July 26, 2001
Day Two on the Germany Trip:
DayOne Entry: Jessica Dickerson
By Kyleen Bell #24
Hello Sportsfans! Coming to you live from Hamburg – an awesome city in a quaint, little country we lovingly refer to as Deutschland.
Today marks our first official day in Germany, but I must admit, I’m having difficulties distinguishing exactly what day today is. Like many of my teammates, this is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to travel overseas, so this whole time change adjustment thing is an enlightening experience.
So, I write to you in a delirious state, not knowing exactly what time my body thinks it is. However, I do know that our adventures today are only the beginning of all the good time that all await us.
Like many of my Georgia Tech volleyball road trips, I am positive that our tour of Germany will not be lacking in the food department. The clan (girls on the team, coaches, support staff, friends and family) began today by dining at a local restaurant a couple blocks away from our hotel. As we fumbled our way through ordering from a German menu, many of us resorted to pointing or holding up fingers of the number next to the menu item. I’m sure the German natives got a kick out of our reversed roles of having language difficulties.
So in a relaxing outdoor dining atmosphere, each traveler dealt with their jet lag in a different way. Kele found everything hysterical while Amanda used her hand to keep her head from falling into her food.
After lunch, the clan loaded our bus to visit downtown Hamburg. The architecture and structures of the buildings were amazing. Definitely different from Downtown Atlanta. Kele kept firing off her camera to capture some of the buildings as we drove by so I’m interested to see if any of those turn out.
Hamburg is known for being a major port, so we jumped onto a ferry and had a guide describe the different boats and buildings in the port. Of course several more picture taking opportunities on the boat ride secured our positions as official tourists.
At the conclusion of the boat ride, the coaches and older adults parted ways with the team. Thez grubbed on some reportedly delicious food on a dinner cruise. The team was lucky enough to be escorted for the rest of the evening by Helmut and Christian, two Hamburg natives. We visited a small beach near the port and I once again remembered how much I loved walking barefoot along the water’s edge.
The evening finished off with a cool restaurant/hangout place off of a river. A DJ was spinning music and I enjoyed the company of my teammates as we took in the view and ate some awesome food. I know tomorrow promises to be just as exciting because Germany is so new and different and I couldn’t have asked for better people to enjoy it with.
