Heidelberg and München, Germany

06-07/09 USM: Uppsala, Sweden (coaching)
14-15/09 SM Dam (Women's nationals): Linköping, Sweden
21-23/09 Burla Beach Cup: Viareggio, Italy
26-29/09 eXtended European Ultimate Championship Finals: Bordeaux, France (watching/volunteering)
04-06/10 Oktoberfest Hat: München, Germany

I needed to stop in Heidelberg on my way to Munich because a potential future boss was travelling from Frankfurt to Zurich and thought it would be nice to have a coffee. We met on Tuesday, which left me with Monday for hiking. I've been to Heidelberg before for a conference, so had already done a walking tour and gone up to the castle. So I spend the day on the Philosopher's Way and some other trails nearby that take you around Celtic ruins of a chapel and a monastery. There is also a Nazi amphitheatre on the path.

It's just so darn pretty!

It was a beautiful day reflecting on all of the great times I have had in that corner of the world. The 3 week language camp I attended at the start of my gap year was nearby. My impromptu trip to Amsterdam followed a fantastic weekend in Heidelberg with RISErs. I had a great time hiking in near by Baden-Baden last Spring. I don't think Baden-Württemberg and I are through!

The coffee went okay and I caught a mitfahrgelegenheit (a German carpooling website) to Munich where I met up with Izzy, who played for my team in Stockholm, but not at the same time as me. She took me to get some awesome ice cream (I got two scoops: traditional Bavarian cake and a Doppelbock) before meeting up with other tournament goers and heading to Oktoberfest.

Inside the tent it is all about standing on benches and singing along to the music, which ranges from "Sweet Caroline" to Die Ärzte to Robbie Williams to Traditional German Folk music. This photo and all of the following ones come from Frida.

The next morning, the tournament started and I recognised lots of folks from Burla, which was pretty cool. I was a little preoccupied all morning because I was waiting for a call about a position for which I had applied. The Professor was kind enough to wait until noon to call me because he "knew that I was auf der Wiesn" the previous night... (I'd been awake since 7:30). My team didn't win any games, but they were great people to lose with! Everyone was fun and chill. (At a hat tournament everyone is assigned to a team. They try to have people rate themselves, so the teams are even.) The tournament had one indoor pitch and one outdoor. I greatly preferred the indoor one, because the sand was really cold outside and it was raining a bit.

On Saturday, all of the girls did each other's hair in the locker room. Then I met up with Max, a friend I met through Ultimate in Madrid who recently moved back to his native Munich. He was kind enough to go dress shopping with me before we went to Oktoberfest (he hadn't signed up for the tournament, but we were able to sneak him in). Once in the tent we ran into another Madrid Ultimate person who was also at the tournament, the "other Max", who was there at the same time as me, but played for another team, so we had never met. All of this frisbee nostalgia convinced Max to talk to the organisers and come play on Sunday.

Frida and I getting photobombed by Max and Jens, a German former Stockholm Syndrome who studied at Uni with Max - The ultimate world is pretty small. 

My team did really well on Sunday, winning all of our games! We had an advantage because not all of our players were at the festival the previous night. Of course, Max got added to the team that won the finals.

On the indoor beach ultimate pitch.

I stayed in Munich on Monday to figure out some transportation options because I need to go to Zurich on Tuesday to check out my new office! Starting in January, I will be employed as a PhD student at eawag where I will study the business aspects of their projects in low income countries. The position will require a bit of travel - to field sites for case studies and workshops, to conferences, and back to Sweden where the university that will award my degree is actually located; however, I am really excited about the move and the prospect of living in one place for more than a year. In the meantime, I am heading back to the states... just in time because I just retroactively put up my post from my summer trip there. I hope that Burla and Oktoberfest fit into my travel schedule next year!

Marseille and Bordeaux, France

06-07/09 USM: Uppsala, Sweden (coaching)
14-15/09 SM Dam (Women's nationals): Linköping, Sweden
21-23/09 Burla Beach Cup: Viareggio, Italy
26-29/09 eXtended European Ultimate Championship Finals: Bordeaux, France (watching/volunteering)
04-06/10 Oktoberfest Hat: München, Germany

I left Italy in a car with two other ultimate players who were headed to France. We did some sightseeing in Marseille and continued on (minus the guy who owned a car) to Bordeaux with a covoiturage (a carpooling website in France).

 This should give you a view of Marseille from the cathedral from all angles.

I decided to make a bridge between Viareggio and Munich with xEUCF because I don't have that much going on in Stockholm and it would have been a lot of trips to the airport, so I thought I'd just go watch some higher level club ultimate in France. As a volunteer, I kept time and the score of games, recording the assists and scores of each player. I was able to trade games so I could watch some matches of Sweden's VIF - I have several friends who play for this club, but most of them decided (for reasons of varying legitimacy) not to came to France - and Russia's Cosmic Girls with whom two of my Swedish Fish teammates were playing. The men tied for 5th and the ladies got 4th; both were disappointed in their performance.

An entire Swiss team going to the bathroom together before a match. Unity!
(the only photo I took at the fields...)

I spent the first two nights in a vacant VIF hotel room (some of the players could only come for the weekend) and moved to the free volunteer campsite for the rest of the tourney. I'm pretty sure there were fewer mosquitos at the camping than in the hotel!

After the tournament, I met up with some folks from the Frankfurt team for some sightseeing and crepes, before taking a morning train to Germany.  This was random and incredibly lucky. I was just going to find a hostel near the train station, but the wifi at the camping and hotel were really bad, so I was walking around the city center looking for internet (or a hostel) and ran into someone I knew on the team from Frankfurt, who lives and plays in Stockholm now, and their team took me in for the night!

Overall, volunteering was an okay experience. I met some cool people, but I watched so much ultimate it all just blended together. Someone asked me afterwards what the best game I watched was and it took me quite awhile to come up with an answer.