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The basketball tournament
Not having children, my experience of traveling with teenagers has been with my basketball players; I have been coaching for a lifetime.
One of the things I have done the most in Europe is to visit Vienna. Where in the week of Easter they hold a huge basketball tournament with hundreds of teams coming from all over.
We have gone there often because it is well organized. In addition, we have the opportunity to give the boys an important experience for the technical aspect but especially the social aspect. But it is also a chance for them to visit Vienna. Now Austria is a small country wedged between the Alps and Germany, it seems unbelievable that just over a century ago it was one of the powers of Europe and therefore of the world. But the glories of the former Austrian Empire are still clearly visible walking around the capital.
Taking mainly junior high school kids, it happens that for many of them it is the first time they go away without their parents (whom we don’t want around) and/or away from home. In addition to being careful not to lose them during subway rides between gymnasiums (it has happened, but at a tournament in Paris), they really need to be routed,
Traveling with teens: the discoveries of those who have never left home
Traveling with teenagers, especially if they have never left home, gives unforgettable pearls. One, when we stopped at the gas station asked me rather worriedly if that building also had a bathroom.
Another, on the way back, after we had recommended in Vienna each day that we carefully guard the metro pass. When we said to get the papers ready because the customs officers might come up and ask for ID, he asked if we should show the metro pass as well. We usually keep the various groups separate, each going around with their own coach to do their games and rounds; multiple groups together are difficult to manage.
Last night at the Prater
On the last evening, when the races are over, we all gather at the Prater, the big park where we have dinner together in one of the beer gardens and first let the kids try out the various attractions (rides, bumper cars, roller coasters, etc.). Charged by the stories of the older ones who have already been there, enthusiasm is high so at the entrance they do not always pay due attention to the directions: one of the main ones being where the bathrooms are. Traveling with teenagers also involves less grateful tasks.
One who was in too much of a hurry to jump into that fairyland and did not want to be separated from the group, he did not mind his physiological needs, but when he found himself at the top of I don’t remember which merry-go-round, the inevitable happened. He made me look for him mortified and without admitting the reason to his companions, somehow he told me and I had to go and find him a pair of pants since our quarters were so far away.
Home Together Traveling in Western Europe, feeling at home
Previous stop The frozen sea, that time I ate the reindeer (not Santa’s)
Next stop Sleep in dormitory, visit to Salzburg
Trips taken, travel stories divided by continent
Anecdotes, divided by type in travel narratives
Countries visited in my travel stories
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