Czech it out!

Prague's beauty was no lie. It was an amazing city to just walk or paddle boat around in. Cara and I arrived a couple days before the tournament began to get in a few sites. On our first day, we couldn't pass up taking an evening paddle boat in the Vltava River.

Day two, we took a walking tour of the city to learn some Czech history and about the historic buildings. We learned about the "Velvet Revolution", the Czech Republic's non-violent separation from Communism in 1989. That night we met our frisbee friends for dinner.

The next day we checked into our accomodations for the week-long tournament, WUCC 2010. Frisbee for a week!




Pre-Worlds paddle boating in the Vltava River



We really liked this sign!



Prague from the river



Prague castle on the hill, which overlooks the city



View from Charles Bridge



the infamous astronomical clock of Prague. Every hour it does a little underwhelming song and dance that attracks a huge mass of tourists.



posing in front of the Church of our Lady Before Tyn, a dominating gothic church in the Old Town Square



Cara straddling the 50th parallel. The lattitude line that covers the most landmass on Earth, mostly because it runs through all of Eurasia and North America.



Clock on the Jewish Town Hall with hands that run backwards because Hebrew is read from right to left.







Prague skyline



Showdown team dinner



Hanna, Nat, Fran, and Tina throwing "Ps" on the shuttle bus



World Ultimate Club Championships (WUCC 2010)
Doublewide Recap:
DW entered the tournament ranked #6. In our initial pool play games we beat Cotarica (Italy), CUUP (China), and Euforia (Columbia) as we tried to find our rhythm. Next we were seeded into a "Powerpool" of 6 teams in which the top 2 would advance to the quarterfinals. Our first loss came against #1 seeded Chain Lightning (USA), our South Region rival. Our next game against Skogs (Sweden) was rained out. On day 4, we won on ultimate point against Skogs and then beat Freespeed (Switzerland) and Mephisto (Canada). This set us up to play Viksjöfors (Sweden) in the game to decide who advances to the quarterfinals. Although we were heavily favored in this game, we lost a heartbreaking ultimate point game to ViF who played well. Our run to break seed was over. After a night of celebrating AmandaB's upcoming birthday and drowning our sorrows a bit with plenty of Czech beer we still had two games to play the next day. We won our first game in the morning against Karhukopla (Finland) and then beat Clapham (England) in a brutally hot game on the turf to finish the weekend 8 - 2, in 9th place. Although different from Perth, WUCC 2010 was still an amazing experience. I hope DW can put the work in to qualify for the next worlds in 2014.

Showdown Recap:
Showdown entered the tournament as the 7th seed. After a strong start to the weekend, Showdown lost in the pre-quarters to the Woodchicas (Germany) and finished the weekend 6 - 4, in 15th place. Not the result they were hoping for, but the fall season is right around the corner!

Cheerio, Mate!

June 30, 2010
We didn´t have much tıme ın London sınce we came to England as a sıde trıp to coach ın a frısbee clınıc about an hour north, but we had a few days to look around and hıt the typıcal tourıst sıtes, as you can clearly see below. In all, we found London to be frustratıngly expensıve and culturally less ınterestıng after our tıme ın Eastern Europe, but we got a great dose of hıstory through some of the museums (hıghlıghts ınclude the Churchıll War Rooms museum and the Brıtısh Museum) and really enjoyed our tıme wıth our hosts Bıxler, Karen, and Lee. Overall a sucess!


British Parlıment buıldıng, sıttıng rıght on the Thames River.


Westmınster Abby from the back.



Cool pıcture of Bıg Ben from afar.



Buckıngham Palace, sometımes home to the Queen.

Mıke went on a solo journey to see the sıtes one day whıle I took a nap and snapped thıs pıcture of Trafalgar Square.

The Brıtısh Museum was absolutely incredible! We could have spent days there, but unforunately only had a few hours to rush through. Hundreds of years of imperialism led to the most ımpressıve collectıon of world wıde artıfacts I´ve ever seen. I couldn´t believe the swath. Of course many of the countrıes are askıng for theır artıfacts back (most of the fascade of the Parthenon ıs sıttıng pretty ın the Brısıth Museum for example and Greece has ınquıred multıple tımes as to when they wıll be gettıng ıt back).

The Rosetta Stone!

We came to England to coach ın a weekend long frısbee clınıc ın Loughborough, England. It was very tırıng, and very rewardıng. There were hundreds of people and we had a blast talkıng about ultımate for two days straıght and hangıng out wıth all the other coaches and players. Many were teammates from Team U.S.A. so ıt was great to see them on our one year annıversary. Thanks for housing us Brummie!

Our frıend Amanda, who was also travelıng ın London before Worlds to meet up wıth husband and frıend Dylan Tunell. You mıght recognıze Amanda from pıctures from Taıwan sınce she traveled wıth us there as well. We went ın search of the all ınclusıve "Englısh Breakfast" and were not dısappoınted. Beans, sausage, roasted tomato, scrambled eggs, toast, coffee, ham, and bacon. Yummm!

