Well serious training has begun and its quite a different training environment to anything we've encountered at home. Mojmir and his crew of skaters are really great and have been very friendly towards us. Training so far has been 1.5 to 2 hrs in the morning a mixture of spins and jumps, and depending on what day of the week, 2.5 to 3.5 hrs in the early evenings, jumps then figures then spins.

We have been learning so different ways of doing things which can be very demanding as you completely undo something you have learned, to learn a better way.

Trieste is a lovely old city, if you want to find it look at the top of Italy, find Venice, and then look a little more to the right. Very close to the Slovenian border. Everyone here is at least bi-lingual speaking Slovenian and Italian. Many people speak a small amount of English which is helping us immensely.

So far we have managed some sightseeing and shopping, including the Grotto Gigante (500 steps down and 500 back up :-) very good for the legs), the Piazza del'unite di italia, and several Gelateria.

Sunday we are going sightseeing and shopping with Martina, her Mum Mara, and her friend (and skater) Katarina.

Ciao Everyone

Pam and Kasey