Rocky Roads... And I Wish I Was Talking About the Ice Cream

Finally! After 2 months of relentless training and a non-existent social life, Iraklis Women's Water Polo has started their season in the Greek Championships. At some points, I felt like it was never going to happen. Now, I am kind of wishing that it hadn't happened. Well, okay, that is a bit dramatic. Rather, I wishing that it hadn't STARTED the way that it did.

Our first game was against Patras, which is located on the Peloponnese island in the south of Greece. What I learned on the 6 hour bus ride to this beautiful port city is the intense and rather violent history that our two clubs have against each other. Not only was it our first game, which obviously already lays on a certain layer of nerves and anxiety, but last year a player on Patras purposely kneed our 15 year old 2M player in the back hard enough to break bone in her spine. Apparently, this is not their first offense of blatant violence against our club or any other club for that matter. Needless to say, everyone, including myself, was pretty amped up to go into this battle (it had become so much more than a game).

So, the first whistle blew, Patras won the sprint. Their 2M player swims to the center of the offense, proceeds to do some pretty unpleasant things underwater that forces me to get stuck behind and, within 10 seconds of the game, Patras scores off of our zone. Immediately, the looks I say on my teammates' faces told me that we were scared, and, sure enough, 5 goals went unanswered by us. Eventually, we fight back a little bit, with 2 goals from myself, and one apiece for two of my other teammates, but we just couldn't find the fire to get even, let alone get ahead on the scoreboard. We ended up losing 9-4.

The elements of the game were all very intense: being in their home pool, on their turf, with their fans... I was really able to experience Greek fans for the first time, and when Margarita, the formerly attacked 2M player on my team, hit the goalie in the scuffle for a ball, I had my first experience of angry Greek fans. I was told later the things that they were yelling at her, things that cause G-rated movies to be R based on inappropriate language. Did I mention she is only 16? Yea, they don't care. Based on these angry fans and our clubs rivalries, our bus had to be escorted out of the city by a police car to ensure our safety... I mean, really?!? I have experienced heated scenarios in our sport, but this took the cake, pardon the cliche. And, considering what I heard about last year, it wasn't even the most outrageous situation that has ever happened in Greek water polo, yet we still needed a police escort. Crazy.

As anyone can imagine, that game not only took the wind out of our sails, but it took a carving knife and slashed our sails to shreds. That was a very long and very silent 6 hour bus ride home... The next few practices our team was hungover from failure. Everyone just wasn't themselves; we had gone into Patras telling ourselves that there was no way we would lose to them, and we ended up not only losing, but getting beaten down. A few painful team meetings and flat training sessions later, we had to start thinking about our next contender, Panionios.

The team from Athens came in 4 days after our mentally devastating loss to Patras, so it was pretty hard to get excited to play, but we are professionals. So, when we all showed up that day, we all made the effort to act as though Patras had never happened, without forgetting the mistakes that we made there. It apparently worked well enough to get us a win, 12-7.

We are all starting to get back to normal after a few sporadic days off, a win against panionios, and a couple grueling gym/swim sessions. This is good, and necessary, since we face Olympiakos in Athens this coming weekend with their 2008 Gold Medalist 2M player, Iefke Van Belkum (pronounced if-kah). We have played them a couple of times now and had some pretty good showings against them, considering they are one of the top 2 teams in Greece, but still turned up with loses. So, we need to get our act together, physically and mentally, in order to get the result we want.

Apart from the rough start to the water polo session, other things outside of water polo have been going great! I met a group of ex-patriots living in Thessaloniki and we have gotten together a few times in the past couple of weeks do to some really great things in the city! Last sunday, after the beating we received in Patras, we had the day off so I was able to go to the Archaeological Museum and wine tasting in the port with my 2 Romanian friends and 2 of their Greek friends.

The museum was amazing... the ancient Greek sculptures, mosaics, and the JEWELRY! The gold wreaths that you see in pictures of Gods and Goddesses, and in films set in Ancient Greece, were all there. They were beautiful... it was amazing to see how intricate they were and then think to yourself how they were made over a thousand years ago. For a European History major, it was just the experience I needed to remind myself of the history of the culture that I was engulfed in every day.

After the museum, we walked to the harbor for wine tasting at only 5 Euros each! It was amazing. Merlot from Mikonos, Sangiovese from Italy... it was just what I needed to get my mind off of the failure from the day before. When we had worked up an appetite at the tasting, we headed to this locals exclusive cafe tucked away in a random building on a practically nameless street, but it was PERFECT! Just my kind of scene... mismatching furniture, dim lights, old wood bar, and Sinatra playing on the speakers while a jazz band set-up on a floor level stage. One cappuccino, 2 mini apple pies, and several tea-biscuits later, I made the executive decision to go back to that place as often as possible.

Overall, that sunday was a great way to start the slow process of Patras-amnesia that I have been attempting for the last week.

