International Break, Trip to Krakow, and Night in Zakopane - Blog #43 (Nov. 9 - 26)

Sorry for the delay in posting. I wanted to do a two week blog before international break, and then, Nikki and I ended up travelling at the beginning of last week. I figured I would just include it all this week. We should be back to our regularly scheduled program!

Basketball Update:

Since my last blog, we played two games. Both games were on the road, our first was at Lublin. Lublin is a good club that was in the finals last year and won the Polish Supercup at the beginning of this season. However, they had been struggling as of late in the Polish league and in their European competition league, FIBA Europe Cup. We jumped on them big time, making some 3's in the first half and getting up by 25 at one point in the second half. The game got a little sloppy with a lot of foul calls, and they cut our lead to twelve at one point. We finished the game well enough and won by fifteen. It was a much-needed road win for us, but we still were not completely satisfied with how we finished the game.

Our next game was in Torun. It was another important game for us because they are close to us in the standings. We came out of the gates playing really well again. We jumped out to a fifteen-point lead at some point in the second quarter and held onto that until halfway through the third. Then, Torun stormed back and went on a ridiculous run. One of their guards took over the game, and they took a ten-point lead. It was pretty brutal. We lost the game which is not ideal going into the international break on a loss. So it goes. We are at 3-5. We have had some close games that we could have flipped and some lost leads too. Hopefully, we can be on the other end of some of those and get rolling!

Leadership Lesson:

I just finished a leadership book written by a mentor of mine from Fort Collins, Richard Fagerlin. The book is Trustology, and it is all about building teams with high trust. The book talks about a myriad of topics, but one thing really stuck out to me. Richard says that as a leader, you must understand the motivations of the people you are leading. What is their purpose & source of inspiration, and how can you tap into that? Well, it got me thinking not only about what my source of motivation is, but also what the motivations of my teammates are. It is an interesting thing to think about because when I think of my motivation as a professional basketball player, I want to win games, play well, and move up in the overseas basketball ladder. Richard writes about his motivation to get in shape as a middle-aged guy. He said that picturing himself with a 6-pack and hanging at the beach did not motivate him. However, what did motivate him was thinking about his future with his wife, kids, and potential grandchildren that he wanted to be around for. Thinking about how his actions affected other people is what motivated him on a daily basis. This really made me think about what motivates me daily as an athlete.

I think my connection and sense of community with my teammates and coaches has always been a huge source of motivation for me. When I feel like people around me are relying on me, it makes me want to deliver on that. That is why forming good relationships with my teammates has always been important to me. It really makes me work harder. I find this to be the case more and more with my off-court relationships, too. I want to perform well so that Nikki is proud of me and my family is too. Many people say that extrinsic motivation like this is not always the best. I think I have even written a leadership lesson about it. However, I think a mix of the two can be healthy and result in a better work ethic and good results.

Top 5 of the Week:

Nicest Sounding Languages

1. French - Such a cool-sounding language. The whole vibe of France is romantic and the language feels that way too. Very pleasant on the ears.

2. Italian - Really close to the top spot and easily could have been number one. The accent along with the language sounds awesome and seems so unattainable.

3. Spanish - The last of the romantic languages that I am somewhat familiar with. This one is lower because I know some Spanish, so I am not completely oblivious when I hear it. Knocks the language down below what it should be.

4. Polish - I had no idea how Polish sounded before moving here. It sounds great though. A bunch of sh sounds, and it is great on the ears.

5. English - A bit biased, but I think English sounds pretty nice. As far as I can tell, no weird sounds... I wonder why that is.

What Else Did I Do This Week?

International break was great. After only having two days off last year, I was really pumped to have four days off this year. The only bad part about it was that we did not know we were going to have off the specific days until the week of. Nikki and I both wanted to check out Krakow, so we decided to do that. We also booked a hotel for a night in Zakopane which is a mountain town close to the Slovakian border. I drove about four hours to Krakow and on the way Nikki said her flight was delayed by a few hours. I was able to get to the hotel and do some solo exploring in the city center before Nikki arrived, and we were still able to make our dinner reservation at a steakhouse in Krakow. Dinner was awesome, and after, we went to a jazz bar and got there in perfect time for a little concert. I have never been to a jazz concert before, but it was awesome. It was a great night.

