Spinning in Paradise - Jelsa, Croatia

"Pomalo!"

The Croatian term for "take it easy" or "chill out, dude" was a perfect summation of our week of true paradise on the Croatian island of Hvar. Since we knew we would be traveling for a while before the World Ultimate Club Championships, we thought we would try to find opportunities to play/coach while we were traveling the continent. Our friend Brummie from GB, famous from such blahg posts as "Cheerio, Mate!" in July of 2010, told us about an opportunity to coach a weekend of skills clinic in Croatia, so naturally we jumped on it. 

It turned out to be an absolutely incredible week of new friends and old flames. New friends because the people at the weekend clinic were amazing people from all over the world. Turkey, Australia, Italy, Germany, Croatia, Slovenia, Canada, GB, France, and the US were all represented in the pool of players. These people were kind, funny, talented, eager to improve, intelligent, interesting, fun to be around, and they love Ultimate SO MUCH. It was a true time warp back to our roots in the sport, a reminder of one of the main reasons we fell in love with the sport (the community), and a perfect way to begin to wind down a 14-year period where Ultimate dominated and dictated our calendar, decisions, destinations, and life goals. It was a tremendous gift to be surrounded by the collective enthusiasm and joy for the sport that brought Mike and I together and shaped our lives for so long. 

The coaching crew (Mike, me, Holly, and Brummie) and Vinko, the man with the vision and ambition to put this incredible endeavor together. 

Clinic crew plus some early tourney arrivals: Martje, Zan, Levke, Baris, Sev, Brummie, Nejc, Marko, Mafia Marco, Gerard, Zoltan, Mike, Carly, Sofie, Spela, Paul, Adam, Callum, Vinko, and Holly (less Jaka, behind the camera, and Ofolko and Ricky). An amazing group of people!

We woke up early to work out before training, then had a three hour training in the morning from 9-12, then hit the beach or mountains for 6 hours, then came back for another night time training from 6-9, then hung out at night. 

Mina Beach.  Another amazing shallow bay to play picigin and frisbee.  This was our daily hangout spot during the clinic.  Frisbee, Beach, Frisbee, Shower, Eat, Party...REPEAT!

Plenty of room to lounge and take a nap when you grew tired of the water.

More and more players rolled into camp throughout the weekend for the Hat tournament.  This is the final crew.

View of Jelsa, the city where the clinic was held. It was a 5 minute walk from town up a mountain to the fields/gym where the clinic/tournament was located. People camped in tents behind the handball gym, and we slept dorm style on gym mats on the floor.

Our snorkeling gang post swim and cliff jumping (from the left: Sev, Martje, Zoltan, Levke, Sion, Holly, Paul, Cara, Mike). Brummie caught some footage of the cliff jumping and snorkeling on his GoPro...can't wait to see it!

View of Hvar City from the castle atop the hill. Hvar City was beautiful, but packed with tourists, where as Jelsa was as beautiful and almost empty. After a day of snorkeling and cliff diving, we borrowed Barbara's (awesome Swiss player) car and explored the rest of Hvar island by car. 

Hvar city harbor

Prom pic! Beautiful Jelsa harbor 

Texas frisbee friends have arrived! The last day we were there, Charlie, Walch, and Edith came to chill on Hvar and take our place for the tourney. 

Sorry about the earlier picture Brummie.  Here is the most flattering picture of you we could find.  Peka!!! What seemed to be a whole roasted goat in a huge pan with roasted potatoes and onions. It was incredible. Let's make it a goal to share another meal as amazing as this in the future.

Huge hvala to Vinko for putting this amazing week together for the love of the game. And thanks to everyone at the clinic for the amazing times! 

Dubrovnik and Split!

After our visit to western Europe it was time to explore central/eastern Europe.  From Paris we flew to Dubrovnik, Croatia to meet Holly and see the Dalmatian coast.  This part of the world lives up to the hype.  It has become a popular tourist destination in the last few years and it's easy to see why.  The Adriatic Sea is a beautiful green and blue that can be as calm as a lake.  I was actually surprised the water was salty the first time I jumped in.  Dubrovnik is a beautiful walled city nestled between the mountains of the mainland and the coast.  There are islands to explore, beaches to relax on, and cobblestone alleys to stroll along.  Croatia here we go!

Sunset from our apartment.

The first morning we ran up the mountain that separates Dubrovnik form the mainland.  You can see the city just to the left of Cara.

The view from the rocky beach we spent an afternoon on reading and swimming.

These purple flowers seem to be everywhere in Croatia and were in full bloom.  Any flower experts know the name?

Throughout Dubrovnik there are narrow stairways to get you from the coast up to the apartments and shops spread up the hill.

Nothing needs to be said for the next two photos.  Dubrovnik is that beautiful.

After our short stay in Dubrovnik we boarded a bus for the 4 hour trip along the coast to Split.  Split is a larger city with an international airport and the jumping off point for the ferries to most of the islands.  We had a day to relax on the beach and walk through the city before Sion "Brummie", our Great Britain frisbee friend, joined us to travel to the island of Hvar.

Enjoying a few drinks in the alleys of Split before dinner.  We found a vegetarian restaurant that was amazing!

This beach on Split, like another we'd find on Hvar, was great for throwing a frisbee and playing Croatians favorite game Picigin.  We would play this A LOT on the island.  It's basically hacky sack with your hands with the goal of making it a little difficult for the other players to return your pass.  You pretty much try and force layouts and great plays.

Split is also famous for Diocletian's Palace.  Diocletian is an old Roman emperor famous for persecuting Christians.  What's left of the palace has been turned into restaurants and shops.  It was nice for a quick walk.

Another view of the bell tower.

Brummie's here!

We then boarded our two hour ferry ride to the island of Hvar.  On Hvar we would meet Vinko, the mastermind of Spinning in Paradise:  a two day clinic followed by a 5 day hat tournament.  We had a weekend of coaching ahead of us and some amazing people to meet and hang out with.

Versailles, France (not Ohio)

On the recommendation of an old friend/teammate, Graham, we signed up for a a Fat Tire bike tour of Versailles.  Riding through the massive grounds of Versailles on a bike was the perfect way to take in all of the palace.  Our tour guide also provided a great history of France through the reigns of Louis XIII thru XVI and the start of the French Revolution in 1789. When you see this place, it's no wonder that the people revolted and targeted the upper class bourgeoisie during and after the revolution. 

Each tree lining this road was removed from another location, transported to Versailles and replanted because the Louis's weren't patient enough to wait for saplings to grow.

Queen Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI and hailing from Austria, built a peasant village near the back of the grounds.  It was her sanctuary from the demands of being the queen.  It was just a model and she had laborers from the castle dress as peasants while she was there to give it the atmosphere of being a real village.

A residence, Le Petite Trianon, built for King Louis XV's mistresses (specifically Madame de Pompadour, who apparently had more political power than most of the kings advisors and, by some accounts, the actual king himself).

And...another castle (Grand Trianon) built for the next Louis' mistresses.  Can't count the courtesans! 

Lunch on the shore of the huge man-made lake.  The castle is way off in the distance.

The main palace adorned with gold!  The original castle was truly covered in gold plates.  These were stripped and sold during the French Revolution.  Recently the government decided to re-gild the outside of the palace, but the project was halted during the recent recession.  

Not many photos to show form the inside of the palace.  Just imagine room after room intricately decorated with paintings, tapestries, and busts of King Louis XIV, V, and XVI. The most impressive thing was the amount of marble throughout.