CSNZ Junior & U23 Teams
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Rest day
Today the team had a rest day- well away from the course. We went to Prague, which is only about 40 minutes away, the whole team, Kidda and Luuka came too.
We parked near the Prague course as it is a familiar tram ride into the middle of the city without the parking hassles. The trams run on an honesty system, but no one seems to check so is a very cost effective mode of transport.
We decided to visit an exhibition entitled ' Bodies' that Kidda had seen recently. It was quite amazing as there were over 20 real human bodies, that were from Chinese prisoners. A method of extracting all the water and replacing it with a synethetic polymer was used to preserve the soft tissue and muscles. Various systems and parts of the bosy were highlighted in different ways eg arteries, muscles, circulatory system. Hard to explain but if you google Bodies Exhibition Prague you will get a better idea. It was very educational and plus had a strong health message.
After a quick lunch we went our own ways with a meeting time back at the course. There was some pressure and urgency to buy gifts for loved ones at home so serious shopping was underway. Another very hot day and I arrived back at the course at the appropriate time, then Kidda and luuka but over an hour later still no sign of the others.
Eventually they arrived ( 90 minutes late) with a story... of course.... they got the tram in the wrong direction, had the scenic route to South Prague. the tram line finished, they got off and caught another back. All in all, 1 and a half hours on the tram, luckily it was a freebie!!!
Still smiling we went to another shopping centre and got glue for baot repair, more shopping and arrived back in Roudnice 8pm for another Pizzeria dinner.
Some new teams have arrived and we met the Italians and USA team at the Pizzeria.
The flat water world junior champs are about 10km away at Racice on the same dates so lots of flatwater paddlers staying at the same place as us.
Into nation training tommorrow and with are with the Aussies and Swedish teams at 11am. Hopefully we can squeeze another in at 7pm as it is not dark until 10pm. Very short night as it is daylight at 5am.
cheers to all in NZ, great getting messages and comments as to who is reading the blog. We really appreciate your support and interest.
Sue
We parked near the Prague course as it is a familiar tram ride into the middle of the city without the parking hassles. The trams run on an honesty system, but no one seems to check so is a very cost effective mode of transport.
We decided to visit an exhibition entitled ' Bodies' that Kidda had seen recently. It was quite amazing as there were over 20 real human bodies, that were from Chinese prisoners. A method of extracting all the water and replacing it with a synethetic polymer was used to preserve the soft tissue and muscles. Various systems and parts of the bosy were highlighted in different ways eg arteries, muscles, circulatory system. Hard to explain but if you google Bodies Exhibition Prague you will get a better idea. It was very educational and plus had a strong health message.
After a quick lunch we went our own ways with a meeting time back at the course. There was some pressure and urgency to buy gifts for loved ones at home so serious shopping was underway. Another very hot day and I arrived back at the course at the appropriate time, then Kidda and luuka but over an hour later still no sign of the others.
Eventually they arrived ( 90 minutes late) with a story... of course.... they got the tram in the wrong direction, had the scenic route to South Prague. the tram line finished, they got off and caught another back. All in all, 1 and a half hours on the tram, luckily it was a freebie!!!
Still smiling we went to another shopping centre and got glue for baot repair, more shopping and arrived back in Roudnice 8pm for another Pizzeria dinner.
Some new teams have arrived and we met the Italians and USA team at the Pizzeria.
The flat water world junior champs are about 10km away at Racice on the same dates so lots of flatwater paddlers staying at the same place as us.
Into nation training tommorrow and with are with the Aussies and Swedish teams at 11am. Hopefully we can squeeze another in at 7pm as it is not dark until 10pm. Very short night as it is daylight at 5am.
cheers to all in NZ, great getting messages and comments as to who is reading the blog. We really appreciate your support and interest.
Sue
Sunday, July 22, 2007
A story of water.....
Day Two a water story…
On the second day God created water, and thank goodness we found water in Roudnice today.
