First Impressions of Bar

Yesterday was my first full day in Bar. Layne, Maya, and I met with Nikola and Luka at Nikola’s café. Everyone here meets at cafes to meet and drink coffee. They think it is weird that I don’t drink coffee, so I might need to try it again. After coffee, we headed to the gym to see the younger girls practice. They introduced me to the girls, and we watched the a little bit of their practice. We stayed at the gym for about 20 minutes and then headed to downtown Bar. Layne showed me around downtown Bar, the main street, and pointed out some key buildings. From what I gathered so far:

(1)    The stores are very specialized. There is a grocery store, an electronics store, a book store, and etc. And there are no chain stores throughout all of Montenegro. Every store is unique and the only one. The same goes for restaurants.

(2)    The beach in Bar is not a typical beach. It has rocks instead of sand. Also, it is filled with more trash than I would expect. Also, there is only a portion of the beach with is pronounced “Shoeshine” where people can swim. The other parts of the beach have these spiky animals that stick into your foot and are pretty painful according to Layne. She said that during the summer months the beaches are packed with people, cafes, and restaurants. However, most of the shops close down for the colder months so the beach was pretty deserted while we walked through it.

(3)    There are quite a few stray animals. I’d say there are more stray cats, but also many stray dogs. They just wander around the town center and beach areas all day. Some of may not know, but I strongly dislike cats, especially stray cats. However, these strays all seem to mind their own business and do their own thing. Except, I say this huge stray dog just following this couple for a long while. I hope that never happens to me!

The weather here is super nice and temperature is in the mid to upper sixties. In the shade it is a little chilly, but perfect when you are in the sun. Also, I need to start learning the basics of Serbian. Whenever you walk into a store or restaurant, all they speak is Serbian. Luckily Layne has learned some stuff and Serbian is Maya’s first language, so I have been able to survive. However, if I and when I venture out alone, it will be good to know some words. So far, I have learned all the girls on my team and the words thank-you and hello. Not very impressive!

Today we have two practices. Since we got back from the tour, we have only had one practice per day. Our first practice was at 9:30 am in the old gym and the second at 8:30 pm in the new gym. The old gym is probably a 7 minute or so walk from Layne’s apartment and is a lot smaller. It is the gymnasium of one of the local high schools. Layne says when it rains, the skylights in the ceiling leak. Although it was not raining today, there were tiny puddles on various parts of the court. However, we mostly served and passed today so it was not a major injury hazard. The new gym is right across the street from Layne’s apartment and is really nice. It is more of what you would see in the states. For those of you that know some of the gyms I played at LSU, I’d say it is the most similar to Florida on a much smaller scale (definitely bigger than Ole Miss). The court sits in middle and there are bleacher seats on all four sides of the court. I will take a picture and post later. 

So far practices have not been too difficult. I just have not played volleyball in a while, so my body is sore in different places. There are less coach initiated drills and more partner and team drills. Also, I have not done two-a-days in a long time, so this may take a little while to get used it. For our second practice today, our “strength coach” is coming again and Luka said we will be doing some more running and then drills with the ball. We were also told today that we were not going to Bosnia because the other middle has to take some important tests, but then Luka called an hour later and said we were going again. I guess they talked to her teachers and worked something out. I don’t know! So for now, it looks like we are going to Bosnia on Sunday for about a week. I guess we will see.

Pictures of Bar coming soon.