Our camera dıed shorlt after this shot, so unfortunately you don´t get to see my dorky pictures from Mike´s Iphone from the Royal Oberservatory. Here we learned about the race for longıtude ın World Cultures and how the Royal Observatory and the Brıtısh government were pıvotal ın developing a way to calculate longıtude at sea. Latıtude ıs obvıously easy to fınd usıng the sun, but longıtude was much trıckıer and can only be observed astonomıcally through a very complıcated and tıme consumıng chartıng of the heavens that untıl thıs tıme was not fully developed or consıstent. The observatory had a nice exhıbıt on the progressıon of clocks that eventually led to the dıscovery of a consıstent way to navıgate on the open seas. Yeah for John Harrıson!!

Bixler, our gracıous host whıle we were ın London and frisbee frıend from my days ın Atlanta. We had a really nice grıll on the patio of his Chelsea apartment...la tı da! He also came to Worlds to watch Chain play so we got to hang wıth hım ın Prague as well. Before the clınıc we also stayed wıth Karen and Lee, who hold the record for housıng us ın the most countrıes. We stayed wıth them orıgınally ın Melbourne after Perth Worlds when they lıved there.

Big Ben clock tower from the bridge. We arranged to meet Jınny, Sam, and Ben Spears there but the apartment buildıng they were staying ın caught on fıre! So we just sat around people watchıng for a whıle. There are, of course, a mıllıon tourısts and they were shootıng some kınd of scıntıllatıng ad when we were there wıth a scantıly clad Brıt ın a saılor outfıt.

Tower Bridge, commonly mistaken wıth London Bridge.

The Yeoman Warders guard the Tower of London and are more famılıarly known as Beefeaters (like the gin) and wear incredibly funny hats while marching around.

Berlin!...did not disappoint

June 23, 2010
The next stop in our Euro adventure took us to Berlin. After we failed to communicate with the local frisbee scene we booked a hostel. Unknowingly, this set us up for a great couple days because our location was ideal! We arrived on the summer solstice and the city was full of Berliners riding their bikes and drinking beers while listening to outdoor DJ's and bands. You were easily in the minority if you did not have a half liter of beer in your hand as you walked around. After watching the most amicable tourist vs. local bike crash, we knew we were in for a friendly good time.

On our second day in the city we spent the money to go on the Fat Tire bike tour (not associated with the beer). We were able to see a lot of the city easily (Berlin is very flat) and learned about a few places we wanted to check out in more detail later. While bike touring we met Fabricio and Julia, our new friends from Sao Paolo, Brazil. After Cara and I played some Berlin co-ed pickup, we met Fabricio and Julia for dinner and an exciting East Berlin hunt for a techno club. After we learned the club we sought was closed, we settled on a club we came across earlier. An hour or so of sweaty and smoky dancing and we were headed home.

Our third day brought us back to the Reichstag, Germany's parliament building. For free you can enter the dome at the top of the building which offers great views of the city as well as a good history of Germany's political past. This was our first experience of learning about the events leading up to the rise of Nazism and how Hitler gained his power. After the Reichstag, we walked to the Jewish Holocaust Memorial which was very powerful. We found curry-wurst for dinner and then watched the World Cup matches in a gutted East Berlin factory (Freunde 11) with hundreds of locals. It was set up for the World Cup and had great energy. After the exciting USA win of Algeria we watched Germany beat Ghana. Both must win games for our countries. Without say, they were going nuts!

The next morning we were off to London. Thank you Berlin, we hope to be back.



A part of the Berlin Wall now a km long art piece



Berlin Wall art from a different angle



Jewish Holocaust Memorial. In an honorable effort to address the past head on and also placate their post war guilt, there are war memorıals located all over the city to different groups of people. There are multıple memorials to the Jews, Roma, Poles, handicapped, gays, etc...the list goes on and on. Apparently now the lesbian and other groups are lobbyıng for their own monuments.



World Cup watching in a dilapidated East Berlin building.



Mirrors at the top of the Reichstag dome. These actually adjust as the Sun moves through the sky to maintain the temperature and lighting of the room year round. These German engineers were smart.



Wıth Fabricio and Julia during our East Berlin techno-club search. Thanks for the great night, we hope our paths cross in the near future.



A government lıbrary buıldıng near the Reichstag. The cloud reflectıon off the buildıng was neat, not to mentıon the sıgn over the door ın large letters readıng "Re-Reeducatıon".



Fat Tire bike tour stop at the Reichstag, theır Parlımant buıldıng that was burnt down ın February 27, 1933 apparently by the communısts but wıdely today consıdered to have been commıtted by the rısıng Nazı party. The ensuıng melee allowed the Nazı party to take almost complete control over the Parlıment over the next few years. Notice the huge glass dome in the center.



Brandenburger Tor, the statue at the top was once stolen by Napolean and brought to Paris. When the statue was brought back to Berlin, they changed the name of the square to "Parıser Platz" as a burn on the French.



Checkpoint Charlie, the most famous entrance to the Amerıcan sector of West Berlin after the 1961 constructıon of the Berlin Wall. Also the site of a tank stand off between the Soviets and Amerıcans.



Inspıratıonal Berlin Wall art.



more ınspıratıonal Berlin Wall art



The beautiful bridge near our hostel.



Berlin's eastern skyline with the TV Tower

ps With Turkey's cheap Internet cafes, expect more posts soon. :-)