Aug. 14, 2001

The San Diego State women's volleyball team had the chance to travel to Europe for two weeks to compete against some of the best foreign teams in the area. The trip was planned so that the girls could play together, but more importantly so that the Aztecs could experience different cultures.Members of the team were asked to keep a journal during their time overseas. Below are excerpts from various players.

Melissa Wright, Setter We have arrived in Germany safely and are currently on our way to Prague. The restaurant that we ate at was quite an experience. I basically had a fancy-cut hot dog covered in barbecue sauce. I was one of the few that actually liked my meal. The landscape here is beautiful. All of the houses have tons of flowers surrounding their patios. I don't know how much longer our bus ride is, but I know that I really like Germany.

Aspen McPartland, Middle Blocker Today was our first day of sightseeing. We walked around the city and did some shopping. Katie, Christy, Nicole and I spent the day together exploring and went to the Museum of Torture. It was awesome. Katie was a little disturbed, but the rest of us loved it! Today we played a team from Santoven, Germany. After we did some shopping and I bought a very cute pair of jeans. All of the pants here are so long. It is great!

Robyn Gregg, Setter We played the second national team and took a game off of them which was good. After the game we rushed to the hotel and took a shower so that we could hurry up and check out. Then we grabbed some lunch and headed for our long bus ride through Germany and over to Austria. The ride was long, but the scenery was amazing. We were completely surrounded by mountains and it was beautiful. The place we stayed was a hostel for athletes. We had to do some serious laundry so we utilized the room to its fullest. We devised an assembly line. Janice wet all of the clothes in the shower and handed them to Megan who scrubbed them using "Tide" squares. Back to Janice for the rinse and Nadia and I were the official hanger-uppers. The best part was using the dental floss as a clothes line. Who ever knew dental floss could be so handy.

Nadia Privara, Outside Hitter Well it feels good to be back after almost seven years. Everything still looks familiar and Praha is as beautiful as it was when I left. Our first stop was a roadside restaurant. Clueless about the menu, many ended up ordering hot dogs (gross), but I couldn't go wrong with snitzel. Carbonated water was served instead of regular water and no one liked it, but the Fanta was good. Back to the bus and the next stop was the border. It took us 45 minutes to cross. It feels great to be in the Czech Republic. The last time that I was here it was still Czechoslovakia. Reading is a little difficult, but I can sound many of the billboards out.

Megan Schauermann, Middle Blocker Today was our last day in Europe and we had the day off to tour and shop. We started off the day by visiting a concentration camp called Dacau from WW2. It was a very powerful and humbling experience. It was a difficult thing to see, but definitely worth it. We met for dinner at a very German restaurant. There was a live band and lots of leterhosen. It was a very nice and cultural way to end the trip.

Katie Magnuson, Outside Hitter We went to a castle today and walked around all morning. Prague is definitely an amazing city. This is such a beautiful place and even though it is my second time here, the area still captivates me.

Christy Pfrenzinger, Middle Blocker We had the day off and toured the town, it was a cute place. Nicole, Katie, Aspen and I walked around and tried some of the local food. It was nice, but people kept staring at us like we were super models or something.