Ski Fahren

You know what I like most about living in Regensburg? The fact that it is right in the middle of Europe: How many people can say they just popped down to the Alps for a weekend of skiing during the middle of classes? Well, 9 of us did just that this past weekend, and what a weekend it was. It was absolutely incredible - for someone that has done the vast majority of his outdoorsy things in the southeast, the scenery of the Alps was truly unforgettable. Everyone, take a look at my pictures on facebook. If I can figure out how to post pictures on here, I'll put a few of may favorites up.

Even though I'm a novice skier (this was my 4th time ever skiing, spread out over a period of 7 or 8 years) I had a blast. The place we stayed was the guesthouse of a working farm, called Bauernhof Aufing. When we first arrived, having completed the easy commute by train and bus, we just went up and knocked on the front door of this farmhouse and they showed us where to go (after asking die Mutti, of course). Die Mutti (the mother) was this little old lady of probably ninety years that ran the place...we never heard her name, the other people there just referred to her as 'die Mutti.' Interesting. We basically had an entire house to ourselves - kitchen, living room, a few bedrooms and a few bathrooms. Nobody else was there for the majority of the weekend, which was wonderful.

As for the actual skiing, it was utterly incredible. The slopes were fantastic, a little crowed on Sunday but no matter. The scenery, as I've already stated, was majestically breathtaking. Nobody got seriously injured, though two people (including myself) took reasonably nasty falls. Considering that the alternative to skiing would have been studying for my vocabulary quiz today, it was certainly more fun. And probably more productive in the long run - I'm having a multi-cultural experience and travelling around Europe! (at least, thats what I'll tell myself when I see the quiz score....)

The little town we were in, Söll, was also incredibly idyllic. The only thing that one might not expect of an Austrian ski town is that it was basically like walking into the United Kingdom. All the ski hire places, all the bars we went to, and pretty much everything was run by Brits. Of course, this just made it easy for us non-native Deutsch speakers to communicate (since Austrian german has a very strange accent).

I'm probably going to go skiing again, but in Bavaria next time.

Auf Weidersehen!

German Word of the Day: das Gebüsch - the shrubbery