the next Amsterdam Adventure

Unbelievable what you can do to your body! Throw it on the ground, run run run, in cold conditions, in hot conditions, in storm, rain, without sleep, without food, without health. All of that wasn't the worse I did while playing "yet another ultimate tournament" in Amsterdam... No, my body forgives for all those impositions, I just got a little sick, yeah, but the biggest strain was: stop playing! Seriously, I went from being on a field with many friends and those who soon will be, with exciting games and those we better forget about, with soft grass and that you can smoke, to going back to work, getting up early and well, basically, missing all of the other things... Some may say it's no fun playing ultimate in bad weather, but in fact, frisbee is so much fun that it really doesn't matter! And especially the Windmill Windup in Amsterdam, 'Europe's biggest Ultimate Tournament On Grass' (nope, I didn't make that up). Let me tell you a little bit about it...

As I have mentioned in a former post, I went to this extremly well-organized tournament before. 2 years ago was my first time and also Cranberry Snacks first frisbee appearance. If you can read german, you'll understand how much I liked it back then. Also you may understand that I was almost sure I can't get any better if I'd ever play Windmill again. Ha, wrong!
...of course! I mean, it's Cranberry Snack we're talking about, so how could I not enjoy a tournament with my fabulous team?! We came in 21st out of 24, which sounds pretty bad and doesn't even make sense since we won 5 out of 8 games. We only had one forgettable game against the Turkish Nationalish Team, apart from that we played along our abilities. The weather was crazy, huge winds and rain (luckily not all of the 3 days but some of it), even the big Lookfly tent got blown away...
I'd say this was the most experienced Berry team I had so far, everyone knew how to catch, most knew how to throw, too. And most important: many of us knew how to party! I can't quite describe that wonderful saturday night (ok, also because I don't remember all of it, hehe) but I'll give it a try:
After dinner at the fields, we hang out and had some beer and grass, nothing special so far. The beer race was fun and we came in second (got into the finals cause we won style!) but mingle mingle game was for waterproof people only. The Berrys found themselves chilling out in the "fire tent" and playing drinking games. The best I ever played, and I guess the others liked it as well. I met Floyd, the TD (tournament director), who was indeed called after the great british band, and he joined our game session. This may give us a chance to come back and play next year... When the actual party started upstairs, most of us were too drunk and/ or stoned to care about the bad music. So we danced, time flew by, and suddenly, Cline leaned over and said: 'So, you been asking for this all day...' Indeed, I knew what would happen since I saw pictures before, but Cline stripping, right in the middle of the party, til there was only his pink full-body suit left... unbeatable! The crowds around us were staring and Cline just danced with some random guy, who was looking quite bewildered... After this being the highlight of the party, not so much happened and they stopped it. Stupid dutch people, we should give them a party lesson!
Somehow we ended up in the chill tent again, hanging out on a sofa, only Cline, Robert and me left. It was a special moment, I felt so content and being at the right place with the right people. As ususal, the Berrys got along with each other so well and that there was really nothing to worry about... Especially not the sunrise outside...

Much to my teammates' surprise, I was on time and played well in the first game, after 1 or 2 hours of sleep. I don't know how, but I ran and we won quite clearly. Only that nice endzone pass I couldn't catch since I still didn't learn to lay out. Darn! I've done it before, so why am I thinking about it instead of just doing it?!
Not much to my own suprise, I didn't play the second game, but showed up and cheered all of the time I wasn't sleeping. It was chilly (probably caught my cold there! or maybe at the party when running outside in a dress?) and I was covered in jackets, the Berrys were looking after me so well. The rest of the day wasn't grand, besides feeling horrible I had to say goodbye to everyone...
Next time I shall not combine grass and alcohol again, learned my lesson, hopefully. Though I don't regret anything! The stuff they gave us in the player's package was so good, after smoking it I saw a German throwing away the joint he had brought along...

So now, besides the cold, I got so many wonderful memories and the urge to play again. It's a year to go til the next Windmill Windup, but in the meantime, there'll be other great tournaments waiting for us, eg the DHM (Würzburg), Rasenlatscher (Erlangen) and the DM (Frankfurt!). Yes, there is a reason why I keep doing this, despite all it's strains... Try it, and you'll understand!