Yesterday Eric, Tom and Ella went to the supermarket to buy water as we are very wary of drinking the Czech water. They struggled, but came back with 12 litre bottles of some ghastly undrinkable stuff. In the 37 deg heat it was all they could find so we had to persevere and down it.
After training yesterday I ventured to another supermarket- Tesco, and tried a bottle to check that it was the non fizzy variety (big black mark to buy the wrong stuff as everyone hates the bubbles) I loaded the trolley with 36 litre bottles and headed to the car. Loaded it all in and thought “ I’ll quench my thirst and check again I have the right stuff. Yuk it was fizzy so back into the trolley it went and I headed back inside and tried to make someone understand my predicament. Eventually a customer who spoke Anglicky was found and she explained. Alas no water in Tesco, “coming tomorrow she said” She translated a refund for me and I headed back with the bad news to the team.
No problems we will just go back tomorrow and pick up heaps of water as with all the kayakers hitting town we will stock up. After training we drove to Tesco- had the team reinforcements to carry all the water, but alas the pallet was empty and the said water had not arrived. All bought a sticky cake and thought lets head to the other supermarket and bingo a huge stack of water. We loaded up 72 bottles plus some other goodies and queued to pay, feeling pretty smart that we had the lions share of the water in Roudnice.
The checkout operator rang it all up and I handed over the credit card to pay- ‘no credit cards she said ( in Czech )’ ( every other supermarket has taken credit cards)
As I didn’t have enough Czech korunas, and we couldn’t explain, putting the transaction on hold with arm waving and gesticulation, she sent for someone who had a vague knowledge of English.
To wind up this story, I left the team, headed to the money machine at the bank, returned with 2000 Koruna and we at last had our water.. ‘Great water’ was the team’s reaction and we are now tripping over bottles of water….. but at least we won’t be dehydrated.
Everyone could see the funny side and we did all crack up laughing as we returned to the hotel.
Think I’ll appreciate turning on the tap in NZ.
On the second day God created water, and thank goodness we found water in Roudnice today.
Yesterday Eric, Tom and Ella went to the supermarket to buy water as we are very wary of drinking the Czech water. They struggled, but came back with 12 litre bottles of some ghastly undrinkable stuff. In the 37 deg heat it was all they could find so we had to persevere and down it.
After training yesterday I ventured to another supermarket- Tesco, and tried a bottle to check that it was the non fizzy variety (big black mark to buy the wrong stuff as everyone hates the bubbles) I loaded the trolley with 36 litre bottles and headed to the car. Loaded it all in and thought “ I’ll quench my thirst and check again I have the right stuff. Yuk it was fizzy so back into the trolley it went and I headed back inside and tried to make someone understand my predicament. Eventually a customer who spoke Anglicky was found and she explained. Alas no water in Tesco, “coming tomorrow she said” She translated a refund for me and I headed back with the bad news to the team.
No problems we will just go back tomorrow and pick up heaps of water as with all the kayakers hitting town we will stock up. After training we drove to Tesco- had the team reinforcements to carry all the water, but alas the pallet was empty and the said water had not arrived. All bought a sticky cake and thought lets head to the other supermarket and bingo a huge stack of water. We loaded up 72 bottles plus some other goodies and queued to pay, feeling pretty smart that we had the lions share of the water in Roudnice.
The checkout operator rang it all up and I handed over the credit card to pay- ‘no credit cards she said ( in Czech )’ ( every other supermarket has taken credit cards)
As I didn’t have enough Czech korunas, and we couldn’t explain, putting the transaction on hold with arm waving and gesticulation, she sent for someone who had a vague knowledge of English.
To wind up this story, I left the team, headed to the money machine at the bank, returned with 2000 Koruna and we at last had our water.. ‘Great water’ was the team’s reaction and we are now tripping over bottles of water….. but at least we won’t be dehydrated.
Everyone could see the funny side and we did all crack up laughing as we returned to the hotel.
Think I’ll appreciate turning on the tap in NZ.
