July 29, 2009
Western Carolina senior midfielder Nikki Lombardo blogs about her and three teammates currently on a 10-day European trip in representing the United States on the soccer pitch. Lombardo as well as classmates Nikki Collins, Jenny Matteson and Hilary Holder left the US on Sunday bound for Germany and continued their trip into Austria this week:
"Guten tag" from Germany!
We are having the best time! The history and culture here is so interesting. This is really something else!
As soon as we arrived in Munich at the end of the weekend, we went to the city center - or as Americans say, downtown. The view was breathtaking. Marienplatz, or St. Mary's square, has so much history including the beautiful town hall which looks like an old church.
We went to a famous brewery, Hofbrauhaus, and tried our first traditional German dish. It was boiled white sausage and a pretzel with spicy mustard. It was pretty good, but the texture was interesting. From there, we went to Olympia Park, home of the 1972 Summer Olympic Games. We were able to climb an observation tower which stood about 500 meters tall. We could see the whole city which was so cool.
We also went to Alliance Arena which hosts the two big futbol clubs, Bayern Munich and 1860 Munich.
On Wednesday, we left Germany and drove into Austria through the Alps - which are absolutely gorgeous. We were able to see the dark side of European history with a visit to the Mauthausen concentration camp. It was very sad but interesting too. We visited a nun in a convent and she was so nice. We learned a lot about her daily life and she yodeled for us which was awesome!
As for the soccer aspect of our trip, so far so good! We defeated the German squad 4-to-3. The WCU contingent combined to score three goals and passed out three assists. We are very excited about our next game vs. the Austrians.
|
|
 |
We will check in again in a couple days. Hope the `Whee is wonderful as always!!
- Nikki Lombardo, Senior Midfielder #24
