
absolutely no ventilation in the bus - doesn’t seem to be a priority over
here. We
got to the sports center here in Nymburk around 6:00 and got checked in. We
have to wear hospital type bracelets so the staff knows we are legit.
Everyone was just wiped out at that point. We got checked into our rooms and
then went to dinner. Not bad food - chicken and mashed potatoes. Then we took
a walk to the archery field which is just down the way from the facility.
Nice field with lots of trees. One field is artificial turf and the other is
grass. On
the way back we saw Ruben, the VI archer from Belgium and his coach Paul. It
was a great reunion. They told us there are 4 VI archers all together, 1
woman, which is me. The other 2 supposedly are from Italy and Srelonca (I’ll
figure out spelling later). The Italian is not Lorenzo from last time. We
have a small balcony off our room which overlooks a grassy areas and a
beautiful lake. Courtney says the sports center sits kind of on the
outskirts. He says you wouldn’t even know its here. The grounds are old and
woodsy. Very nice. Our rooms are sparse, but comfortable, except for the beds
which are hard as a rock. Not really
mattresses, but more like an upholstered bench. Almost
time for breakfast and then we will see what the schedule is for today. Today
is a practice day. |
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