The boys decided to play a mean trick on Ella and hide all her Swiss Chocolate in our room which doubles as the team room for lunch, video etc
It was pretty funny watching her rip the place apart searching for her chocolate. It may have gone a tad too far when they boys ruled that she had 20 minutes to find all 6 bars or they would start eating it. They had the advantage of height ( mainly Erics) so she was unable to reach the top of the cupboard so lost the deal and some of her precious chocolate.
Once the chocolate was recovered and the boys forgiven we drove to Litomerice a small town north of Roudnice. Through small villages and lots of open country. Large plantings of wheat, redcurrants on wires, cabbages, caulis and corn filled every flat space. Litomerice is where some of the teams are staying and is 18km away from the course. It had a large cobbled square, with some amazing old buildings with a variety of gothic and baroque architecture. We went to the museum which was pretty cool for a small town, as it had a variety of things historic including scale models of the town, old maps of Ceske Slovenski, a book of hymns hand written from the 1500’s and human bones from 5000BC. The custodian was pretty excited to have some New Zealanders through- he said we were the first and he wanted NZ coins from us!!!.
After a huge icecream we explored the city and then headed back to Roudnice and the course. It is getting quite exciting as more nations arrive to train. We talked to the Swedish coach who had driven 27 hours to get there. The Italians arrived as we were watching also. There are more than 20 countries listed which is not as many as the Worlds, but as teams can bring six paddlers in each class there may be more people. The Germans and British are bringing their “B” teams and the French are not coming at all. This is all because the European U23 Champs are the following weekend in Kracow, Poland, so their top teams will be going to that instead. Others like the Swiss will leave after racing next Sunday and drive to Kracow for the racing. It is unfortunate that we can’t race in those races as well.
Just had dinner with the Swiss again at our hotel’s Pizzeria and heading to bed as a 6.30am start again tomorrow. Training early to beat the heat and the crowds on the river. The Aussie team arrives tommorrow night and will be in all our organised training slots from Monday with the Swedish team as well .
Great to read of the netball and rugby scores!
Take care
cheers
sue
Friday, July 20, 2007
roudnice
Arrived back in Roudnice after a very long trip. Made longer by the fact Tom had left his passport in his pack which was loaded into Kidda's van. We text kidda, who had Luuka with him, and arranged to meet him at the Czech border.... well not sure where he went but we waited at the border for 2 hours , dreaming up ways of smuggling Tom across. We thought about chancing it but we watched them checking cars and asking for passports, so we sat and waited.
When we finally got the passport and headed for border control, they waved us through. You can imagine the expletives used!!!
Arriving back in Roudnice was a familiar scene and we headed straight to the Pizzeria for dinner.
The Swiss juniors had checked in and tracked us down. Ella, who loves chocolate, had a big stash given to her by her new friend, Guilluame. Natalie, their coach also had some for us so all the hassles of the day were soon forgotten.
The best news of all is that in the week we were away they had wireless installed in their hotel foyer for us all to use so now there is a meeting place of people tapping away on their laptops.
We are working on the Swiss to bring a group to NZ. Wouldnt it be great to have a venue and a race circuit combined with the Australians for all these Europeans to come to in their off season.
Anyway we will keep in regular contact during this time with the new IT upgrade here.
Night to you all, team going training now so better get me skates on and get the food and water from the supermarket.
Cheers
sue
When we finally got the passport and headed for border control, they waved us through. You can imagine the expletives used!!!
Arriving back in Roudnice was a familiar scene and we headed straight to the Pizzeria for dinner.
The Swiss juniors had checked in and tracked us down. Ella, who loves chocolate, had a big stash given to her by her new friend, Guilluame. Natalie, their coach also had some for us so all the hassles of the day were soon forgotten.
The best news of all is that in the week we were away they had wireless installed in their hotel foyer for us all to use so now there is a meeting place of people tapping away on their laptops.
We are working on the Swiss to bring a group to NZ. Wouldnt it be great to have a venue and a race circuit combined with the Australians for all these Europeans to come to in their off season.
Anyway we will keep in regular contact during this time with the new IT upgrade here.
Night to you all, team going training now so better get me skates on and get the food and water from the supermarket.
Cheers
sue
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