The flavor of beer, cerveza, piwo and kiełbasa or "keilbasha"
One small village, courts, a few games during the day, crowded area, sun burning your skin and... a beer.
Cold beer. As a fan of beach volleyball I have to admit, there's nothing better in the whole wild world than a show of great players on the sand, sun above your head and sweet, cold beer in your hand. It doesn't matter if there is 35*C or the storm is coming - everything stays the same and you're in heaven!
What about kiełbasa? Well, that's a good question. I have no idea why the players love it, but as a Polish I appreciate their feeling to my national "dish". I even heard, some of them wait for "keilbasha" in Stare Jabłonki for the whole year! That's impressive guys but I'm so glad to know it!
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| I know, you're jealous - my cup is pretty cool! |
Kids Camp! The School of volleyball ninja and Jedi!
If I were a kid I'd love to be a part of that so,so much! I'd like to be thought by the best players on this planet and thanks to the organizers, those children had a chance to be their students. That's was so sweet and really touching! The kids were so preoccupied with the athletes! To make it more awesome I'll say that the players were so involved and open too. I can't tell you right now, who exactly was the teacher there, I was staring at Michał Kądzioła, Todd Rogers and Sebastian Świderski and their little players. Mhm...who knows, maybe one day we'll hear about one of them during the Olympics? Everything is possible and.. it started in Stare Jabłonki my dears. No words need, look at the photos of Todd and his volleyball ninja -Jedi army.
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| hands up baby hands up |
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| Todd approves! |
When the crowd goes wild
The atmosphere is indescribable No matter if you're 5, 15 or 55. If you're there, you're just having fun! You're having the best time of your summer, the year or maybe life! Even if there's an enormous possibility of losing your voice - don't be worried because the tournament and players are worth it! I should add that thanks to the DJ and maybe music your dance skills improve incredibly fast! This is the place and the time, when you're able to leave the past and worries behind your back and just relax, chill & feel it. Oh... "feel it", it sounds like a song from last tournament in Poland so don't thanks, just watch it:
I've already told you about some dance moves, unfortunately Casey Patterson wasn't the dance star there (that's why I hope he's going to be dance master in this season), but the crowd was carried along by Michał Kądzioła and Jakub Szałankiewicz who just rocked that!
When I talked to the journalists from Latvia or the United States they admitted that the people in Stare Jabłonki are amazing. They were shocked that to the small village, year by year, come beach volleyball fans from many countries. Most of the tournaments takes place in the big cities like Rome or Berlin where you can go sightseeing. Anyway, maybe there's no Colosseum or Branderburg Gate, but we've got lakes, forests and second-best of universe.. Just look at crowd dancing "spacedance". It's better than Moscow, isn't it?
9 am and the main stadium begins to be filled with the crowd
Those guys went so so wild!
Golden, Olympic duo plays just for me.
Everybody has some idol, right? Stare Jabłonki is a perfect place to meet him/her or them. I'm not going to write on behalf of somebody, because I don't know if our opinion are coinciding and oh... most of the time I'm not in the majority but I think, after reading my little story you'll agree with me. Well, I have my idols too. It's nothing to hide, my heart belongs to USA (beach) volleyball team. Thanks to the event I'm still talking about, I had a chance to meet my beloved group. Sometimes the main stadium is full because Kądzioła, Prudel or any Polish team plays there so everybody from Poland goes to see them. That's my moment of happiness. I will be repeating it all the time but as a huge fan of US I go to the court number 4 and I have my own, almost "private" match. "Private" because even if there's 100 people, nobody gets as excited as I do! Sometimes involvement in support is so big that nothing else matters. I used "Golden, Olympic duo plays just for me " as a title here cause it's so true! I will never forget the Olympics 2008 in Beijing when Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser played in the big final! I had wanted to meet the so, so badly... and I did it! When I was watching their battle for the gold, they were unreachable till the day I came to Stare Jabłonki. That was pretty... wow, I can't find a appropriate word! In a nutshel - I was supporting them when only about 70 people surrounded me. I felt like watching Olympic final at home! In 2008 Todd and Phil were unavailable, some time later they were almost just for me!
