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What I did on my summer vacation

Angela Staffileno-Duquesne University

We ended the best season in school history March 21st after falling to eventual NCAA champion UConn in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Following that exciting time, we had a few days off before starting our postseason workouts.

Postseason lasted about two weeks, and then we were done by the time our finals started. School and workouts were finished by May 5 and we all went our separate ways.

Some back to their home state and some back to their home countries. After about a month and a half of summer vacation, most of the team returned to campus June 19. Some of our foreign players stayed in their home countries to play with their national teams.

June 20 summer workouts and summer school began. We went for six weeks, lifting and conditioning each day plus having three- and three-and-a-half hour classes. After fighting to get through those six weeks, it came time for our ten days of training camp.

Our foreign players also returned for the ten days of training camp, only having to hop right back on another flight back to Europe for our twelve-day foreign tour. Our trip began on August 4 departing from Pittsburgh International Airport. We had a seven-hour overnight flight that departed at 9:30 p.m.

We landed in Paris at about 5 a.m. We had about a five-hour lay over in Paris, so we had the opportunity to do a little bit of touring. We were able to grab a bite to eat and take a look around the SacrË-Cúur Basilica, which is a beautiful cathedral where you can also get an amazing view of Paris.

After exploring a little bit in that area, we drove to the Eiffel Tower. On our way there, we were able to see the Notre Dame Cathedral and a few other beautiful buildings. Once our day in Paris ended, we had another flight to Budapest, Hungary.

Budapest is home to our freshman guard, Nina Aho.  We landed in Budapest that night around 11 p.m., and the next day we took the subway to the Szechenyi Bath House. The Szechenyi Bath House is a beautiful place with numerous pools, consisting of hot and cold, a few steam rooms and saunas, and also a cafeteria. Most of the pools were outside, and it was a beautiful day. After spending a few days in Budapest, we traveled about an hour away to play our first game against Baja. We won that game, and following it we drove to Szekesfehervar where we had a cookout at one of our Hungarians, Enik∫ Kuttor’s house.

The next day we were in PËcs, where we had a cookout at Amadea Szamosi’s house. Following the cookout, we had another game that we also won. We then traveled to Serbia the next day to play another game. We won once again and had to travel four hours back to Budapest. It wouldn’t have taken as long, but we were at the border for at least an hour before we could get back into Hungary.

The next day we traveled to Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Croatia is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. We spent the first day swimming in the Adriatic Sea. There was so much to do and see but so little time. The most exciting part for me during our time in Croatia was when we took a boat to Lokrum Island and I jumped off a cliff into a little area nicknamed “The Dead Sea”. I also went paddle boarding which is super hard. Most days we either laid out in the sun next to the pools or we were swimming in the water.

The water is so clear that even without goggles, you can still see underneath of you if you open your eyes under the water.

It was such an exciting, and fun trip and it made it even better that I was with my second family.

It was the trip of a lifetime, and I will never forget it.

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