Ios, Greece
My best memory is Ios Island. We went there for a tournement that took place from Thursday till Sunday. As Ios is a really difficult island to reach, we had a long trip. Come with me in this really special but memorable trip.
The Trip
On Sunday, we firstly took a plane from Belgium to Mykonos. Once arrived there we took a bus to reach our hotel.
On Monday, after enjoying a lovely evening and night in Mykonos, we headed for our final destination, Ios. To get there we had to take a huge boat. Once arrived, we were getting more and more excited about where we were going to spend the week. The last part of our journey was to be done by bus. But even this one wasn’t ordinary, it was a beautiful double decker bus that gave us a great view of this magnificent island. It dropped us off right at the place where we were going to compete, which was situated on one of the most famous beaches on Ios Island, “Mylopotas Beach”.


The tournament
On Tuesday and Wednesday we rested and trained. After each training session we stayed on the beach and went swimming into the sea. It was very cool but we were still a bit stressed because the tournament was coming up.
On Thursday, we had our first qualifier game, against a Canadian team that had already qualified several times for the main tournament. We hadn’t done it yet because it was our first season at this game level. And we won! The match was tough but we did it. Our second match of the day was coming in the afternoon to qualify for the main tournament. After eating and resting, we headed for our second game against Estonia. Another hard match was waiting for us. We unfortunately didn’t manage to qualify for the main draw. Anyway we were really happy to have accomplished this first exploit being only 16 and 17 years old. The tournament was over for us but the victory against Canada made us proud of ourselves.
The island
On Friday we went to visit the island, we walked a lot and saw some magnificent sceneries like a theatre from the Roman period and several nice views of the region. In the evening the tournament offered to take us to see the most beautiful sunset on the island, of course we went. The place was really amazing and the sunset even more. It was also really cool to meet up with all the other teams from the tournament.


The trip back
Saturday morning was time to go back to the beach, watch some matches and have some fun in the sea. In the evening, we took the bus and the boat back to the island of Mykonos, we got there quite early and had time to visit the town. I loved all the little streets and shops in Mykonos. On Sunday morning we took the plane back to Belgium…. too bad! I would have liked to stay in Greece.
Here you can see some of the most beautiful pictures I took. This place was just wonderful. I hope I will go back there soon. It will stay one of my best memories.