Also, my manager Yiannis Primpas, who got me situated with this team, created a small highlight reel of me playing in the Athens tournament a couple weekends ago. He has posted it on his website, so if you guys want to check it out, feel free! If you scroll down you will see it, and if you cruise around the news page, you will see some more news on our team and our games as well as the other teams in the league.  Below, is what happens when you let your teammate take your camera hostage in Patras, haha. Trust me, there were more where these came from, but minimized it a bit for you all. :)

Me and Maggie, the camera kidnapper

The Port in Patras from our hotel room balcony

Maggie, our asst. coach Vaso, and me

Me and Markela

Me, Maggie, and Vaso

Iraklis cruising the city pre-massacre

Battles in Belgrade

Last weekend, we were involved in a tournament in Belgrade, Serbia and I was completely taken by surprise with how I instantaneously fell in love with the city...

It all started with a not so lovely 12-hour bus ride from Thessaloniki.... so the plane ride I mentioned in my previous blog, in fact, did NOT happen, but we still made it to Belgrade in our way. The only positive of the road trip was getting a literal once-in-a-lifetime moment when I was saw the sunrise in the Serbian countryside. It was unbelievably mystical with the elements of fog and damp roads from recently melted snow... it was a time when you sit there and think to yourself how you will remember that clip of memory for the rest of your life.

We arrived in Belgrade in the afternoon and two hours later, we were in the pool preparing to play a "friendly" game against the top Serbian Women's team. I am finding it a very inappropriate term:"Friendly". I have yet to play a "friendly" game that wasn't anything BUT friendly... perhaps it is a delusional notion of wishful thinking.  We were still able to handle the game easily in terms of scoring goals, but there was one girl.... ugh... all she wanted to do was fight. And of course, she was my match up. Sometimes, I feel like the girl who is always attracted to jerks; like family and friends are saying "she really knows how to pick 'em" behind my back... These girls that I constantly have to guard seem to have no interest in where the ball is at the moment, rather they are interested in where the exact position of my jaw is so that they can introduce it to the boniest part of their elbow. I'm honestly surprised that I made it out of Belgrade with all of my fingers intact with the amount of times that she purposely attempted to bend them to point of "no return". After playing them 3 times that weekend, I was happy to wish good riddance.

Although, this team proved to be a challenge, physically, the other teams we encountered really surprised me with the lack of experience and competitiveness. Considering the Serbian mens' teams are some of the most talented and experienced in the world, the women's side is the antithesis. To give an idea of the level: the first game of the tournament was played on Saturday morning; on Friday night, our coach told 5 of us, which was 5/7 starters including the goalie, that we would stay at the hotel and sleep in while the rest of the girls went to play the game. Without us, without a proper goalie, they won 17-3. Needless to say, it was more a trip geared towards team bonding and confidence building before the start of our Greek Championship games. Honestly, this was fine with me because it allowed me to have some fun with the girls and with polo, which had been slowly slipping away with all the constant training we have been doing without much reward of competitions.

Unlike our tournament in Athens, we were able to explore and experience Belgrade a little bit and the two things I was most impressed with were the architecture and the people. To me, the thing I love about Europe in general is the history that you can feel when are walking through a city. You can be having coffee on a street that Alexander the Great rode his troops through in 300 B.C.E. There is no where like that in the States, and it never ceases to amaze me when I am here. Belgrade is really no different. You feel the reverence of all the old buildings and churches as you move through the city, realizing that they have withstood many generations of people, and are still standing looking just as breathtaking, even if they have had a little work done, so to speak :). What was also fascinating about Belgrade was the presence of some more modern communist buildings that were erected in the 20th century. This modern classical blend of architecture was a story within itself, almost like a political map through history. I feel like I left Belgrade thirsty for more answers about the city and its little known history.

Another endearing quality, that I have already mentioned, are the people. Maybe it is the Eastern European trademark that they are immediately marked with, but I ignorantly entered Serbia expecting a colder culture. I am so glad that I was proved wrong! The Serbians of Belgrade couldn't have been warmer or more welcoming, well, other than their water polo players... but those that we met in the hotel and in the market were nothing but smiles and life! Also, I have a new appreciation for Serbian genes. Having come from a very TALL family myself, I am very apt to notice fellow giants in this world, and in Serbia, the Traughbers would feel right at home! I couldn't believe the "average" height of these people! It was amazing. Even the kids were all legs and arms about 2 days away from sprouting to an intimidating 6'8". When I mentioned this to one of my teammates, she educated me saying that, in Greece at least, Serbians are infamous for being a very good looking culture. I had no idea! But now that you think about it, there are a fair number of Eastern European models that grace the pages of some of the top fashion magazines. It's just not a place like Brazil or Argentina that you immediately think of beautiful people. But I can vouch for them now! Don't hate on the Serbs!

If time. money, and fate allows, I would love to go back to Belgrade and more fully experience the city with restaurants, bars, museums... the works. But the small taste that I had was more than satisfying for my unenlightened palette.

Sunrise in Serbia (1)

Sunrise in Serbia (2)

Host pool of the Tournament, used by the Partizan Club

Serbian and Partizan Flags

Belgrade

The market we were able to explore on our last day

Market in the Park

I could have stayed in this park all day...

Iraklis Women's Water Polo :D

Margarita ,15, and Elepheria, 13; 2 of my youngest teammates

The Danube River, the 2nd largest in Europe. The tall building in the background is one of the most infamous buildings from Belgrade's Communist reign. 

The Danube from the park

Iraklis

I love you, Belgrade! 

A Little Bit of Athens