The University of Minnesota volleyball team had its first full day of the tour without a volleyball match. Everyone was on their own to shop or rest until about noon on Saturday. At noon, the tour organizer had a local person helping him out who gave a tour of the city of Brno.

As was previously noted in the last description, Brno had a completely different look to it then Prague did. Brno is the second-largest city in the Czech Republic, but there was definitely more of a local feel of it then Prague that had a lot of tourists from out of town.

The tour consisted of some local churches, sights and a castle which was located through a nice neighborhood that was known as the Czech Republic Beverly Hills. After seeing some of the sights, the groups split up as some of the players went to the castle, some went back to rest and some went shopping.

Following the tour, everyone got to shop, sightsee or relax until about 5:30 p.m. (local time). After that, everyone met up for dinner at a local Czech place. While we were eating at the restaurant the Czech Republic was playing Ghana in the World Cup. Just about everyone in the city must have been glued to the television, because the streets were absolutely deserted during the game.

The meal at the restaurant consisted of dumplings with a sort of gravy sauce and a fruit in the middle. It was third time or so that we had the dumplings on that trip, which kind of were like a thick flowery bread. It seems to be a complementary dish that you can include just about any food.

Following dinner, everyone walked around the town for about an hour or so and met up at a local restaurant that was reserved for us to watch the USA-Italy World Cup game.

On Sunday, Minnesota will again have a day without volleyball. The Golden Gophers will depart Brno around 9:30 a.m. and head to Vienna, Austria. The team will only stay in Vienna for one day, before they depart to Maribor, Slovenia. Minnesota will return to action on the court when it faces the Croatian Junior National Team on Monday.

Doneila Jackson Diary: We woke up today around noon. It was the first time we got to sleep past 9 a.m. the entire trip. We went sightseeing in Brno and saw two beautiful cathedrals. For lunch, Marci and I went to KFC, which was amazing.

Later that night we went to the mall and to a restaurant to watch the USA play Italy in the World Cup. Soccer is really big here so televisions along the streets, in most of the restaurants and even at some point in the bus stops. Unfortunately the Czech Republic lost their game, but the USA tied Italy and will have a chance to advance to the next round.