Northwestern University Athletics
Lauren Delaney Blogs From Europe
6/27/2008 12:00:00 AM | Softball
June 27, 2008
Northwestern's Big Ten Pitcher of the Year Lauren Delaney (Jefferson City, Mo./Helias) currently is on a 10-day trip through Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic as a member of a USA Athletes International softball team. She will file several blog entries from overseas detailing her experiences in the coming days.
Entry One (June 27, 2008)
Entry Two (June 30, 2008)
Entry Three (July 2, 2008)
Entry Four (July 7, 2008)
June 27, 2008
Hi everyone! I'm just finishing my first day here in Austria. I was selected to go with a USA Athletes International team and play in Austria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic for 10 days. We spent about 24 hours flying today, so I am looking forward to sleeping tonight.
We left from Chicago and had a layover at London before finishing our trip in Vienna. From there we were greeted by our tour guide and took a mini bus to Weiner Neustadt, where we are staying for the first part of our trip. It is about an hour outside of Vienna and is home to the best baseball and softball fields in Austria, although comparatively Sharon J. Drysdale Field is still much better!
We practiced at the field and had our first "Austrian" dinner at the ballpark. I had what we would call a cheese bratwurst, which was delicious. We get to play the Austrian National team in a doubleheader tomorrow in Vienna. I am excited because this will probably be our hardest competition of the trip.
The bad news is that myself and two other girls on the team did not get our luggage and the airline has no clue where it is. Good thing we carried on our uniforms and gloves, but we will have to borrow cleats from a former Austrian player if we do not get our luggage before tomorrow morning!
This was interesting typing this blog on an Austrian keyboard because several of the letters are different places than I am used to and there are several additional letters as well. I will update when I can!
June 30, 2008
Good news, my luggage made it the next morning! We played the Austrian National team on Saturday and run-ruled them both times. I got to pitch the first game, then we went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Go figure we would eat Mexican in Austria, but it was pretty good.
We hung out with some of the Austrian softball players and they showed us around the city. We played a co-ed national Latino team yesterday (Sunday) in a friendly competition. It was fun getting to use some Spanish while talking to them, and one of them had lived in Chicago and we got to talk about that.
We had the national meal of Austria last night, Wiener Schnitzel. It is a breaded meat that is fried. From there we went and visited the 150-year-old church that was across the street.
Later we watched the Euro 2008 Soccer Cup Finals. They are crazy about soccer here! Before the finals in the town square I saw a human foosball match being played from my window. Our team watched the Euro game in the village town square on the big screen set up they had. The Austrian's really wanted Spain to win and they did so everyone was in a good mood.
This morning we went to an underground lake, which was really cool. It used to be a mine, but it collapsed in the 20's and filled with water. We also got to spend some time in Vienna and went to see the Schonbrunn Palace and Garden. That was one of the most beautiful things I have seen. It is where the Austrian Emperor spent the summers.
Tonight (Monday) we played a U19 Slovakian National Team that was just starting out. It has been fun getting to play teams from other nations that speak different languages. After the game, we went out for an Italian dinner. A single pizza here is as big as a medium or large at home. Italian is a popular food since Italy is so close, but the toppings are much different here -- some of the girls had tuna and others had corn. Red Bull is vastly popular here since the inventor is from Austria.
I have learned some German words already, but still can not understand the natives. One of the biggest differences with food is the fact that they do not serve ice in their beverages and the milk at breakfast is served either warm or hot but not cold. Our tour guide can speak five languages and is really entertaining, which keeps things fun. Tomorrow we are playing an Austrian club team in Vienna after we get a tour of the city.
July 2, 2008
So my time here just keeps getting better each day. Yesterday we went to
Vienna and had a guided two hour walk through the city central. It's
amazing how much history I learned in that period of time. We saw St.
Stephen's Church, which took hundreds of years to finish but was one of the
most beautifully decorated churches I have seen. We saw several of
Motzart's home's in Vienna also. It was absolutely amazing how quiet the
city was, we could not hear any road noise at all when we were a 1/2 block
off of the street.
We visited Hofburg, the countries government center and where the emperor worked. It was interesting to see how much the city had changed since World War II; our tour guide had lots of maps so we could see how the city had changed throughout the years. We went shopping in Vienna's shopping district and then had another Austrian meal. We played our last game of our trip last night against the Vienna Wanderer's and played our closest game of the trip.
One of our girls actually got asked to play with them in the Euro Cup this summer in Italy. Today we took a day trip to Mauthausen Concentration Camp which was slightly depressing. We then visited a convent which was surprisingly entertaining. We sang songs, learned what they do during a normal day for working and praying, then the nun showed us yodling.
Another interesting fact is that all of the city water in Vienna is drinkable as it comes straight from the Alps. Also no stores are open before 8 or after 7 and are not open on Sunday...not even gas stations stay open! Tomorrow we head to Prague. More later!
July 7, 2008
So I am finally back in the U.S. The past 10 days were an experience of a lifetime. Since my last blog we transfered to Prague, or Praha as they say it. Our first night in Prague we visited U Fleku, a brewery, where they have been brewing beer since 1499. We took a tour of the brewery, which was especially interesting as it had just rained and part of the basement was under water.
After the tour we had dinner, and it was the first place we had eaten that was composed of mainly tourists. The Czech Republic just joined the European Union so they were still using the Czech Crown. As I had gotten used to using the Euro, I had to learn the Crown, which made you feel like you were rich since a 200 Crown bill was $15.
The next day we had a guided walking tour of Prague. We started at Prague Castle -- which is on top of the hill in the city -- where we were greeted with the Royal Band. We walked around the entire castle including the inside of St. Vitus Cathedral. The detail put into the architecture in both Prague and Vienna is absolutely incredible. All of us also took pictures with the guards outside the castle; I could never be a guard there because I would crack up laughing with some of the pictures people took standing next to them.
We then walked to Charles Bridge, which flooded in 2000. You could still see where the water level had been. I don't know how the city is still standing after that much water. We finished in Old Town where we spent the rest of the day shopping and had a typical Czech meal of goulash and dumplings.
As much fun as I had I'm still glad to be home and I have never been happier to have air conditioning, ice and full sized elevators in my life. I had some great times while I was in Europe and made several new friends both in Europe and from the U.S. that I will be sure to stay in touch with. I would definitely do this again if I get the chance!
