\nNearly 90 years ago, on June 19th
\n1930, Romania’s football side went to Genoa in Italy to board ocean
\nliner Conte Verde bound for Montevideo. The Romanian delegation had
\ntraveled from Bucharest by train and we referred to their journey in
\nthe first part of this mini-series. So, our footballers now set out
\nto South America on board of a very luxurious liner, which Romanian
\nforward Rudi Wetzer described in his diary as a ‘Palace on Water’.
\n
\n<\/p>\n
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Conte
\nVerde was the biggest liner of that time and the trip was something
\nnew for most of the Romanian athletes, who were impressed by this
\nluxurious vessel. The exquisite travel conditions didn’t make up
\nfor our athletes’ sea sickness though, but they shortly managed to
\nfind an antidote to it, the food served on that liner. We are
\nbeing offered some fabulous dishes here and there is a lot of
\nfood available. We have 10, 20, 30 courses to choose from. Fruits,
\noranges, lemons and grapefruits, a billion vitamins, wrote
\nWetzer in his diary.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Footballers
\nfrom France and Belgium had also boarded the ship and athletes were
\ntraining on an almost daily basis, in the gym, the swimming pool,
\neven playing ball on the bridge. After these intense training
\nsessions, things got more relaxed. On June 25th, after the
\nship had passed the Equator, a party was organised on board.<\/p>\n
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\n
\n<\/p>\n
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Quoting
\nagain from Rudi Wetzer’s diary: ‘Our boys aren’t bad dancers
\nat all, although we are nearing the continent of rumba and tango. At
\nthe Equator Ball, Cupid made some victims among the members of our
\nteam. I believe we are in for another training session down there
\nin the hold.<\/p>\n
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\n
\n<\/p>\n
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The
\nfirst day of July came with bad weather and rain. It was like
\nNovember weather and the Romanians learnt the hard way that in the
\nsouthern hemisphere seasons are opposite. But that didn’t diminish
\ntheir enthusiasm though.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On
\nJuly 2nd, the ship moored in Montevideo, where the teams
\nwere given a warm welcome by thousands of people and gun salutes.
\nCopa del Mundo, which was dominating the city, commenced on July 13th
\nand Romania played their first game the next day. Stay tuned for more
\non this fabulous story in our next edition of our mini-series ‘Stories
\nfrom the Romanian sport’.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Way to Montevideo (II)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":120631,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40940],"tags":[41831,41830,34659,41832,41829],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-120715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","tag-conte","tag-equator","tag-montevideo","tag-verde","tag-wetzer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n