by Laura Little, UTSA Marketing Associate
MARIBOR, Slovenia — Slovenia couldn't be more beautiful. We took a stroll around downtown on Saturday and the area was bustling with children's fashion shows and shopping. After we had lunch, we went back to the hotel to rest a bit before our 4 p.m. match against the Slovenian Junior National Team.
Our hotel is located right at the bottom of a mountain and surrounded by trees and greenery and downtown is about a 10-minute drive. There are all sorts of shops, a beautiful church and different pubs and restaurants. It's interesting to see the differences in the cities we've been staying. Like I mentioned before, everyone is very welcoming and wants to know just as much about America and Texas as we do about Europe.
All rested up and ready to get down to business, the girls went the distance against the Slovenian Junior National Team and won by scores of 25-15, 22-25, 16-25, 25-12 and 15-6. Dajana collected a team-best 13 kills, while Marijeta and Nela each registered eight winners. Daniella Villarreal had 19 digs and Shelby Williams added 11.
Afterwards, we decided to have dinner up the Pohorje Mountain right outside of our hotel by the gondola. During the winter, the mountain is used for skiing and snowboarding, but, all other times, they have a car track setup where you can ride cars down the hillside. There's a handbrake that you can use, but it's mostly just controlled by gravity.
For our dinner that night, we decided on something a little familiar, barbecue. In Slovenia, that consists of pork, chicken and a type of mixed sausage — kind of like ours back home sans the smoky flavors and barbecue sauce.
Some of the girls went back downtown on Sunday morning to go to church. Once everyone got back, we took the group up the mountain to ride the cars down (video can be seen on Facebook/Twitter). We had so much fun!
That evening we played the Slovenia Junior National team again. The Roadrunners dropped the match this time by scores of 16-25, 25-23, 25-23, 22-25 and 9-15. Nela had a double-double with 15 kills and 15 digs, while Dajana recorded 27 kills and Daniella 19 digs.
We have a pretty packed day of traveling today.
We are going to take a four-hour van ride to Venice, Italy, and we will explore the city for a bit before hopping on a train to Milan. Lots of naps will be had along the way.
See you in Italy!
#birdsup #UTSAtoEUR
