Summer Novel Part Four After the World Championships the team headed off to Augsburg, Germany to train slalom on the 1972 Olympic course and the 2003 Slalom World Championships for two days. The Augsburg Olympic complex was set up on a series of canals. There were flat water training facilities and there was the main whitewater course. The course was filled with athletes from around the world training for the World Championships that were to be held there the following week. The team had very little time on the course as it was reserved for the competing athletes vying for Olympic Team spots. Perrin got to feel what a world class course is like. She came up with a few adjectives to describe the course, fast, powerful, breath taking, scary. After training the group explored Germany, by accident. After making a wrong turn the team found out that Germany uses many more one way streets than the US does. An hour and a half later they found their way back to their hotel, with the help of a man on the sidewalk, who had luckily spoken English. Fortunately, for the group they made it to the Czech Republic without too many wrong turns. However in light of these wrong turns, and the wrong turns in Germany, the team decided to check out the Czech public transportation system. In the Czech Republic the Prague public transportation system can get a person anywhere, even to the outskirts of the city where the whitewater course is. Thinking that this would be simpler than the forty five minute car ride through intense traffic, with the possibility of getting lost, the team opted for the public transport. They had a ten minute walk from their hotel to the subway station, take the subway to the end of the line, catch a bus, then catch a tram, and then walk another ten minutes to the course. This also took forty five minutes. The team was only staying twenty miles from the course. Either way they found themselves getting a good dose of adventure and some culture change in their system before starting training. The course was not packed with training international athletes as was Augsburg, but there were plenty of people on the course. Perrin found this more relaxing. The international athletes had made Augsburg really stressful, she had almost been speared by a Chinese C2 (two person canoe) team. Here there were not nearly as many people to worry about. There were people training there however. The top woman slalom kayaker in the world, a Czech, was training there daily along with her team mates. However it was not just national team members who were training there. The future of the Czech national teams trained there as well. One Saturday morning a fleet of nine year olds came barreling down the course. The US team was in disbelief. Perrin couldn't imagine going down the swift moving class four whitewater course without a combat roll. Perrin watched in awe as the nine year olds began to make gates and catch eddies, moves that even they were struggling with. To top it off their coach stood on the banks and screamed at them. The kids looked terrified. One of the kids flipped. The helmeted head bobbed up looking even more stricken with terror. Luckily Tom was in the eddy right below and caught him and his boat right before the next large drop in the river. The German coach continued to scream. Perrin reflected on the awards ceremony at the Junior Downriver Championships in Austria. The Czech team along with the German team had swept the event. She looked back at the coach who was beginning to turn purple as he yelled at a soaking young girl who was crying and running down the concreted banks after her boat. The Czechs were put into a program of hard knocks from the time they were nine and because of that they were the best boaters in the world by their mid-teens. The mornings were filled with training in Prague, but the afternoons and evenings were left open to explore the city. The team would always be famished after a tough three hour morning training session and the first goal would be to find a good restaurant. This was always an adventure. There were times they struck out and sometimes they hit the jackpot. One lunch Kal and Perrin found themselves eating turkey with half a peach on top and all of it smothered in mozzarella cheese. The team ate dinners from goulash to frozen pizza, never knowing what they were in for. The team particularly liked it when they went to restaurants where the menus were made out of color photos. However they soon realized that these types of places where geared towards tourists and were very expensive. They then learned to go off of the beaten path for dinner, finding a Prague locals restaurant that did not have menus in English, and making an educated guess about what they were ordering. After eating, the group found themselves revitalized and decided it was time to explore the city. Perrin found out Prague was quite an interesting city. They saw the St. Charles Bridge, which was the oldest bridge in the world crossing the Vlatva River. This bridge is dated back to the early thirteenth century. The Astronomical Clock which is the oldest mechanical clock, also dating back to the early thirteenth century, and the Old Town Square. In exploring the city the team found many street venders selling all sorts of odds and ends that could never be obtained in America. Venders sold Soviet Rubles, Soviet Military pins and even Soviet Hockey jerseys. What's more, around every street corner venders were selling Ukrainian stacking dolls from any major league hockey, baseball or football team in America. After a month in Europe, it was time to head back to America, but not home. It was time to go to the Junior Olympics and US Cup Races in North Carolina on the Nantahala and Tuckasegee Rivers. The team needed to pack up their boats for the flight home to Atlanta, but unfortunately they didn't have enough tape or packing material. In the end boats were tied with string. Perrin actually had to cover a hole in her boat sock with a pair of cheap, Austrian undergarments that had turned up in the back of their Euro Van. As the team drug their luggage, six slalom boats, and eight expertly packed downriver boats through the Munich airport, they attracted some stares of disbelief. The British Air Ways clerk met them with a new stare. The man's glare could have stopped a charging bull in its tracks. "These are not going on the plane." He growled. "Of course they are. How do you think they got here?" Chris replied. Perrin knew this would be interesting. The team was dirty, tired, hungry, and only wanted to check the boats so they could go and eat. Perrin realized this man was going to get in the way of that wish. "Those boats are too long to fit on the plane." Two hours later the airlines agreed to take all but three of the boats on the flight, the others would have to come on a later flight. The next morning Perrin sat next to Kal. They watched a luggage porter mercilessly throw the boats into the planes cargo bay. They watched as the man mistakenly left Kal's boat behind. "They left my boat! Put that boat on the plane!" He cried. It was too late as his boat left for the baggage hangar doomed to wander the depths of the international airport systems for at least another week. When finally making its way back to his camp site in North Carolina, Kal's boat was broken, but all in one piece. Kal still managed to place seventh in the Junior Olympics despite him not having a boat. He used a loaner from Nantahala Outdoor Center, along with mismatched gear from anyone who could spare it, since all of his own gear was all in his boat. Perrin was impressed. Kal had started to paddle a few months before herself, he had started in August. Kal had heard all about the Nantahala from Lisa, Nic, Tom, and Perrin who had been there earlier that year in a training camp with Chris. Perrin had asked Kal why he had done so well. After telling her that he was just good. He leveled with her. "The course on the Nantahala is nothing like the raging Olympic courses in Europe." He told her. "Those European courses sweep you down the entire length before you even blink; the only gates you can get were the ones you happen to be swept under. However, as time went on I realized that all you needed to do was break the courses down and the gates were easier to get, the gates, well not all of them, were not unattainable. That was in Europe, next to Europe, North Carolina's water is much slower moving. It is flat water, and Kal can do flat water." He looked at Perrin. She realized he was right. back to Summer Novel 2003