Party Time!

To get past our disappointment of our final’s row we all did something different! Henry went with his parents back to the course to watch the Aussie Men’s Eight row in the B Final. Pete took the bus back to watch, but us women, well we went and did a bit of retail therapy!

First stop was the most amazing deli I have ever been into. They had the biggest and best chocolate section we had ever seen! I think Lisa and I thought we had died and gone to heaven! Next section was the wine…yes for me! I was able to buy a bottle of Jacob’s Creek Cab/Merlot (yes I know I should have gone for the Polish wine, but I wanted something I knew I would enjoy!), then it was the fresh fruit section where Lisa and Alex bought the most beautiful raspberries.

Then it was on to all the other shops in the mall, spending more money on clothing and shoes! Why is it that you always feel better after spending money on stuff that you probably don’t really need?

We headed back to our hotel room, cracked open the red and had ourselves a little happy hour!

We had all decided to meet at 6pm to go and have some dinner as we were trying to meet up with the Canadians and Irish Adaptive rowers in the town square at 7:30pm for drinks. We found a place and had a wonderful meal…no pork!

As you can see from the picture not much was left on the plates. We also had a few drinks to go with the food.

We were unable to find the other rowers so after walking around looking for them plopped ourselves down at a bar with Adrian the Kiwi coach and his rower Robyn. Then the Italians found us and another round of drinks were purchased! It wasn’t a very late night and we were back in the hotel around 11:30.

The last day of racing Australian had the women’s lightweight double and the men’s quad. The entire team headed to the course to watch the racing and do some trading of team gear! Both crews had huge tailwinds to deal with again during racing and against an incredibly strong field the women were 5th. Then it was time for the men…what an incredible race. Our men got away really well and were leading right up to the 1000m mark, then the fight was on. Poland has been world champions in this event for the last 5 years! I don’ think I have yelled so loud! Our men ended up second with Poland retaining the title. For us Aussie’s this was a great way to finish the regatta!

We had a reception to attend for the Australian athletes and supporters just behind the course and when I got there I couldn’t believe how many supporters had been in the stands. Heaps of parents, brothers, sisters, girlfriends, boyfriends! It was amazing. We had a few speeches from David Crawshay, Pat McNamara (president of Rowing Australia) and then Andrew Matheson to wrap up. One gesture which I was happy to see was that each of the coaches who had a crew win a medal was presented with the medal that is awarded to the federation. I thought this was fantastic as the coaches do as much work as the athlete (albeit in a different way).

The day ended with all of us (our crew) heading to the town square again for a bite to eat and along the way we picked up a number of the parents to join us at the restaurant. We had the best meal I have had here and I know that I said I wouldn’t touch pork again but ….yes I had pork, well a huge rack of ribs!

Henry’s mom and dad were also in the group of parents and Tim (Henry’s dad) decided that he was buying our drinks…then he got us started on Vodka shots! Not just any old Vodka off the shelf, but true original Polish Vodka. I must say it was nice and went down very smoothly, although I could feel it go down!

Oh that burns all the way down!!!

We were seeing rowers everywhere as there were a number of after parties. A lot of them were dressed up and definitely looking for a good party! I on the other hand had just about had enough and was looking to put my feet up. We walked around for a little while chatting with a number of different people we met along the way and eventually Lisa took off to one of the parties, then Henry went with a couple of the guys from the men’s eight, Pete, Alex and I decided to head home. I know we were probably party poopers but I was happy with my night and my body was screaming for some rest!

It is now very early on our last day in Poznan as I write this. Today we have a debrief day, which is going to take a while and then we are hoping to head out for a bit more sightseeing. This has been a wonderful experience! I have met so many new and wonderful people, seen some amazing parts of Europe and got to row with the world’s best…What more could I ask for!

I am now ready to head home, have a few days rest, relaxation and introduce myself to my husband Russ and dog Kimba! I have been away a bit this year and Russ has been a wonderful support in this campaign, so time to give back! Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all those people who have been there for all of us, we couldn’t have done it without you!

Look out World, the Australian LTA4+ crew is here to stay and we will only get stronger and faster! See you in New Zealand for the next World Rowing Championships in November 2010.