Worlds!

On Wednesday, I wandered around for a bit while trying to find the courts. The GPS coordinates provided by the organizers didn't quite match up to the courts. Fortunately I wasn't playing Wednesday so it didn't really matter when I arrived. As I got closer I kept running into more and more polo players, but I also got a flat about 1km away so it was slow going. Then I arrived to four beautiful courts in the blazing heat! I got to cheer on my friends playing in the wildcard tournament. Afterwards we went as a group to the campsite (I was camping with my German friends). We made dinner and relaxed before preparing for playing early the next morning. Unfortunately one of my teammates, Kat, realized her frame was broken so someone lent her a bike to use, but some parts had to be transferred over.
So we got up early in the morning and headed to the courts and still couldn't find our teammate Jacki. Finally we found her, though she arrived late, and we could finally get our bikes checked for safety. I think we were the only all female team playing in the main tournament. Unfortunately we didn't do very well the first day (but what does one expect playing in the worlds tournament with two people you've never played with before?). We lost four games and tied one the first day. I feel like it was difficult to get a good team dynamic going. I stayed to watch the afternoon group, and spent the day watching games or hiding from the sun. Afterwards a big group headed to the after party but there were rumors of €7.30 being the cheapest beer plus I was hungry so I headed back to the campsite. Then another somewhat early day. We were in the bottom 48 teams and we won two games and lost two games. Unfortunately one of the games we won was against my favorite Czech team, Krystalis. It was a fun match though! Then there was the Friday after party, which was a bit more organized than the party on Thursday.  Still the beers were €5 but there was a big group of people there and also some dancing to mediocre music. Finally they closed and kicked us out and groups split so I rode with a group of people to some unknown destination and then decided to go home after all.
The next morning the Germans woke me up at some ungodly hour, since I had gone to bed around 4 or 5 and they woke me up well before 9. So it was a rough morning, ha. Then another day of watching world class polo! The games were fantastic and the heckling and cheering just got better as the day went on. The weather was perfect all weekend, albeit quite hot. I got to hang out with friends new and old. Then the after party Saturday was quite the riot! A giant group of polo players crowded on a square being quite drunk and unruly. I felt like I had been steamrolled the next morning, ha, but an early morning swim revived me. Then a group of us from the campsite all rode to the beach, which was awesome and beautiful. As we hung out, random other polo players showed up until we had a huge group. Afterwards we went out for pizza in town and had much confusion with who ordered what and how many despite having a French speaker with us. Then an early night back at the campsite!