Maria Karlsson, right, in action against Liverpool in the FA Cup
I have had a very eventful week here in Doncaster. My parents came into town, and it was really nice to see them again. I had a great time showing them around Doncaster and having them meet the people I’ve gotten to know here. Unfortunately the weekend did not end very well when we lost against Liverpool in the FA Cup. We didn’t play to our potential, so Liverpool deserved to win this time. Hopefully this will make us hungry for revenge when the league starts. There is only a week and a half left until we play Lincoln, away April 13th.
Aine has been away with the national team this week, so Kylla and I had a week without our Irish friend and driver. Monday this week was an explorer day for us. We started the day with a run around Lake Side, an artificial lake outside town. When I’m here in England I really understand how privileged we are in Sweden with all our lakes and the sea. People look at me strangely when I ask
them where to swim in the summer. Apparently you don’t “go to swim in England.”
After the run, we passed our stadium, Keepmoat, before going to an outlet store next to the “lake” and there we had lunch in the sun. Then we walked to the Racecourse, something that Doncaster is very famous for, and after that we went in to town. For those of you who don’t know the distances, I can tell that there was a seven-hour walk, and we were not home until 8 p.m., an hour later then we first thought because I had forgotten to change my watch to summertime…
Another thing that we have done this week is a fundraising dinner with many companies and people from Doncaster. It was a very nice evening, with a three-course meal, a comedian, and to top it all off, Kylla won a Blackberry phone from an intense game of heads or tails. Through the weekend, we kept busy with football squash, meeting up with our teammate/tour guide Kasia in Sheffield, planning our summer, and so on.
Doncaster song so far: “Someone Like You” by Adele … which I play on repeat all day, every day.
Maria Karlsson is a defender for Doncaster Rovers Belles and the first Swedish international in the FA Women’s Super League.