MONTREAL - FAMILY, FRIENDS & FIFTH
A blaring ring at 3:15 AM went off and Kristen and I zombie walked our way through the final stages of packing for our couple weeks on the road! Unlike every other FIVB tournament, we spent a minuscule amount of time on flights, only 3 hours. It was a new concept for us to be so close to the competition venue. On our first flight, we were upgraded to first class and we made our 57-minute connection in Atlanta. We were even upgraded on our second flight and arrived in Montreal at 11:35 am. We made our way through the most efficient customs line I had ever seen! It was so fast and so was the baggage that I spotted our colorful OGIO suitcases spinning on the baggage belt from the escalator and had to take off in a dead sprint to catch all 3 of our checked bags before they disappeared into the unknown! Yes, we packed a lot of bags! However, we were going straight from the Montreal competition to Atlanta for a fun week of media and training before the AVP Atlanta event on August 4th. We walked out of the baggage claim area and found the transportation too easily, we couldn’t believe our luck. The travel didn’t have any delays or problems and we were just waiting for something crazy to happen.
First Class Upgrade
The only issue that arose was the 45-minute wait for the FIVB technical delegate who was also on our transportation bus and had a 30-minute flight delay. Then, it was only a 17-minute drive to the hotel instead of the 3-hour trek that we made across Switzerland at our last event. Needless to say, our gratitude for the ease of travel was unmatched! The cherry on top, we were able to check into our hotel 3.5 hours early! The hotel was so modern that we couldn’t even figure out how to use the elevator! On the outside of the 5 elevators was an iPad-like system for the guests to type their floor numbers in. Then on the inside of the elevator, there was only an ‘open door’ and ‘close door’ button. On our first ride up the elevator, we just hopped in and looked around for floor 26 only to be confused and concerned that we would just ride the elevator until we could figure it out.
We had some time to chill before we got ready for our ‘date night’ of dinner and a show in Montreal. We started to implement these date nights this year. We are not allowed to discuss volleyball, bring it up, or talk about business in any way. We felt that we were drifting away from the fun friendship and it was only business/volleyball/travel communication. Our friendship has been the backbone of our journey and we want to keep it that way! So, we dropped the volleyball chit-chat for boys, and the business for ideas, adventures, and aspirations. We took an Uber down to the Old Port/Old Town side of Montreal and had a dinner reservation for 4 pm. It was located right next to the Cirque Du Soleil show we booked for 5 pm. There were so many people swarming the streets with ice cream in hand, caricature artists, and live music. We finally swapped in our sunglasses and hats for dresses & makeup. Kristen is now my Barbie doll and I got to do her hair, makeup and pick out her outfits!
The roles were reversed and I had to run to the bathroom as soon as we got to the restaurant. We were a little short on time so Kristen ordered two meals for us and I was surprised with a plate of beef tartare and chicken with a delicious side salad. She made a great choice and we dined and ran out to the show. The show was unbelievable. The performers were all so strong, and talented, and we were blown away. Kristen couldn’t even clap for the performances because she was constantly having to pick up her jaw from the floor. After the show, we were picked up by our J-Uber. Jasmine, a friend from New York, drove up to come watch the event in Montreal. On her drive in she stopped and bought all of Costco to make sure that we did not go hungry. She stopped at a bagel shop Kristen sent her from Instagram and bought half of that store as well. Needless to say, she was the “hostess with the mostest” in the Northeast.
Jasmine - aka MVP of the trip
As we were moving in the Costco-sized food haul from Jasmine’s car to our very fancy hotel, all eyes were on us. From then on, every time we walked in or out of the hotel and past the bell-hops, they knew us as the party crew. We got it all up to our hotel room and set the schedule for the next day before we were off to bed.
On Monday morning, we had yet another substitute coach for the event. Jasmine wore many hats this weekend, including but not limited to snack mom, J-Uber, heckler, ultimate fan, party animal, comedian, and friend. Sorry Adam, but after Kristen roasted your coaching abilities from Switzerland her main objective was to be better than you.
Jasmine came over for a bagel breakfast from her food haul and even pulled out a toaster from her backpack, she was adamant that we had a solid New York bagel experience. As we were pulling up to the F1 race track on which the venue was placed we were unable to find the entrance. Jasmine pulled around to a nearby worker and ignored my urge to begin the conversation with “bonjour” as Montreal had a heavy French-speaking population and screamed “hi” out the window. We had our attention quickly pointed to the volleyball poster that was directly in front of us and we found a parking spot and hit the courts.
Her tossing abilities were perfect and exactly what we needed for our first practice at the event. Thank you, Jasmine! We were not pleased with the sand aka concrete that we had to play on but that’s part of the tour fun. You never know what the surface, weather, or location will have in store for the week.
