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RHIAN'S SOCCER JOURNALS:

OFF TO CROATIA AND THE UEFA CUP 29th July 2009

After the games and mini-camp in the United Sates I flew directly back to Europe. I have been doing a great deal of flying in recent weeks - not so good for my back.

First stop was in England for my cousin Mary’s wedding. It was really wonderful to be in England again in the summer. Both my parents are originally from the UK and I have always spent time there with relations and friends. However, now that I am based in Norway, it has been a while since I was last there.

The occasion was the wedding of Mary and Henry, and the ceremony, reception and party were enjoyable - almost as much fun as seeing so many friends again. The wedding speeches were among the best I have ever heard. Congratulations to bride and groom.

On Monday, July 27th I flew back to Oslo, Norway to prepare for our Club Team Strommen's UEFA group qualifying games in Croatia. Diana arrived back at about the same time, although of course, her flight was considerably longer. We still made it to that day’s training session, and D trained while I lounged around and read. Being injured usually sucks, but seeing as I was tired and cranky and the weather was pouring rain, I was not too disappointed.

D and I only had that evening and the following day to get all our belongings together for our next adventure. We left on Wednesday 29th at 6:00 am. for Croatia. I am so sick of flying! We had to be at the airport at 6:30am for our 8:30 flight, and so I was barely awake. Thanks to my transit time in England though, I was slightly better off than D. Most of the team was suffering that morning

I spent most of that morning walking around in a jet lag stupor and was so I thrilled when we finally boarded the plane and I got to shut my eyes. Even then I didn’t sleep much on the first flight from Oslo to Amsterdam, but I was fully passed out on the second leg from Amsterdam to Zagreb.

We landed at 2:00 pm and then boarded a bus with the England team, Everton, for the 3 hour drive inland to our hotel in Osijek, where the tournament is being played.

I have never been to Croatia before, so spent much of the journey staring out of the window. There appeared to be little of interest to see: There was some very beautiful countryside and many poor villages.

After arriving at the hotel, we changed quickly before heading out to the practice field. The team only ran for about an hour, but even at that time, 6:30 -7:00 pm, the weather was crazy hot.

I jogged around the field for half an hour, still nursing my back, and by the time I was finished, the sweat was just pouring off of me. If the humidity is so bad this late at night, then it may be a real factor even at 8:00 pm in our opening match tomorrow against the home side.

We showered after training and then had dinner at 9:00 pm. The food was excellent. I am not sure what we were expecting for meals, but the food definitely met, and then way surpassed, anything I had imagined. We had a home made soup, followed by chicken, potatoes and vegetable entree, and then cake for dessert. The meal was a great end to a very long day. By 10:30pm I was contentedly and fully sound asleep.

On Thursday morning 30th July, breakfast was at 9:00 am. Even though I had slept soundly for 10.5 hours, I felt as though I could have slept even longer. The team was give the option of practicing at 9:45 am and most of us decided to do this. I did notice that most of the older players decided instead to have a quiet morning at the hotel.

I went for a gentle run while the team trained, I thought they looked relaxed and excited for the game this evening. It was boiling hot out and I soon regretted the choice of morning training as soon as I started jogging. Yuk. Fortunately, the practice was a short one, for obvious reasons, and we were soon all back at the hotel taking showers.

Today, we could finally see something of the town where we are staying. Osijek is both beautiful and scary. At least I find it scary, not because of the people, who are welcoming and friendly; not because of the city itself, I which is well-planned with beautiful parks and buildings; but rather, because of the history of the place. There are pock marked buildings and bullet holes everywhere.

I have done my research from reading material available in the hotel. Bullet holes have this effect on me. The Croatian/ Yugoslavian conflict only ended as recently as 1995, less than 15 years ago. In 1991, in a referendum Croatians decided they wanted independence. The Yugoslav army, supported by the Serbs, took offence at this and invaded. Osijek was one of the front line towns and was actually under siege for 9 months. The many scars and bullet holes bear testimony to this. The town remained a front-line city exposed to periodic shelling up until the war’s end in 1995.

I have yet to really go out and explore, but am going to try and do this tomorrow. However, I did manage to visit the cathedral for a couple of minutes this afternoon. I am interested enough to go back later. There was a paper stuck to the church door explaining that the poor condition of the place was because the cathedral was hit by more than 100 pieces of shrapnel and debris during the fighting. The church was even targeted.