Blogging
From Abroad

So, the previous weeks I have been quite active all around Austria, my first week of Easter break was spent in the Dachstein region of Austria. It is actually 5 areas linked together by ski lifts and all accepting of the same lift pass. My friend Hannes informed me of this ski trip organized by the University Sports Institute (USI). It was amazingly cheap for what I got: just under 400 EUR for 6 days skiing, including choiced-out accommodations with breakfast and dinner all-inclusive.

READER BEWARE: MAGNIFICENT PHOTOS AHEAD!

The start of the trip was marked by warmer weather and rain on the mountain, but then we got a powder dump of around 30cm on Tuesday, and then further random powder the rest of the week!

The “pow pow” as we call it, made for quite some exciting rides. For me, it was my first time in pow pow on the telemark skis, quite a workout! It was most rewarding though to get “knee shots” and an occasional “thigh shot” (“shots” are when the pow pow smacks you in that particular area, initiating a natural high that cannot be put into words!). When one is on the telemark skis, it is most intuitive to get down low for pow pow “shots”.

This photo shows the ski area we most frequented, it seemed to be the highest in elevation, thereby receiving the most pow pow throughout the week. The brown cabin far out in the photo was where I had my lunch everyday: A large milk, germknodel (type of bread w/ plum jam inside, sitting in melted butter and covered in crushed poppy seeds -whoa! (-: ), 2 sandwiches made from the breakfast buffet and Milka chocolate for desert. I know, I know! Who eats like that daily, seriously!? I was always happy as a clam after lunch!

We had quite a nice daily routine going: delicious breakfast buffet (w/ sneaky sandwich making), ski hard, lunch hard, ski hard, relax at the sauna, sit down to an authentic Austrian dinner and an activity late in the evening. The USI organizers did an excellent job for us, each evening we had something different; discotek (electronic music w/ dancing), Austrian bowling, crossbow shooting, free gluhwein night (hot spiced wine) and wine tasting.

I considered myself most fortunate to wake up and see this in the morning, a lovely church on another powder day:

Gorgeous landscape viewed from the train back to Vienna:

Some cool videos also worth viewing:

Bye!