On the way back to the hotel from practice, we had to stop at one of the hundreds of cafes in the city of Montreal for some coffee before we had an interview. As I walked into the Humble Lion Café the barista was dancing and eating a pastry and encouraged me to order 3 maple syrup cold brews. When in Canada, do as the Canadians do!
As we were sipping on the cold brew coffees, we were interviewed by a local writer who was asking fantastic questions —> Click me for article. We hit the hotel gym for a lift and then met up with the USA providers for some treatment after lunch. Lunch consisted of a non-aesthetically pleasing but delicious array of chicken, salad, and veggies courtesy of Jasmine aka Montreal mom. We spent the rest of the day walking through the city and doing a little shopping before heading back to the hotel.
On Tuesday morning, we hopped on the FIVB transportation with Germany’s Tillman/Muller and their coach for an hour of practice at the venue. We were all very disappointed when Muller pulled a screw out of the sand mid-practice and I pulled a big metal piece and a chunk of plastic out of the sand. Those are scary moments where we are all thankful that we didn’t step or dive on any of the unwanted objects in the sand. We finished practice at 9:58 AM and took off running for the 10 AM shuttle back to the hotel but we were too slow. Instead, we wandered around the venue and found the cafeteria and athlete’s lounge on the opposite side of the track. After we burned 30 minutes and got our bearings on the location, we hopped on the 10:30 shuttle to get back and chat with a writer from the Baton Rouge Advocate. Our story should be released soon so be on the lookout!
We arrived at one of the coolest coffee shops, Crew Collective, which was placed in an old bank. Then we walked through the city streets, to the Notre Dame Basilica, and around the hotel before the Nuss family arrived in Canada. This was the first international experience that Audrey and George Nuss had and Kristen was so excited to hang out with them and see what their thoughts were. She was tracking their every move from the flight to the Uber to the hotel. She was so stoked for her parents and their experience, it was adorable. We walked with them through Old Port and loved listening to their thoughts on the differences in Montreal. We had dinner at the infamous Schwartz Deli.
It was an experience! Everyone on Yelp, Instagram, and every other travel guide said that we must try the deli, so we did. There was a line out the door which is usually a great sign. We were seated at the bar and ordered our food from the 5-item menu and by the time we finished saying “thank you” the food was sitting in front of us. We got the delicious meat sandwich and a Montreal staple of Poutine for the table. It was good, very good. Kristen even went back on Sunday.
On Wednesday, we packed up our suitcases to move 700 feet to the main draw hotel for check-in later that day and had a work day at Café Olimpico. If you haven’t figured this out about us, we find a place or two in the host city and if we enjoy it, we go back… a lot. Café Olimpico was one of them! The coffee was delicious and even passed the Kristen test. Kristen then found a brunch spot in the Underground City. The Underground City should be renamed to the undersigned city because it is horribly difficult to navigate and has very few signs to try and find your way out! We finally stumbled upon the restaurant to meet with the Nuss and Trahan families for brunch. It was delicious and Kristen was talking about the pancake they had for the next 4 days.
We were finally able to check into our new hotel at 4 pm and we don’t pack light. We had 5 Ogio suitcases, 2 backpacks, a case of water, and bags of snacks. We made it to the new hotel with the help of the Nuss family and we went to the venue for check-in and dinner. The cafeteria was massive and filled with all the athletes and volunteers for the event. We checked out center court while we were waiting for the shuttle and then went back to the hotel to prepare for the event to begin and watch a little World Cup soccer.
The window shade in our hotel room was broken so the bright, shiny sun woke us up very early. As soon as I see light, my body is ready to get up which was not ideal considering we didn’t play until 8 pm. We got up and had breakfast with all the other fellow athletes and it was pouring rain outside and kind of gloomy. We had a stretch session in the hotel room to get some movement and then waited for the sky to clear and went out to the venue for an activation/light movement. My family was delayed 3 times and didn’t arrive until 2 am so after our activation I was able to meet up with them for a bit. We watched a lot of volleyball on the app and finally, it was our turn to hop on the court for our 8 pm game against the Canadian home team. This was the first international event that we both had parents in the stands. Needless to say, we were excited and they were too.
Our families held a tailgate in the parking lot in true Louisiana fashion, to which Kristen responds, these other countries probably don’t even have a translation for “tailgate” in their language but our families had a blast. We could definitely hear them in the stands screaming for us and dancing whenever the music would come on. Immediately following the Thursday night win, we were escorted to the media for a couple of interviews and then pictures with the beach volleyball fans. We got back to the hotel late for the 10 pm treatment slots and tried to go to bed right after. However, the adrenaline and hype of an international event make it very challenging to get any shut-eye.