The next day, Nikki had a work call, but before that, we checked out one of the biggest castles in Europe. It was insane. It makes me embarrassed to have called anything else I have seen in Poland a castle. We grabbed a quick bite before Nikki had to head back. I went to Oskar Schindler's factory to check out that museum. On Mondays, the museum is free, so the line took two hours to get through. Well, Nikki and I had planned out a walking tour of Krakow, and I did not anticipate having to wait that long to get in. I had to speed run the museum which was a huge injustice to how cool that museum is. There were a bunch of awesome exhibits, and it told the awesome story of how the Nazi German businessman, Oskar Schindler, saved thousands of Jewish lives during WW2 by having them work at his factory in Krakow instead of going to a concentration camp. The walking tour was great. We got a bunch of history tidbits about Poland's tortured history. We got to see a bunch of the important landmarks in the city and learned a lot. Our hotel had a reservable sauna that Nikki and I took advantage of before heading out for the night. We had Indian for dinner which was solid. Then, we searched for some live music and eventually found a man and woman in a kind of touristy bar who were playing great music. We spontaneously bought tickets for a salt mine for the next morning that is like 20 minutes out from Krakow. It was a perfect stop for us on our way to Zakopane.

The salt mine was cool. I would not say it is a must-do, but we were glad we did it. There is an underground church and a bunch of tunnels that are a bit too short for me. It was a nice pit stop. We also had probably the most uninspired tour guide of all time.

Zakopane was gorgeous. Christmas decorations were up, and there was a ton of snow on the mountains. It was just gorgeous. We got a really nice hotel room. The hotel also had a mini spa with a jacuzzi and sauna that we used. We also walked all over the town and went to Gubałowka. We went by this gondola, train car thing to an amazing viewpoint. Since Nikki and I normally hike to get those views, it kind of felt like cheating. We got some classic Polish foods and had a drink too. It was beautiful and great vibes! We got a couple of drinks in the city before going to use the hotel spa as I mentioned. We finished the night getting takeout from a restaurant in the hotel downstairs and watching a movie.

Driving back the next morning was an event to say the least. A blizzard came through the entire country of Poland and hit the Krakow-Zakopane area pretty hard. They got at least six inches of snow. I did not know that my really nice, new Cupra car was terrible in the snow. In fact, I was scheduled to get changed for snow tires the next day. I got stuck in the parking lot twice and knew I was in for it. When Nikki and I were leaving Zakopane, I skidded right into a snow bank and was about six inches from hitting a pole. A nice Polish lady had a shovel and helped us get free. I have never been so scared driving in my life. The car was slipping and sliding like crazy. It was a long 6.5 hours home, but we made it safely. Nikki left the next morning. Great break! Here is a picture outside our hotel room so you can see the snow, worse than it looks!

Top Meal of the Week:

The best meal we had was at the steakhouse, Mr. J's, in Krakow. Nikki got beef Wellington which was stellar. I got this asian steak dish that was unreal. We also had some delicious vino. It was really nice, and I think it was Nikki and I's first steakhouse date if you can believe it.

Polish Cultural Difference:

Our walking tour guide in Krakow pointed out an important thing about Polish culture. He said that Poland is among the top countries in Europe in terms of the number of people who practice their faith. In this case, Polish people are majority Catholic. A big reason for this is Pope John Paul II, and his fight for Polish independence from the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Polish people were never really liberated after WW2 because of Soviet occupation. Pope John Paul II sparked a movement called Solidarity. Catholicism in Poland is synonymous with the old pope, who is synonymous with Polish independence. It is a big reason why Polish people are strong Catholics which has a large influence on the culture in Poland. Thanks for reading!