Tacen and the town of Ljubljana

Staying in the DIC hostel in the centre of Ljubljana is certainly different to the Hotel Sabotin, however it meets our needs well. The breakfast this morning was ample and set us up well for our day although Dan is still off colour and not eating. Loaded up the vans and headed to the course at Tacen, probably a   

20 minute trip through the town however this morning it took much longer - some of us heard a metallic scraping noise coming from under the van above the noise of Pavels Czech rock music -' no' said Pavel " that is my music or maybe its just the building site we just went past" - if only it was that simple - the exhaust pipe had fallen off and was dragging along the ground - not easy to stop in rush hour traffic with a trailer laden with boats and a van which is like a little bus - had to use a bus stop but the bus drivers weren't happy.  Dale crawled underneath and hooked the pipe up with a bungy cord and we were on our way again - mind you the lead van with Martin driving and the map in it had long since disappeared and we were a little lost - managed to find our way with a bit of ingenuity and some memory left of Dales last trip here.

Kids out of the van and straight to the course to take a look - no water in it - just big lumps of concrete, some slime and a trickle down the middle ...... back to the vans and into gear, boats unloaded and bags stowed, back to the course to see the water beginning to rise - right on cue - it rose and became a paddlers paradise within the space of 10 minutes. Huge drop at the beginning leading into a series of stoppers and eddies, waves and holes and concrete islands. Kids loved it - and ran with their boats from the bottom of the course back to the top to take the drop again and again - a bit like when they were little kids on the hydro slide at the pool ....

Tommy working that paddle

Patrick

Deahna getting instruction from Pavel 

Pavel showing how it's done

Luke watching Marcus come down

Jess loved the drop

Haylee 

All learnt a lot in a short space of time - a few incidents and accidents with paddles dented and boats scarred but bodies intact. All too soon our allocated slot was over and the water started to leave .... into the vans to take Jess to the physio and get lunch - one of the local coaches led the way to the physio in his car and it took over half an hour to get there - left Jess there and the physio, a lovely lady who was physio for the Slovenian team, offered to drive her back to the course - everyone else ate lunch in the shade and then all back on the water at 2 pm. Poor old Luke had to just sit and watch until he drafted Deahna in for a mixed C2 on the flat water training channel next door. 

The new C2 crew

Two big surprises in the past 24 hours, the first one being that an old friend of some of the boys Reilly Edwards from Australia is here working and met us at the course today - he hung out with us all day and took us to a half price place for dinner tonight - it was brilliant

Reilly Edwards -Tour Guide

. Second surprise was when we were doing our quick walk around the town centre last night, we walked past an outdoor bar on the way to that padlock bridge, when some guy jumped up from a table and accosted Luke - Wendy went back with her boxing gloves on to discover it was his cousin - what a small world - to just happen to be sitting in a bar in the centre of Ljubljana and have your 16 year old cousin walk by - they all had their team tops on which is what drew the attention. Such a lovely surprise.

This evening kids all found their own way back to the hostel after tea in groups - and had a wonderful time wandering past the street performers, the open air cafes and bars, the crazy people, the lazy river, the stone walls and cobbled streets, bikes and roller bladers, beautiful old buildings and a lone sax player out in front of a beautiful fountain. Magic stuff that memories are made of. Home for an earlier night and a big days training tomorrow on the disneyland of slalom sites.

Ice Creams in Ljubljana