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Pro-Series Beach Volleyball tour Balzano, Italy
Thursday, July 3
This was planes, trains and automobiles indeed! It all started when I picked the girls up in Glasgow to drive through to Edinburgh Airport where we'd set off on our trip to Italy.
When we arrived at the airport, after having to reverse back 100 yards or so, to the long stay car park, we parked the car and all was good. Upon getting out the car we realised that we were in fact nowhere near the airport. So we found a man with a high-vis jacket who informed us we'd need to get a bus to the airport! Who'd have thought! So we waited patiently at the little bus stop while I felt bad about leaving little TJ (that's my car). Anyway we got on the bus and after Clayr had taken out a few old dears with her suitcase we got to the airport.
I took it upon myself at this moment to point out that I was the only one wearing flat shoes, the girls of course mumbled "oh we'll be fine"… please note this response!
So the flight was good, nice and short, we all had a little nap and munched on the usual Rockettes plane food – Pringles. Once everyone squeezed their swollen feet from the plane into their shoes (muah ha ha!) and collected our luggage we were off again.
We got our bus tickets and managed to get on the bus heading for the train station. Whilst everyone was napping/gabbing on the bus I was trying to teach myself Italian from food packets, adverts and warning signs. Off the bus, we get to the train station… let me tell you Italian train stations are very confusing… but when Carole Anne and I put our heads together clearly we can accomplish anything… even though the basis of me helping was the fact that I looked Italian!
But anyway we purchased our billets… our tickets… and we were off again… We dashed for the train, dragging our suitcases behind us! At was at this point the rest of the girls started to moan about having sore feet… didn't like to say I told them so!
Now, I was an avid Dr Quinn fan as a child and if you ever saw the episode where they get a train… yeah, I think that's the train that we were on… Carole Anne was expecting chickens to erupt from the overhead… shelves… compartments sounds too modern! It was at this point most Rockettes changed into flat shoes… lucky for Clayr my flip-flops matched her outfit!!
So it's now night-time, we had been travelling for about 9hrs and we were getting really tired – Clayr asked a man sitting next to us when we would arrive at Calzone… no wonder he was confused. At last we arrive at Balzano station where we were met by 2 strapping young gents, who kindly took it in turns to carry our suitcases… Carole Anne, could we arrange this service at all events??? They drove us to the centre of the town… then finally… we had a 10 min walk to our hotel… my reckoning was they were testing us to see if we cracked in the last part of our journey… but we made it… 12 hours… I've never been so happy to get to bed.
Friday, July 4
I woke up to what I can only describe as the scenery from the Lord of the Rings. The view from our room was amazing, giant grass-covered hills with quaint little houses. Clayr was not feeling too great so I got up and ready and headed for breakfast promising to bring something back.
I met Carole Anne and I was just about skipping down the stairs, I was starving. Now what do you think Italians would serve for breakfast?? Cheese, ham, croissants, butter, chocolate spread, chocolate cereal. I stacked up with cheese and ham, convinced I didn't like croissants (yes I know, I know, I've never tried them so how would I know – thanks mum!) but decided to go wild and have a croissant with some chocolate spread. OH MY GOD. It is amazing, if you haven't had one go get one right now. I even took one back for Clayr!
When Deone and Lynne came down Deone's little eyes lit up: "cereal" – it was like a love scene from a film!
So after breakfast we went a little walk… and decided to get Clayr something to make her better. I used my 'Spanish skills' to ask a local for the pharmacy, unfortunately none of us could explain Sudafed or even headache let alone migraine to the pharmacist. So we decided on fizzy juice and chocolate :)
Upon returning we all had a little nap, got ready and ran over our dances. Thankfully Clayr was feeling much better and we headed down to the Tournament.
I'm unsure if any of us have ever looked at a map before, so after 10 minutes of walking in circles we eventually accosted some young guy who kindly offered to show us to the event, however he told us to wait one min, jumped back inside the building then came out smelling of aftershave – who was he trying to impress!!
Walking around the area was amazing: the buildings, the scenery, it was beautiful. Now I was the only first timer 'dancing on sand' on this trip, so during our rehearsal I was gripping my stomach muscles for dear life. It was good fun though.
Off we went to get changed and the tournament began. The compare was shouting "PLEASE WELCOME THE PRO SERIOUS GIRLS"… OK it was actually 'Pro-Series' but I had trouble with his accent so I informed the group that yes we are very professional and very serious ha!
It was fantastic, the crowd loved it and so did we. I in particular loved the piece of music the DJ was playing "BEACH BEACH VOLLEY BEACH".
On the way home we went for pizza… now I'm not going to tell you how much pizza I managed to consume… but it was more than one slice ha! We slept well on full stomachs anyway :)
Saturday, July 5
Was an early rise… about 6:30 which is difficult to work out when to set the alarm. Instead of changing our phones to 'Italian time' we kept them at British time…
Anyway apologies to Clayr I am not a morning person! I can only grumble for the first 45mins of being awake. Once I was ready and dressed however, I skipped down to breakfast craving my croissant with chocolate, and ham and cheese slices. After breakfast we headed to the tournament.
