For the first time in program history, Texas State Volleyball has gone overseas for an International Tour! From June 9-20, the Bobcats will explore five countries and play five matches against international opponents as part of their preparations for the 2025 season. Coming off a 2024 tournament championships, the Bobcats will use this experience as a chance to grow as a team and build team chemistry ahead of the new season.

First stop on the tour: Prague, Czech Republic!

June 9/10: We had one long travel day to get the trip started. We left Strahan Arena a little before 2 pm on June 9th to make our flight out of Austin! We flew from Austin to Amsterdam, Netherlands overnight which was about a nine-hour flight. From there, we spent a few hours in the airport before our quick flight over to Prague.

Once we landed in Prague we met our tour guides, and they took us to dinner at Narodni where we tried some schnitzel! After dinner we took a short walk around the city to see the Charles Bridge and got ice cream as a team before we called it a night. Roughly 30 hours after we left San Marcos, our first day was complete!

June 11: We started our day off with some more sightseeing in Prague with our tour guides. We did a walking tour of the city that included seeing the Prague Castle, the Astronomical Clock Tower, the John Lennon Wall and most of Old Town Prague. 

We saw the Changing of the Guard at the Prague Castle before we had some free time to find lunch and explore on our own. Some of our team took the time to do a bit of shopping, grab a coffee, or get some rest at the hotel before our match.

We then took the train a few miles for our match with Olymp Praha.  We ended up playing them to a 2-2 draw, knowing we were going to play them again on day three. The Bobcats bounced back after going down two sets to win the last two, taking sets three and four in the tie.

After that, we headed to a team dinner where we tried some authentic Czech cuisine of goulash at U Fleku. After that, the team split up to spend the last few hours of daylight exploring Prague, a lot of them with their families who made the trip out with us!

June 12: Today the team was given free time to explore the city before our second match with Olymp. Everyone ended up doing different things, some went shopping in the city center, others found local cafes to try and some hiked the Petrin Tower that was up nearly 300 stairs from our hotel. Everyone met back up at our hotel in the afternoon to head over to Olymp's gym for our game.

The match was a back and forth affair that ultimately took extra points in the fifth set to decide. Olymp Praha took the match in the fifth, but it was a high level of competition and the entire Bobcat roster made an impact in the game. After thanking Olymp for hosting us graciously, the team headed to the tram and to our riverside dinner.

After dinner we said goodbye to one of our guides, Yerka, who is a Czech native and we were leaving as we got ready to head to Maribor the next day!

June 13: Today was a long travel day that had the Bobcats through three different countries. We started the morning off leaving our hotel in Prague at 7 am. From there, we drove for about four hours to Vienna, Austria, where we would spend lunch and a bit of time into the afternoon.

The team was given free rein of Vienna where they had the chance to see sights like the St. Stephen's Cathedral, which some members of our team went inside of. Some opted for shopping around the area, while others explored the surrounding area and some team members even went and toured the catacombs below the city! Everyone was able to grab a bite to eat, and many tried schnitzel, which was recommended by our tour guide Nick!

We met back on the bus to continue our road trip through Austria and down into Slovenia. We made it safely to our hotel in Maribor where we had a team dinner, said goodbye to our tour guide Nick, and called it a night. 

June 14: Today was a busy day with our new guide, Meredith. She will be with us for the rest of our tour as we reach the halfway point!

Starting off the morning we took a bus into Maribor City Center where we had a few hours to explore the area. We saw the world's oldest grape vine, Maribor is a very prominent wine city and this vine is a big part of that. We saw the Plague Collumn which is in Maribor City Center to memorialize those whose lives were lost due to the plague outbreak. We also saw the Spomenik Database which is a statue outside of Maribor Castle that memorializes the lives lost in World War 2. After seeing some of the historical sites, we all went our separate ways to shop, grab a coffee, and explore the beautiful area.

