Kosovo!

::Carly (6/2 and 6/3)

We have arrived—safe, sound, smiling, and sleepy! Kosovo is beautiful, and the Kosovars are wonderful, but I'll let Kat get into that in a bit. In the meantime, let me tell you about our journey so far. After a short delay for one nearly forgotten passport, we jumped in a van and were on our way to JFK in New York. Our flight to Munich was fairly uneventful, if you can get over the screaming, crying child in the row in front of us who kept us "entertained" for a majority of the flight. We arrived in Munich on Wednesday morning to face an eight hour layover. Not thrilled with the prospect of sitting in the airport for that long, we decided to explore the nearby town of Freising.

We jumped on a bus marked "Freising" and soon found ourselves in a quaint Bavarian town. After sitting for 8.5 hours, all of us were glad to get some fresh air and walk around, and, since it was early on a Sunday morning, we didn't have the choice to do much else. Unfortunately, when it started raining, we were forced to explore some indoor options. We followed signs for Parkcafe, which turned out to not only be open and dry, but also to be an amazing little brunch spot. Our waitress was extremely friendly and helpful, and soon we had croissants, espressos, a brunch buffet, and—naturally—hamburgers and fries. While waiting for the downpour to end, we enjoyed true European hospitality and were allowed to sit and linger as long as we liked. After that, we wandered down a few paths along a canal/stream and hopped on a bus back to the airport.

Once we went through security and collected a few more passport stamps, our tired crew found some chairs to spread out on, and most of us were asleep in minutes (the rest of us—me—took the liberty of creating some photo documentation to share with all of you, so check out the photos to come soon). Our crew got some much-needed rest, at least for a few, until we were once again overtaken by some loud, loud, LOUD children and their parents (aaaaaaaaaah!). Regardless, I think the excitement of Kosovo started getting to us, and we were in good spirits as we boarded our final flight of the trip. Now, we are here, halfway through our first day, and happily reunited with our fellow Kosovars. There are some exciting things happening in the soccer world here, so please stay tuned!