Today we woke up in Venice and traveled to Ljubljlana. It was about a two-hour drive full of beautiful countryside and vineyards. Ljubljlana is the capital (Slovenia) and we walked around seeing beautiful capital buildings and historical landmarks. We did not know what the buildings exactly were because of the language barrier. Through the city runs a river, which is over looked by a castle. We spent two and a half hours exploring and enjoying the food. Thankfully, the group we were in found a restaurant that spoke English, so we were able to understand what food we were ordering. We ate by the river and enjoyed people watching, as well as the landscape. After touring Ljubljlana, we made our trek to Maribor, which is absolutely gorgeous!      

Once here, we checked into the Ikea-esque apartments, which are huge. Our whole team could fit into one. The view from our porch over looked the mountains, where they have gondolas and alpine slides. We rested up and then headed to practice at the local sports club with a hotel and a gym connected to it (no air conditioning). We wanted to get used to the international ball, which is a little different from the American ball, along with playing together for the first time in three months. We played the Slovenian Junior National Team, and although we were a little rusty at first, we were able to win the fifth game 17-15. The steady improvement was great to see. After we had dinner at the hotel/sports club, we saw the next day's competition - the Russian junior national team. A yummy dinner and complimentary dessert on our tour guides ended the night. Now it's time for a good night's rest...tomorrow in Maribor.

Nasdvidenje from the Tars!