U23 WORLD ROWING CHAMPS  UPDATE

PHOTO Monument and soldier Cadets in Belarus

Hi all-This country is like an intrepid journey, the language??? the road signs ??? the food ??? the rules, and the money are all so complicated. We know how to get from the course to our sanatorium and the beer garden. Yes I am drinking beer as it is so hot here. There are no coins so we have wads of notes. I got 1 million roubles out the other day -a beer costs 3000. We don't know what we are eating, it's trial and error. We are 30 kms out but we are happy with our rooms. I got a speeding ticket and had to pay the officer 35,000 roubles cash. 

It's still really hot but the rowers say the racing is good. Julia and Lucy are the top heat time and are happy with their race. The biggest competition looks like Germany, Greece and Sweden. The double have their semi final at around 9.40am our time tomorrow (sat).

Racing was stopped yesterday as we had a spectacular thunder and lightning storm, all the boats had to rush to get off the water. The girls 8+ came 2nd in their race for lanes and Laura Fischer's crew in the quad just missed out on the A final they are very disappointed.

We are off to the beer garden for lunch then out to the fort WW2 memorial for a bit of sightseeing.

We have just heard about the terrible car accidents in Rotorua- Love to all.

Sue Edward (Rowing Mum)