We headed out from the bus station, as her coach had told us to, getting off at the Hartsberg Halle stop. I´m not sure if my spelling is correct, sorry Liz. We jumped off the bus and as it pulled away, we realized we were in the middle of a neighborhood. We knew the gym might be pretty small, but we had no idea it would be residential. So, we asked a lady at the bus stop, in the dark at around 8:00 pm. Liz said, "Telecom Baskets", which is the team name because Telecom sponsers them. The lady pointed up the street and we turned around to see 3 Telecom phone booths behind us, guessing that she thought Liz meant the telephone.
We walked in the direction she pointed though, since we didn´t see any other Hartsberg stop on the bus map. About a block down there was a sign that said "Sportshalle", which means Sports Hall, I think. So we followed the sign, onto a street with few streetlights and buildings on either side of us that looked like dormrooms. We were a bit skeptical, but had no other lead on where to go. A few blocks up, we hit another Sportshalle sign and turned right... more residences, fewer lights.
Finally, the street opened onto a small intersection and we saw what looked like a high school gym, without the school attached, to our left. We could hear cheerinf and people were walking in and out. We couldn´t believe how small the gym was. As we walked through the doors, two men in white shirts met us at a card table. They didn´t speak any english, but we paid for our tickets somehow, and walked through the main doors. People were smoking in the lobby and drinking, but we didn´t think too much of it, until... we saw two large bald men, wearing singlets, in the center of the gym. Locked upright in some type of hold, they were westling. At this point Liz said to me, "Um, Darby, where the hell are we?"
Liz and I, of course, started laughing our asses off and more people staired at us, like usual. As Liz found some english speakers to redirect us, I snapped a quick shot. It took quite a while longer to find the right Sportshalle, but it was worth it. A crappy game, but the stadium was packed and the team´s colors are pink and white because Telecom is their sponsor. I got a sweet hot pink scarf and a couple pics...
A good night all in all.
Next up was a bit of a lazy day, but worth it. I got to see Liz play basketball in Germany. We drove about 6 hours each way to the town of Halle in Eastern Germany. I didn´t take any pictures for a reason... it was not pretty. I got some good ones of the gym though...
The girls on Liz´s team said the building used to be used for training horses. Well, it smelled like it. Sadly, the girls lost. I attribute it partly to the fact that Liz didn´t shoot in the whole first half, and not because she let chances go by, but because they didn´t get her the ball. I think it will take some time for them to get used to her and her to them, but when they do, she´ll be a major factor. I sat in the stands and thought at times, "girls, just give the ball to Liz and she´ll hit a shot," but they just don´t know her game yet. I hope I get to see a game at the end of the year to see the difference. Here are a couple action shots of our girl...
Sorry for the shortness and lack of sassyness in this entry, but I´m sleepy today and I gotta go to practice. Love to ya!
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