Today we were in our lovely khaki and gold uniforms. We started the morning off by going round Bolzano town centre with fliers. We managed to communicate to the locals by singing "BEACH BEACH VOLLEY BEACH" then doing a quick thumbs up.
As the day continued to make sure the event was full-to-the-absolute-brim they made entry free… to which we could say to locals… "a-hem… entrada gratice" which means free entry, yeah we all thought we were Italians!!!! 2/3 of Bolzano is actually made up of Germans but you'll need to ask Lynne our resident German speaker of the group how to say it in German ;)
After our flier distribution Carole Anne and myself went a bit camera crazy! One picture actually involved her poking her head through the hole in the side of a wicker chair…
Now my favourite part of Saturday was… ICE CREAM!!! There was a little parlour just round from the event, it completely made my day, we used up their entire mint choc chip!!
Soon it was time for our performance, as we ran out the compare shouts "The Scottish Rockettes Ballerinas"!! I nearly tripped up, Ballerinas… eh! Check us out! So it's Italian for dancer… shhh!!
It was absolutely roasting, by the time we finished our routine and got out of the sand pit we were almost melting!! Being a hypochondriac as normal I was keeping out of the sun between times in case I developed sun stroke.
Saturday was also the day Deone and I discovered that the bar sold traditional lemonade!! Yes we were hooked, sitting sucking our cheeks in probably didn't look great but it kept us cool anyway.
The event was great and we had a lot of fun dancing. I can assure you dancing our fast tempo technical routines in the sand is not as easy as it looks!
By the time we were finished there was very few places open so again back we went for more pizza! And then home absolutely exhausted from the days events! Spent another good 10mins trying to work out if we set the alarm an hour early or an hour later!
Sunday, July 6
We got a little bit of a long lie… yay! Don't panic though I still got to have my choc croissant ham and cheese concoction of a breakfast.
Today we were in the blue and white uniforms :)
Now for some bizarre reason, I didn't think it rained in Italy, boy was Italy about to prove me wrong! After breakfast we went down to the event and chilled out on some really funky chairs for a bit and it was a bit overcast. We were talking to the compere who said, "yeah it'll rain today"! And we all giggled like 'yeah, right, we're in Italy, who are you trying to kid" when we realised that he was doing anything but kidding panic set in.
And nothing spreads faster than panic. Frizzy hair, dodgy make up – COULD THIS BE THE END!?!?!?!? No… They provided us with a sun umbrella… *sigh of relief* and it was even blue, it matched our outfits *double sigh of relief*
Now we could relax even more so because we were not clashing. So we danced at the VIP tournament.
Then the unthinkable happened… the heavens opened. Now I know what you're thinking, you're Scottish, it rains here ALL the time in Scotland. But this wasn't just spitting, this wasn't just a shower, this wasn't even pouring, this was A STORM! There was thunder and lightning, gale force winds, and the rain actually hurt you when it landed on you!
The first mini storm was OK, we hid up in the vip tent bit, while the staff were putting buckets everywhere. The second one we made it to the players' tent and somehow it managed to be just us that were in it. Now as I was calmly counting the seconds in between the thunder and the lightning with Deone, men were tying down tents (think of that scene from Dumbo when the circus tent is blowing away, minus the elephants of course), telling us to remain calm.
I was perfectly calm; I was having a whale of a time. I had brought my scarf which doubles as a blanket and was reading sections of 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus' to the girls to discuss.
Anyway it turned out that the event had to be cancelled, we were all gutted, and it was so unfair! Carole Anne went back to get the CD before we set off to walk back to the hotel, when she returned, she was met by four Rockettes, dressed in bin bags with multiple hats on each and no shoes. Now I'm sorry but for the panel of judges next year if that isn't using your own initiative I don't know what it! Carole Anne didn't however don her bin bag and we all trekked homeward bound.
Monday, July 7
Clayr and I obviously high as kites from the lightning as we spent till the early hours of Monday morning talking garbage and laughing away to ourselves before falling asleep at like 2am! So when we got up at 6am I felt ill.
I need my sleep, not just for beauty reasons but also so I don't want to throw up everywhere. So as I sipped from my warm bottle of Orangina (yuck!) I got ready.
Thankfully Carole Anne had arranged someone to drive us to the airport! Hoorah!!! No walking, then a car, then a train, then a bus! We made a petrol stop, now I'm not going to moan about petrol prices, but if I was I would say that it's cheaper in Italy lol, and I managed to get some cold juice and bought Carole Anne some Pringles!! She had wanted crisps from the minute we arrived but could find a packet anywhere, unfortunately no amount of cheese, ham, chocolate spread or croissants could help her.
So I felt much better, the drive was amazing, the scenery is beautiful.
I think we all slept the whole way home on the plane. It had been a long day. Once off the plane we said goodbye to Carole Anne and headed to the long-stay car park bus. So we get on the bus. It takes us to a car park. "Girls do you remember this car park?" No… turns out there's a few long stay car parks!
Now as my worrying starts to spiral out of control, the bus driver informs me the car park number is on the ticket. PHEW! So we get the bus back to the airport. And then we get on the correct bus to our car park. Simple really, when you know how! I then get us all back in one piece :)
Now it's time to get all the sand out our clothes!!!
Lots of love, Carol
P.S. I hope you enjoy our holiday snaps! :)
     
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