Wedding moments

On 7-7-12 I married the most beautiful woman I have ever met.  Our photographer Josh Elliot captured the 2 nights we spent with our best friends and family.  Here are a few of my favorite pics and moments. 

IBB is back at it for the 2012 - 2013 season.  This is my 4th season playing in Turkey which is my longest stay in any country.  I can honestly say I love Istanbul and so many things about Turkey.  Our team has pushed through a very long preseason with A LOT of traveling but we are now prepared to do battle.  Started the league with a 3-0 win vs Ziraat Bank in Ankara a couple weeks ago (last 2 photos from that match) and qualified for the 2nd round of the Challenge Cup (European Cup and the first few pictures).  Team is off to a good start but have a really important part of our season happening in the next 21 days.  

CEV Matches vs Almeria Spain

We started off the CEV tournament last week vs a strong but young team from Almeria Spain.  On this team were two other Americans - Jeff Menzel from UCSB and a fellow San Marcos Royal as well as Austin Zahn a fellow Trojan.  This match up was based on the teams standing from the previous year.  We had to play them first at home (where these pictures are from) here in Istanbul and ended up taking advantage of a what seemed to be jet lagged team winning easy in 3 sets. 

  This past week we had to travel to Spain where we either had to win the match or we would had played a GOLDEN SET...One set to 15 to see who advances.  Everyone who knows volleyball knows that anything can happen in the 5th set so we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to win the match.  We started the match knowing that Almeria was going to play much better in front of their home fans and on their own turf so our goal was to set the tone early.  Didn't work out that way...Jeff had a much better start to the game and was more involved throughout the match...he is a high flying kid with a strong shoulder.  They took the first set 25-21 after our side made way too many easy errors.  After the first set we seemed to take control of the match with our block and service.  Story of every game right?  The team that makes the least amount of mistakes...wins.  We won the next two sets pretty easy and started to relax thinking that they would give up.  

The 4th set they found a grove with their opposite back at the service line.  I think he reeled off 3 aces in a row that were bullets.  They took a quick 9-3 lead but it was too early to say they won.  We made a nice run to get to 8-9 and the rest of the set was close all the way till the end.  We took the set 28-26 and was proud of all our team for playing through some difficult plays.  

While in Spain I picked up a few Spanish wines, cheeses, pork sausage (very difficult to buy pork in Turkey) and Sangria for Bretty.  13 hours of travel back and we have 2 more matches before the break for the World Cup event.  Brett and I have a trip planned to London and I couldn't be more excited.  I've never been and couldn't think of a better travel partner!  

Team Photo

Austin Zahn - Trojan

Our Belarus player Sergei Antonavic 

This was an overpass

Our Dutch player - Jereon Trommel

Gotta close the line on a 3 man block

Kilian Martin

I have never seen free style like this before.  Looks like Kilian Martin is dancing on a skateboard.  So amazing.  Check out his videos below!

A day out and about in ISTANBUL

Turkish Lira

The first Bosphorus Bridge - Boğaziçi Köprüsü 

New Mosque - Eminönü 

Turkish Coffee at Fes Cafe

Fes Cafe -  From our Luxe book given to us from Omar Rawi

Efes Pilsen - Turkish Beer

Brett enjoying a little Rose “Şarap”at Fes Cafe

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Grand Bazaar - Kapalıçarşı 

Inside Kapalıçarşı 

Spices at the Spice Bazaar - Mısır Çarşısı or Egyptian Bazaar 

The Maiden Tower from a distance - Kız Kulesi

In Ortakoy

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Fishermen off of Galata Bridge

Afrojack feat Eva Simons - Take Over Control (OUT NOW!)

The Head and the Heart - Lost In My Mind (Live on KEXP)

Video: Warpaint, "Elephants"

Jam of the day...enjoy!

Jeff Niesen Paint Pets

While Brett and my mom where traveling Milan and Paris they met a couple by the name of Jane and Peter Neisen in the court yard of their hotel.  Amidst conversation over some wine and cheese the Neisen's spoke of their very talented son Jeff whom lives in NY.  After viewing his blog and work it was clear that we had to have him paint our puppy Hercules.  He has since become one of our favorite artists and if you love his work as much as Brett and I do I highly suggest you check out his websites/blogs at http://paintpets.blogspot.com and http://www.jmniesen.com  

       

                         

Hercules!