Burla Beach Cup, Viareggio Italia

Hey gang, my contract with the UN has finished and I'm interviewing for new positions around town. (Was interested in staying on there, but the funding available to pay me wouldn't kick in until January '07, so I've got to move on.) It's all taking time, but I'll report back on the interesting things on the horizon as they get a bit closer. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to mom, dad, and Jess's arrival the end of the week. I'll meet up with them in Villach, Austria (named by dad as the Meredith, NH of the Alps), and take a train through the Julian Alps to Ljubljana. After a stop there and a visit to Zagreb, we'll rent a car and head down the coast. Trogir, Split, islands, Dubrovnik. A week on the coast, hop a plane to Budapest, and that's all she wrote! Should be great.

Here are some photos from Burla Beach Cup, an ultimate tournament in Viareggio, Italy. Long trip, awesome tourney. Beautiful beach and mountains outside Pisa/Florence. Thanks to Gregor and Sigi, I played with Catchup (Graz, Austria). The most fun of the weekend was being part of getting the team all on the same page with a balance of having fun (read: not caring about turnovers and mistakes) and winning. Being tactful about having the right lineups out on the sand was key, and the weekend ended up a lot of fun.

Michelle made it over from Barcelona for the tournament, and joined up with Catchup. That was great, except for a three hour, post-midnight search for each other in the wilds of rural Viareggio on the night she arrived. We rolled in to different campsites. She planned to walk from hers to mine, when she got there around 1:30 in the morning. We agreed to meet halfway - but each respectively got directions that led us effectively around a big rectangle, following each other but never meeting. Eventually found each other and made it to the bunks around 4:30am. Yeesh! The weekend was awesome, well worth the trip.