Back from Sedona, I just had enough time to repack my bags for a looong week in the Dominican Republic!
We went with friends who are part of The Swiss Soccer Club in NY. The club (not really a club, it's just one team) has a long standing tradition of going to the DR for a weekend (one member has a house there), lounging around for a bit and playing a friendly game against the local team.
It was a week of pure rest with Dani & Tamara at Villa Tahina. Elif joined us mid week and on Friday the others trickled in.
Now Elif, Dani and I were all born on the same day, April 4th, and we had decided to celebrate our birthday Friday night instead of on Saturday (to give Dani time to recover for the game). It turned out to be an epic weekend.
First we were invited for dinner to Jürg's place (team member who has a house there). He had prepared a fantastic buffet of Swiss food all by himself - it was incredible. After gorging ourselves, we all jumped into the pool and later moved on to a club next to our hotel.
By chance, Manuel's ex-colleague Marcel was kitesurfing near our beach, so he joined us for the party. Great fun!
The next day we all went for dinner at a restaurant run by a Swiss from Appenzell. The guy is a good friend of Jürg's and when he heard it was our birthday he brought out all his Swiss paraphernalia and had us 3 swinging 5Fr. pieces around bowls and the guys singing while he played the Alphorn. Very funny that!
On Sunday we had the match. Manuel had his five minutes of fame by scoring a goal! He does not play in the club, but as the heat was really getting to the guys on the field, he offered to help out by standing in so they could switch out and take a short rest. Lucky for them he did!
View from our lounge chairs on the beach
Going to dinner
Doing our best to keep the 5Fr. swinging
Part of the gang
The birthday trio
