Last weekend was our trip to Belarus for the Baltic League Semifinals. It was a 3-4 hour trip by bus which wasn’t so bad because we got the most pimped-out bus I’ve ever been on! Rather than the usual “bus” we take (which is really just a glorified van) we were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves travelling on a bus that had big comfy leather seats that were set up around small tables, almost like a restaurant. Even better, the Fab Five crew had our very own VIP section in the back, with a big U-shaped booth like we were in a club or something. Needless to say, we were riding in style! And it’s lucky for us that we had such a nice bus because we spent a majority of the trip sitting, waiting at the border. For some reason, Belarus has strict border patrols so it was kind of a pain having to stop and wait and then have armed soldiers come on the bus and check everyone’s passports individually. Yikes! But we made it through ok, and of course made a good time of it together. Remember, having a good time isn’t about where you are or what you’re doing, it’s about who you’re with! :) So of course Vici had some fun!
I was originally excited to travel to Belarus for a few reasons. 1- we hadn’t travelled outside of Lithuania in a few months; 2- Belarus was an unknown place to me so I was anxious to see what it’s like ; and 3- you know I’m always excited to get a new stamp/visa in my passport! :) However, the trip itself didn’t live up to the hype. About a week before we left the girls started telling us that Belarus was a “different” and “interesting” place that in fact isn’t very exciting. They also told us that the food there isn’t the greatest, including some “blue chicken” that apparently some of them had got in a previous trip. So my hopes weren’t too high going into the trip, and once we got there I’m glad I had low expectations. For lack of a better explanation, Belarus (or at least where we were in Minsk) was kind of the typical, Euro-trashy place. It was kind of drab and kind of dirty, but the worst part overall was the smoke. Apparently there are no non-smoking rules, including inside everywhereee in our hotel. Basically you woke up smelling and breathing a smoky atmosphere and it didn’t go away all day. Needless to say, it was NOT up to the Jean Kemezys hotel standards. ;)
Anyways, besides the hotel, the games were a better story! We knew we’d be playing 3 games in 3 days and had to at least win 2 of them in order to move onto the Baltic Final Four. Although this was better competition than the LMKL, the first two games were against the lower teams of the pool and we ended up beating both of them pretty handily. So even though the 3rd game was simply for pride and a better seeding, it still had some added excitement because it was against the stronger Belarus team, which was comprised of many players from the Belarus National Team (aka these girls were more legit than our usual competition). It was an exciting game from the beginning and definitely the biggest “battle” type game that we’ve had since Euroleague ended. It was especially nice for me that they had some legit post players (both tall and wide) who I could bang around with. Since we all know that my style is more of a physical game and not so euro-finesse, it’s been killing me playing all these LMKL girls who are barely 6 feet tall and about as wide as one of my legs!! So after a tough battle back and forth for most of the game we ended up hitting some timely shots and getting defensive stops when needed and pulled the game out by 6. Overall it was really just nice to play in a legit competitive game again. Those are the type of games I enjoy the most and are why I love playing! It’s so much fun going to battle with a team you love and seeing our hard work pay off.
Also, after the final game, as the announcers were rambling on in Russian, I heard my name called, and after looking around questioningly, my team urged me to go accept an award. In all honesty I wasn’t for sure what it was, some type of player of the game or weekend or something, but it included getting a (JANKY!) trophy that has some Russian writing on it (that I of course Google translated with the results of “Best Players, Semi-final match, Championship BZHBL” where I think the BZHBL stands for the Baltic League). So it was nice to get something but even better that the team was more excited about it for me than I was. And of course the best part was that the team played well and won all three games!
 |
| My dollar store trophy :) |
Overall, even though Belarus wasn’t the nicest country to visit, we are happy with the results and of course had fun off the court too. A few other comments on the trip overall:
- Luckily there was no blue chicken as expected but the food wasn’t the greatest in general. Although my food selections have increased greatly over the past year, I still had trouble stomaching the borscht and some sort of curd-filled pastry that they had (although I did try it!). It wasn’t a total food disaster, but it did make me even more anxious for American food (or even Lithuanian food for that matter)!!
- Courtnay and I each had somewhat of “wardrobe malfunctions” this trip. Before we had left Kaunas, Court, Giedre, Marina and I stopped at the Sandwich Bar for lunch and for some reason (nothing short than a miracle of God’s!) I all of a sudden remembered that I had only packed one of my jerseys. Luckily we had time for Giedre to race me home and get it before we met up for the bus. Major crisis averted! Courtnay’s was a little funnier in that seconds before our first game, when we were all taking our warm ups off, she looked down and noticed that she was wearing our Euroleague shorts instead of the LMKL uniform shorts that we all had on. It’s not really a big deal seeing that they’re pretty similar minus a few advertisements on them, but it was still a funny moment when Court pulled off her warm up pants and had a minor freak out. But all in all, we made it ok.
- Since this was gonna be a long trip Marina decided to bring her XBOX along to have in the hotel. We had a lot of down time, so her and I spent a few evenings having some heated battles on a war/shooting game (yes, we got yelled at by our hotel neighbors for screaming so loud at times…and yes, we sometimes act like middle-schoolers…lol). It definitely took me back to the great days of playing GoldenEye on N64 (still the best gaming system EVER in my opinion) with my sister and cousins (you know I always beat you Kate!! Lol). As a closet “gamer” it was fun to have that along for the trip and even though I lost every game because of home-gaming-system-advantage I’m determined to beat Marina before I leave Lithuania! Haha.
- In case any of you are wondering, I also learned that Belarus is apparently the place to go for buying cigarettes, alcohol and some over the counter drugs. Apparently the cigarettes and alcohol are remarkably cheaper in Belarus and they also offer some drugs over the counter there that you have to get a prescription to get in Lithuania. Although we didn’t go crazy on this contraband, some of the girls did stock up on a few things, including some champagne and beer that we enjoyed during our celebratory ride home on the “Soul Bus”. So if you ever need some cheap cigs, alcohol or mildly-banned drugs, Minsk, Belarus is the place to go! You really do learn something new every day, huh? :)
- Finally, a few of the players on the teams we played were Ukrainian and I just can’t NOT share this video clip seeing that it was all I kept thinking about. And yes, it took everything in my power not to trash talk with them by saying “the Ukraine is weak”!! Hahaha. I <3 Seinfeld.
No comments:
Post a Comment