BATON ROUGE – The LSU Women’s Basketball team will embark on a 10-day foreign tour to Croatia and Greece this summer.
The trip will act as a study abroad type program as student-athletes will receive class credits for taking part in the cultural immersion experience throughout the voyage. Fans can make donations to the LSU Women’s Basketball Excellence Fund for the trip and there will be a LSU Fan Package for those wishing to join the Tigers in Europe, available mid-February. The trip will feature stops in the Croatian cities of Split and Dubrovnik and the Greek cities of Athens and Santorini.
LSU Athletics, International Programs, and the Center for Community Engagement, Learning and Leadership (CCELL) collaborated to build this study abroad opportunity for student-athletes. It is a chance to learn from an interdisciplinary perspective about the history of the countries, the region, and sports and social dynamics in both. Although dates and activities are still being finalized, the trip will commence towards the beginning of August.
The first leg of the journey will start on the eastern shore of Croatia in the city of Split on the Adriatic Sea. Split, the second largest city in Croatia, was founded in 295 AD by Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus and helped lay the foundation of what we know today as the Byzantine Empire in the East. LSU will go on a tour of ancient Split, learning about the city’s critical history, as well as visit the beach.
The team will bus nearly four hours to Dubrovnik, Croatia in the southern-most part of the country where the Tigers will go on a walking tour of the city that has gained significant notoriety for its scenic usage in HBO’s Game Of Thrones. The walled-in city is a maze of picturesque narrow streets and ancient architecture. While in Dubrovnik, the team will have the chance to take a cable car to the top Mount Srd that is part of the Dinaric Alps mountain range and provides onlookers a birds eye view of the city, one of the reasons for its role in protecting Dubrovnik from invaders. LSU will also go on a private Elaphiti Islands boat tour, just off the coast. There are a total of six islands and the experience leaves the tourist crowds in Dubrovnik and takes you to hidden coast caves and quaint towns known for their fresh seafood.
LSU will leave Dubrovnik and be on its way to Athens, Greece. While in the historic city, the Tigers will go on a bus tour of The Parthenon, the temple that was dedicated to the goddess Athena during the fifth Century BC. Following that tour, the team will have free time in the historical Athens neighborhood of Pláka, known as the “Neighborhood of the Gods” due to its proximity to the Acropolis and its many archaeological sites. For the second day in Athens, LSU will go on an Athenian Riviera beach tour before embarking on the final leg of its journey.
From Athens, LSU will fly to the island of Santorini for the final leg of its foreign tour. The island is known for its extraordinary beauty with a wild volcanic landscape the created rugged cliffs and its iconic white architecture. After the flight the team will go for a sunset catamaran dinner cruise. The final day of the trip will provide the team with free time to explore the island.