PowerPlay Magazine

Just one day after the meeting in Brno, Czech Republic, two of the three PPM founders rushed down to Ljubljana, Slovenia to cap off a historic week.

On June 24, handball was announced as the next sport that will be developed. This happened at the meeting in Brno with all three founders of the game present. But tuttle and maxo also planned on visiting a meeting in Ljubljana just a day later. They had to drive back home, get some sleep and leave for Slovenia in the morning. Me and Mysho joined them in Bratislava.

We picked up the Slovenian captain SLY along the way in Maribor and then headed for our destination. When we arrived, we were hungry like we hadn't eaten for days. Well, at least I was. The meeting was already in full flow. Guys were playing 4 on 4 beach volley while our host alfandrej was preparing the food for a major feast.

The weather was absolutely awesome. Perfect for outdoor activities. Before we got to eating, we had a competition for a PPM polo-shirt. It was something like an elimination shootout. There was a small net about 12 meters away which we had to hit by kicking a volleyball. The little lumps in the sand made the task a lot more difficult. If you struck the ball low, it would often change course on these lumps. If you struck it high, you were almost guaranteed to miss because the net was less than a meter tall. If you missed, you were out of the competition. In the end, it only took two rounds and SLY was the only one who was able to score on both efforts. Tuttle was the star of the show with his "random" first strike. The ball was going well wide, before it hit a bump and redirected straight into the net. He wasn't so lucky second time around.

When the dinner was finally served, it was a real feast. Balkan specialties such as chevapchichi, pljeskavica, ajvar with bread that tasted like it was made in heaven have quickly cured our hunger. Even though I tried to help as much as I could, we could not eat everything.

We formed teams of 3 people each to square of in a micro beach soccer tournament. I was in an all-Slovak team with maxo and tuttle. The first game we lost 1-2, but we came back with a 2-1 win in the second game. Once again, we found out how hard it is to make anything happen on such an uneven surface.

The mood was very good all the time. Ivan was able to communicate with the locals in Croatian, while the rest of us guys from Slovakia were trying to make out what they were talking about. Fortunately, most people could also talk English. I was glad to hear that Mrki likes the new hockey engine. It's really hard to please someone like him. :)

Late in the evening we said good bye to our generous hosts. We were well-fed and we had sand everywhere. Our five-man company boarded the car and headed off to spend the night in Bled.

On Sunday we did not go straight home. We decided to take this opportunity to visit Portorož beach. So we bathed in the Adriatic Sea and had a good time there too. We found out that Slovenia is indeed a small country. It is possible to cross it in less than 3 hours drive provided you allow for 1 speeding ticket along the way. :)

In the end we were pretty tired from all the travelling, but it was definitely worth it. We are happy that we were able to meet our Slovenian friends, most of whom we only new by their nicknames until then.

You can find the list of all participants and more photos here.