Friday rolled around very quickly and luckily Kristen put the “do not disturb” sign on the door so we could sleep as much as possible now that our window shade was fixed. We had some lunch and straight into two American matchups against Cannon/Sponcil & Betsi/Julia. There are so many talented American teams and somehow, we all end up playing each other in all the international events. Let the international AVP pool play games begin! We captured our second pool play win and we were off on the shuttle to head back to the hotel for the quick turnaround game to top the pool and go straight to the quarterfinals.
We hopped on the shuttle covered with dark, dark sand that was stuck like glue to our bodies with the help of the rain and the shuttle driver was less than pleased with our appearance and stench post-game. However, he opened the door and let us in the transport vehicle but as he turns and looked, he sees a giant bug crawling on my sports bra. *If you don’t know, I HATE BUGS! I instantly freak out and Kristen is the only one to come to my rescue because of the bug’s impeccable placement. The driver tried to explain in broken English that he didn’t want to touch me but he wanted to help get the bug off but couldn’t because of where it was, it was hilarious.
We got to the hotel and cleaned off in 30 minutes and we were back on the bus headed to dinner. As we were just sitting on the bus waiting to leave two women walk by and say “Kloth & Nuss?” in excitement. They had just driven in from Toronto to watch the game and they asked to take a picture! We happily hopped out for a picture and I thanked her for pronouncing both of our names correctly!
Around 7:30 we took the court with fellow Americans on the other side and our best buddies of the weekend the wind and rain. The crowd should get points for sitting out there in the weather as the game had to be stopped to fix the blowing lines and many timeouts were taken to wipe off glasses and eyes that were filled with wet sand. After making it through two big set wins, we punched our ticket to the quarterfinals and we were off to the hotel after chatting with our family and friends that made it to the event. Again, it was very tough to get any sleep. I was tossing and turning so much that I decided I might as well do something productive and I went through the film of the last couple of matches we played.
On Saturday morning, we walked through the city with our families and went back to Café Olimpico. We weren’t scheduled to play until the last match of the night against the Canadians so we wanted to make sure we were up and moving around during the day. We stretched, put our feet up, watched volleyball, and more volleyball in gross weather.
I would say we had quite a few TKN fans throughout the weekend, however, when we walked onto the center court for a quarterfinal battle against Canada’s Brandie and Mel we lost all of them. There was an uproar when they beat us in the third and deciding match and just like that another Olympic Qualification event was over and we were disappointed in our volleyball match. Immediately following the match, I was summoned for a “random” drug test. I don’t know why they continue to pick me, maybe because I can pee in a cup 18 times faster than most players. However, it was horrible timing to have to fill out pages of information and sit in porta potty with another woman staring at you while giving a urine sample. The drug test lady grabbed me so fast and escorted me to the drug testing area that Kristen was so confused and couldn’t find me. After I finished, I called Kristen back and we had dinner together at the venue and Brandie/Mel walked in and all the volunteers go wild and clapped for them. That hurt. However, we always know it’s going to be a fun battle against them and Kristen asked Brandie and their coach if we could just skip to the third set next time.
We shuttled back to the hotel and Kristen went to a dessert shop and I went straight to the shower. I went to catch up with my best friend Blake who drove in from New York. He was so helpful in getting my mind off of the match and gave me perspective. Yet again, it was tough to sleep with all the hype from the game and the anger of losing. Social media is a big no-go after an event because it's usually volleyball post after volleyball post. Although I am more of the frequent receiver of hate DMs, Kristen received her first one and was very proud of the message someone sent her telling her to “go home that’s where you belong you joke”. To whoever sent that, Kristen was pumped. So, I hope that was your intention!
On Sunday morning we were blessed with a family day for each of us. We went our separate ways and had to find the bright side in ending the tournament earlier than we wanted to for some additional quality time with our family. I went for a walk and coffee with my bestie Blake and then met up with my family for another walk around the city and to lunch. As we were walking, I was stopped 3-4 times about how much they loved watching Kristen and me play this sport. Each and every time I was stopped, I got a little teary-eyed because it really is a special experience to hear that from people we don’t even know are watching.
Kristen went back to Café Olimpico for the final time and got the cheesecake that she was eyeing and then returned to Schwartz Deli for lunch and to Old Town for dinner with her family. We were chatting throughout the entire day about our whereabouts and food adventures because we hardly spend time alone and had to keep up.
My family and I went for a nice 9-mile walk around the city exploring every corner and having a great day. We walked to La Fabrique, and it was delicious. I was happily surprised that my “bonjour” and “bien” were so good that the waiter proceeded to explain the menu in French. Due to my facial expressions, she quickly realized that I was American and needed her to speak in English! I ordered for the table to share a bunch of different plates to split as my splitzy partner was away. We hit everything from the French bakery with spiral croissants to the Old Port and then to the Canadian recommendation of Mandy’s for outside dinner in a vibrant part of the city. We all made our way back to the hotel to pack up to head straight to Atlanta for the upcoming event the next morning!
By: Taryn Kloth
