Skiin with Norwegian (Bad Gastein, Austria 11-13)

Bad Gastein, Good skiing

This 2^nd ski excursion for me was far better than the first. To begin with, getting to the hostel didn’t require any nights spent in train stations. It did require two trains from Budapest, but the hostel was a convenient 80 meters from the train station and made for an easy find. I was in a 16 bed dorm so I was a little worried that it could prove challenging to meet people (I guess it kind of goes against logic, but I’ve found that when there are less people it is usually easier to meet somebody) but I met some norwegians almost as soon as I got there. There were 13 of them in a 4 month program in which they travel the world skiing and going through avalanche courses, and they were in Bad Gastein for 1 week. The next day I went skiing with them and I was very lucky that I did. To the tourist (which in this case was me – they were too, but had already been skiing there for 4 days) it didn’t look like there was much to the mountain. It was very steep, but narrow as well and from the gondola one could only see two actual runs on the entire face of the mountain. Luckily, these guys knew the secret stashes and we found some great fields of fresh, untouched powder. Not quite as deep as some of the stuff in Aspen, but fluffy, soft and b-e-a-utiful. I did have one consistent problem, however. Here were these hard core norwegians with the most up to date equipment – thick powder ski’s, revolutionary boots, the latest and greatest bindings, avalanche beacons, ect – and all I had were the most basic 26 euro rental ski’s.  The ‘basic’ skies had a deal with the hostel, which is why I was able to get them so cheaply for two days, if I had gone up to the ‘pro’ ski the price would have more than doubled.

Anyways, it wasn’t a huge deal until my ski’s started popping off like fire crackers on the 4^th of July. It took almost nothing, a tiny pump, thick powder, too much pressure, too much speed (meaning about 3 miles an hour) and off they would fly. Sometimes I would be going at a normal pace on a groomed run then I would see a ski careening down the mountain in front of me, look down, and notice that, “hey, I only have one ski on”. That first day I lost my ski’s a total of  20 times. No joke. And, of those 20, there was only one occasion that I can remember when they actually should have come off.

I have to admit that it was funny though and made for good conversation on the lifts and after skiing. Aside from the fact that I spent half of the day with no ski’s on, the norwegians were impressed with my skiing. They laughed at it, calling it “old school” – legs together, lots of tight turns; I have my mom and Uncle Tom to thank for that – but they couldn’t deny being a bit impressed. The second day of skiing was a bit better in terms of the losing the skies problem because I tightened the bindings as much as possible. All in all, however, it was too full days of skiing on stuff other than ice – the makings of any successful ski trip.

Bad Gastein is a small town that makes its money off of the tourist industry. I was there for three nights and didn’t meet so much as one Austrian. Everybody - the workers, the skiers - everybody was either Norwegian, Swedish or Danish; which I didn’t mind because they were all friendly and fluent in English. (Not only do they start learning it from a young age, but all of the American movies/tv shows that they watch have subtitles, meaning they are not dubbed. This is a stark contrast to countries like Spain in which all of the movies are dubbed over and the people are terrible at English). All of these Norwegians and Sweds and Danish people didn’t actually live there per say but were on vacation or renting out an apartment for the winter months, working the nights and skiing during the days.

It is nearing the end of my vacation! The plan is to be back in Sevilla by Sunday the 17^th. I think I technically have until Tuesday, but I am running out of things to do/the desire to do them. I didn’t decide until this very morning, but I am currently headed towards Venice. As of now I will only be there for one night, (after which I will start the long journey back to Spain, maybe with a night in France) but if I like the city and the hostel I will stay there for two and then head straight back to Spain.

I think that’s about it for now! I did have another glitch in my ever entertaining travels, but nothing too serious. My first train was about an hour late in arriving and when it eventually came I didn’t even see it until it was leaving. There were only two tracks, but a huge train had arrived on the track closest to me (track number one) and my train was supposed to come on track number one so I went to take a quick bathroom break, assuming that I still had some time. However, when I got out and the big train pulled out, and loe and behold there was my train on the other side (track 2) pulling out of the station as well. Even if I had seen it come in I don’t know how I would have gotten over there, because there was no underground passage way and the other train was so long that it would have taken me 5 minutes to walk around. Anyways, that forced me to wait another hour and a half and then catch a bus to Venice from the connecting station (because I missed the train). But I’m on the bus now! Should be in Venice in an hour and at my hostel in an hour and a half…. Keep your fingers crossed! Even though nobody will actually read this until I’m at my hostel being that I don’t have an internet connection….