After our free time in the city, we came back to the hotel and got ready for our match with Branka Branik. We played and won four sets against the Slovenian side to put an exclamation mark on the afternoon! After a few tough rallies, the Bobcats showed their resilience to win two of the four sets in extra points.

We then got ready for our team dinner and took a gondola ride up the Pohorje Mountain near our hotel. Long time USA Volleyball coach and current TXST Volleyball ESPN+ commentator Mick Haley met up with us when we got into Maribor, and he joined us for dinner up the Pohorje Mountain. Once we came back down the mountain, most of the team grabbed some ice cream and we called it a night!

June 15: Today was our final day in Maribor! It was a busy day that started with a ride on the Alpine Slide on the Pohorje Mountain. We did that then had a bit of free time before lunch and our match with the Slovenian U18 and U17 teams. We split up our team into two to play the two sides to make sure everyone was getting reps against high level opponents. After that match, we got ready for our team dinner at Doppler Winery.

The Doppler Winery is owned by three women and is in the mountains of Slovenia. We had a nice team meal here and learned about the history of this winery while enjoying the beautiful surrounding views.

June 16: Today we hopped on a bus and began the drive from Maribor to Venice. After about five hours, we made it to our hotel where we checked in and ditched our luggage. From there, we headed to the airport and took water taxis into the city. We only had one day in Venice so we wanted to make the most of it. After arriving at the pier in San Marco, which felt like a piece of home, we were able to spend the afternoon exploring the city.

We had just a couple hours of sunshine, though, before the weather turned and our Venice exploration became rain soaked. The team still went their separate ways to try pasta, gelato and see the sights, but the ponchos and umbrellas had to come out. After a team dinner to try some pasta, we made the trek to the train to get back safely to our hotel for the early flight the next morning.

June 17: This was probably the longest day of the trip that started bright and early at 3 am to catch our bus to the airport. We arrived at the airport in time for our 6 am flight to Paris! The last stop on our tour and we'd spend three nights in France. After arriving in Paris, we took a bus from the airport into the city where we met up with our Paris guide, Cedric.

Cedric took us up the Champs Elysees which was a shopping area that ended in the Arc de Triomphe, which was the first of our landmark Paris attractions we saw. After our stop there, we headed to Versailles to see the Palace of Versailles.

We went inside the palace and spent a few hours exploring before it was back on the bus to head to our hotel and get ready for our match that evening. We we were playing a local Parisian team that evening. To get to the stadium, though, we had our first experience with the Paris metro to get us there. Once there, we played four sets and won four sets against them and ended our last game of the tour on the right foot. We even met up with Jade Defraeye, who was already in Paris for a camp with her national team! She joined us on the rest of our tour throughout her home country of France.

From there, we headed back to our hotel for some much needed rest after a long day of travel, sightseeing, and a match.

June 18: We saw all the sights of Paris today! We started off by taking the metro to see the Arenes de Lutece and the apartment where Netflix's Emily in Paris was filmed. From there, we headed over to the Pantheon and grabbed some lunch that we ate as a team in the gardens. After that, we continued our walking tour of Paris' sights to the Arc De Triomphe, the Love Bridge and the Louvre. 

After the Louvre we headed to the metro once again and made our way to the Eiffel Tower for the first time. Though we had seen views of it around the city, this was the first time we saw it up close. After that, we all went our separate ways to do a bit of shopping and some more sightseeing before reuniting for a team dinner at La Malakoff. 

After dinner, people went their separate ways, many with their families, to explore a bit more of Paris. 

June 19:  We saw some more sights of Paris today as a team as well as did some individual sightseeing now that we are all pros at the metro! Some players opted to try out local cuisine, some went shopping at Lafayette Galleria and some went and saw more of the historic monuments around Paris.

June 20: Today we headed home! We had a leisurely morning to grab one last breakfast in the city and made our way to the airport. We said goodbye to our guides, Meredith and Keke, and headed home. We flew from Paris to Atlanta and then Atlanta to Austin for a full day of travel to get back to San Marcos.