While I am at home and going slowly insane from boredom, it seems as good a time as any to tell you about Austria, even though it will take me forever to type, being as I am the one-armed bandit today. *sigh* Well, what else are you going to do, hey?
All photos found Here.
It was actually a really lovely trip. I went with Jason, Richard, Martin, Rachael (cousin of Richard’s), Nicole (friend of Rachael’s) and Mark (workmate of Richard’s). We left from the newly re-vamped St. Pancras station with everyone except Martin, who was meeting us in Cologne, and with the addition of Hilary, who was coming with us for the first night to see New Model Army in concert. There’s a lovely giant statue at the station of a couple saying goodbye, and apparently a clock that used to be the focus of all fond farewells from the olden days. I was deathly afraid that we’d miss the train (being as I am a tad prone to the need to be on time), as both Richard and Mark were very late arriving. But we did make it. No time to take a breath, but we all got on the train, which was a good start… ich.
A brief stop-over in Brussels allowed us to have a drink at the Murphy’s Law Irish Pub…. hummm. I was hoping it wasn’t to be the theme for the week.
Then it was onto Koln (Cologne) in Germany for a night stop-over. Rich, Jase, Hilary and Martin went off to the NMA gig and Rach and Nic went off to their hostel, leaving Mark and I to wander around the Christmas Markets and get very deeply inebriated on Eierpunch (alcoholic eggnog) and Gluhvine (mulled wine). The night was fun. The next morning however, was not fun. Stoopid Kat.
Nine hour lovely and sedate train journey with hang-over, followed by 20 minute insanely scary cab ride with car-sickness later and we’re in the Snow… wow. Solden is a very large ski-resort. We could have skied up to our door were we of a mind to. We tromped through snow to get to the restaurant for dinner. I slipped on some ice and fell into the snow after dinner. Wow wow wow. Excitement all a bit much. Crash into bed and zzzzz
Day 1: Fitting and hiring of gear which was highly amusing (note to self, next time, make sure that you can’t move your heel up or down in the shoe – if you can, it’s too loose and you’ll get cramps), booking of lessons for the day after Christmas (ouch… money is fleeing me!), a gondola ride up and up and up and up and up (literally breath-taking and so very beautiful), a few terrified first slides down the smallest of beginners slopes, then a mad-dash back into town and through the grocery store to buy everything we may need for the next few days whilst shop assistants looked at us with daggers as we made them close the store late…oops. Dinner in the apartment and games after.
Day 2: Christmas calls home (*sniff* miss you guys!), back up to the slopes for more practice (bend ze knees!), back home to shower and change (bruises… when did I get bruises?). And then, it was Christmas time. Rachael and Nicole absolutely out-did themselves. With next to no supplies, no oven and very little time, they produced a scrumptious feast for us all. Pot-roast chickens, zucchini, carrots, brussel sprouts and potatoes made a yummy, if somewhat odd, Christmas dinner, followed by cakes galore (pudding isn’t on the menu for Austrian’s at Christmas – my one regret!) and they even had Tim Tams. Thanks guys. It was really lovely!
Day 3: First day of lessons. Ouch. Between the discovery of muscles I didn’t know I had and one’s I’ve never even heard of before, the continuous burning of cramps in calves, shins and thighs, and the amount of time I spent sitting on snow, flailing in frozen mid-air and landing hard on ice… I mean, OUCH! I did learn that my arms weren’t strong enough for me to get up on my back edge, and my knees didn’t like getting up on front edge, so I was kind of stuffed, but I persevered, and apart from one nasty fall when I winded myself, I actually managed to sort of snowboard down a blue slope with the group by the end of the day. Yay.
Day 4: Day two of lessons was stopping, cornering and turns… scary as hell. I failed entirely at turns. Just too damn scared to do it. It’s counter-intuitive; you have to lean DOWN slope when you’re going down hill and all I think of was crashing face-first at speed. I couldn’t get over that fear. I did manage to sort of master corners a little, and I could stop myself by going up hill, as long as I wasn’t going too fast, but by lunch time, all my stamina, all my energy was gone and I was running on adrenalin alone… I fell mid-afternoon. Badly. Sprained my wrist and so that was the end of lessons for me.
Day 5: Sightseeing! Was kind of glad for the excuse actually. I did want to see a little of Solden before I left, and so did so. The views were… Magnificent, spectacular, breath-taking... It’s so cheesy, but it’s so true. wow. It was really gorgeous. We all got together and had dinner at a traditional Austrian restaurant, which was lovely, if a little strange, with stuffed animals perched everywhere.
Then it was another nine-hour train ride back to Koln for another night’s stop-over (hoar frost is really beautiful), and a day of sight-seeing in Koln itself… which I strangely forgot to take photos of… and then back home to London. And sadness, because I didn’t want it to end.
I will master turns. I will become a snowboarder. I was in loads of pain from all the falls but I was exhilarated by the speed and the danger, and I had very sore muscles but a feeling of deep satisfaction that I’d stretched myself so far and had actually used my body. And it felt good too - healthy. And the air! It is crystal clear and so clean!
I want to go back, after I’ve healed of course, but I want to go again. That was fun! Suicidal, but fun!
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