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| Actually, that was the match of Phil and Sean, but still "private"
Holy moly! Where to go?! I want to see every show!
One of the most funny thing is the fact that matches are at the same time. What if on the court number one plays Emanuel Rego and Alison, the second is taken by Ricardo and his partner, third by Todd Rogers and Ryan Doherty and fourth... by Sean Rosental and Phil Dalhausser who play against Casey Patterson and Jake Gibb?! You can't even play "rock, paper, scissors" because anyway your hart will be hurt in some way... While writing that part of post, my friend reminded me my reaction : "What the he..?! But what?! So.. damn seriously?! SERIOUSLY? Please say, you're jokin' " She didn't. I still haven't figured out how to "play" it good, but I like that way of getting adrenaline. To be honest, it's better when you have your friends with you and every action is texted to them sitting on the other side of the village. Anyway, if something better came up to your mind, please let me know!
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My decade with volleyball showed me many things, good and bad. Some indoor volleyball players were unkind to the fans, even those who are 6 or 7, some of them treated themselves as a "star" but they were not super-cool as they thought. Of course not everybody acts like that, for example Ivan Miljković or Alberto Cisolla, but I've never seen situation that the beach player refuses a photo or an autograph. What's more, my friends told me about Emanuel Rego's gesture. He is a star. He is an amazing player but he has got a good heart. According to the Kasia and Karola's story, some time ago girls from charity foundation asked him for a help with rising money which had to be donated to children's hospital. He agreed and some medical facilities were bought to save kids' life. In my opinion, beach volleyball players are a special group of society. I don't know how they do it, but they are - as Obi Wan Kenobi used to say - "the chosen one". The level of calm and patience is so high. They always have time for the supporter, they're available and they're just for people like me or you, for us. They always find a minute for a small conversation. It happens that maybe some players remember you from the previous tournaments and then meeting looks like : "Oh hey girl! What's up?! It's been a year, how are you?". I need to use my favorite sentence which goes like "as a fan of team USA..." I'm so happy to be who I am so have a moment for a small reflection. I hope that Casey or Jake or Ryan or Todd or Phil or Sean reads it that's why I'd like to thank you for everything. I mean, If I were you in Jabłonki, I would be tired of me screaming "USA" all the time or asking you for a photo. Actually, I hope that now you know how big part of my "beach volleyball life" you are! Thank you. Maybe I'll repeat myself, but that's a wonderful thing when an athlete is doing his / her job on a high level and stays a real human being. In beach volleyball, there's no time for being a celebrity as it's starting to be popular among other sports. Beach volleyball is full of admirable athletes who don't change even having the gold hanging on their necks. I had an opportunity to meet them in Stare Jabłonki and I'm sure my words. They're like a rock stars but in "sand version" They're bringing the balance to the force, not leaving it in the darkness.
with my best friend and awesome team USA
woops, thjat's USA again with my second best friend and Ryan &Todd
Emanuel "Emil" Rego and my lovely friends whom Emanuel helped with the charity action
no words needed, thank you for being awesome USA
10 years together hm? Ricardo and my dear girls
so Emil wasn't happy when he realized I'm with USA but...
Ryan's reaction was much better
And here, I'd like to say that was the best 4th July in my life! Or maybe I just been given best gift ever.
T-shirt is hanging on the wall next to Ivan's one :)
Dear reader, if you're still with me, I'm so glad to know that! Hope, you've fallen in love with beach volleyball.
Dear Donald Trump or Bill Gates, if YOU're riding my blog, please, please text me! Don't be impassive and give some useless millions for the organizers of the tournament in Stare Jabłonki. Be more awesome than you're now and make me happy, make me smile and let me have the best time of my life with my amazing friends and those incredible athletes I was writing about. I count on you!
Dear somebody from the Polish Volleyball Association / Federation please, just read my article once again, then once again and realize that beach volleyball is phenomenal! That beach volleyball players are out of this planet! That we need that tournament in Stare Jabłonki. We, fans deserve it.
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