Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Brian and I definitely did! :) For the most part, we had a pretty low-key, relaxing weekend... But, on Saturday, we decided to take advantage of the fact that I can now travel outside of Germany, so we opted to go skiing in Austria... yay! What a great day for skiing it turned out to be! :)
We woke up very early Saturday morning (much to my dismay... :)) and headed to Austria. Brian likes to leave early so that we don't get caught in the excessive amounts of traffic that are also heading to popular ski resorts in the area. After driving for over an hour, we arrived at Schruns ski resort around 8:20 and we were up on the top of the mountain, heading for our first run by 9 a.m.... crazy! :) I told Brian that I didn't want to do any difficult runs considering that I wasn't familiar with the area... Plus, I noticed that the mountains in Austria were significantly bigger than the ones we skied on in Germany... yikes! Brian informed me that he was only going to take me on the easier runs, so I didn't have anything to worry about... Or so I thought! :) We got off the lift at our first hill, and I looked down to see the route we were going to ski down, and panic immediately took over!! I was looking down a hill that was larger than ANY hill I had ever skied down in my entire life... or at least that's what it felt like at that moment in time! :) I stood there speechless for a moment, just staring down the hill, trying to make sense of the whole situation... My legs were shaking uncontrollably and my heart was racing!! I looked at Brian and asked him where the easy slope was, to which his response was, "This is it".... Oh dear! That's when I realized the difference between easy slopes in Michigan and easy slopes in Austria... Literally, an easy slope in Austria is comparable to a black diamond slope in Michigan!! Now, those of you who know me, you know that I'm the type of skier that likes to ski down the easy slopes at a nice, leisurely pace, while taking in the scenery... I'm most definitely not a daredevil on skis! :)
Well, as much as I wanted to get back on the chair lift and ride it back down to the bottom of the mountain, I knew that wasn't possible... So, I took a few deep breaths, managed to get my legs to stop shaking, sucked up my fear, and took off down the mountain. Let's just say, I didn't look pretty or graceful on the way down, and I definitely didn't look like your typical skier.... But, I eventually made it down to the bottom in one piece... Yay! :) For the rest of the day, Brian showed me some techniques that helped me to feel more confident in my skiing... I'm very lucky to have such a understanding, supportive, and very patient husband! :) By the end of the day, I was feeling better about my skiing abilities, and I felt much more calm than I had in the beginning of the day... And, I'm happy to say that I only had 3 minor falls... woohoo! :) Now, I just have to keep practicing and hope that eventually I'll be able to make it to the medium level slopes here! :)
Overall, I really enjoyed our experience at Schruns, and I look forward to going back! The ski resort is huge and it's VERY nice! :) The scenery was amazing... There was a gorgeous view in every direction! We stopped at one of the smaller lodges for lunch, and the food was delicious! Brian had a piece of their infamous "apfel strudel mit sahne und vanille sosse" (apple strudel with whipped cream and vanilla sauce), and it definitely lived up to it's reputation... Mmm Mmm! :) Oh, and the lifts were all high-speed chair lifts... there were no "T-Bar" lifts anywhere... which definitely made my day! :) Although, I wasn't quite used to the "high-speed" of the chair lift, and my first time getting off of one turned into quite an event... It went faster than I was expecting, and before I could get my skis on the ground to ski off of the chair, I was suddenly being lifted back up and I was on my way back down the chair lift... uh oh! I ended up having to jump off... I have to admit though, I was quite impressed considering that I landed on my skis and proceeded to ski away after about a two-foot jump off of a speeding chair lift! :)
We ended up skiing most of the day, and by the time we left, we were both pretty sunburnt and very tired... The rest of the weekend was spent trying to recuperate. :) We had our friends Eva and Dominik over on Saturday night, and Sunday we spent cleaning, studying, and going to the gym... Oh, and we did a little experimenting with our espresso machine as well! :)
Well, I'm off to the grocery store and then I'm meeting my friend, Alex, for coffee at Cafe Aran... I'll leave you with some pictures of our Austrian Ski Trip. I've also posted all of them on our Shutterfly photo page (there's a link to it on the right-hand side of the blog), so if you're interested, take a look! :) I hope you all have a great Monday! Miss you much!
Getting ready for my first run of the day... This is after the initial panic attack! :)
The view on the way up the chair lift...
Brian and I taking the gondola up to the middle of the mountain... From there, we had to take a chair lift to the top of the mountain.
The middle lodge... This one is located half-way up the mountain...
This lodge is where we stopped for lunch... It's near the top of the mountain... It has delicious apple strudel! :)
Brian getting ready for his first run of the day...
At the bottom of the slope... Notice how far up the chair lift goes? It takes 10 minutes to get to the top from this point...
In the middle of one of the runs... Isn't the view gorgeous?!
Deep concentration... This was where I kept saying to myself, "Please don't fall. Please don't fall..." :)
This was taken towards the end of the day... When I was feeling a little more confident with my skiing abilities! :)
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