Bottom Surfing in the Austrian Alps

This is written so poorly... but... you get the gist.

It’s cliché, but really… the Austrian Alps are breathtaking. Julian and Maria had driven through the night… I was going on just a few hours of sleep… throughout the drive we were all struggling to stay awake in a sleep-deprived delirium… but when those jagged points in the horizon became looming peaks, which seemed to be just an arm’s length away… our excitement fed a new energy. As our car crept further along the winding roads that led deep into the mountains, I really couldn’t believe that I was there. Of course, I’m such a cornball and I had to start singing my version of the Sound of Music soundtrack.

Julian and Maria kept laughing at my child-like amazement: “Wow! This is… wow… I can’t believe… wow!... it’s so beautiful! C’mon… how?... why?... this is awesome!”

We drove straight to Maria’s friend’s mom’s house… an Austrian villa tucked away on white slopes speckled with patches of green… a the wide panorama of a mountainous terrain to greet you from every direction. Glorious, just glorius.

Antonia’s mom (Antonia is Maria’s friend), promptly fed us. Salad, liver soup and weinerschnitzle… a traditional Austrian meal! After the meal, we packed up and headed to Antonia’s little apartment. Where she lives actually isn’t so little. It used to be a school and two of the rooms have been converted into her own little apartment. She has relatives that live just across the hall in their apartment… at least, so I’ve been told. I never saw them once! I did hear them though… The schoolhouse set up means the guestbedroom for Julian, Maria and I was actually a classroom turned bedroom upstairs. It was quite cold at first… since, obviously they don’t heat the whole building because they’re not using the whole building. A space heater made the room a little warmer though (that is… when Julian didn’t turn it off!)… and Antonia supplied us with huge, thick comforters and soft fuzzy blankets. I’ll admit… the first night I crashed out on the sofa actually in Antonia’s apartment – it’s heated much more regularly and is quite toasty.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself. Before I crashed on Antonia’s couch that first night… we all went out for drinks at a bar that’s literally next door. I tried a traditional Austrian drink… again can’t remember what it’s called (I seriously need to write these things down), but it was a mix of white wine and soda water. Unfortunately, I started crashing at the bar… I was feeling exhausted. After everyone chatted a bit (save me… I was kind of a zombie), we headed to a club. I slept on the way there… which was probably a good 15 to 20 minute nap. The rest of the night at the club I was either way up or way down…. Dance dance dancing or ready to fall over my own feet I was so tired. Finally, at about midnight… Antonia took Maria, Julian and I back to her place… but, then she went back out with her other friends.

The next day we were all extremely antsy to hit the local ski resort. Everyone was so patient though as Antonia and I searched high and low for a way to get me online so I could send in some work that was up against a deadline. After several issues with the server, it worked thanks to Antonia’s friend! She was such a lifesaver and she made the rest of my day out on the slopes more enjoyable because she helped take care of the work, which would have stressed me out if it didn’t get sent. Again, so thankful for her help!

The ride up the mountain in the gondola was just phenomenal. Inching closer to the peaks, rising above the misty clouds and into a “blue heaven”, peering out over a majestic mountain range that stretched on for miles… sigh… there are no words…

So yeah, I then suddenly found myself at the very top of this mountain, with snowboard in hand… having no clue how to use it. I’ve been skiing before… but the last time was at least three years ago… and that was at puny Hidden Valley (there’s one small slope there). The last time I had been skiing on a mountain… sheesh… it must have been at least seven years ago if not more.

I put the snowboard on (thanks to Antonia who gave me the board, the boots, ski pants and a ski coat… Julian supplied the gloves… I mean how generous are these people??!!!)… but, man the board felt weird. I couldn’t separate my feet! For a split second I thought: ‘how in the world am I going to get down this mountain with my feet stuck together!’ But, just as quickly I threw that thought out of my head… because I knew thinking like that would get me nowhere fast.

So I just went for it… and fell… and struggled to get up with my feet attached to each other… and fell… struggled to get up with my feet attached to each other…. and fell… struggled to get up with my feet attached to each other… and then… I stayed up!... for about two minutes… then I fell. Then I stayed up!... for about 5 minutes… then I fell. But, at that point I was managing to snowboard more than I fell. And I actually had periods where I was really getting the hang of it… but just as I got all cocky confident… I would wipe out again. I wiped out bad twice in a row… ooooowww, my bum really hurt. That shook my confidence bad and I couldn’t stay up for more than 10 seconds, falling incessantly, for about 10 minutes straight. I had gotten the hang of it… and then suddenly I lost it!! Skiers and snowboarders were laughing at me as the whizzed past… within centimeters. That frustrated me. Antonia was helping us all along the way… being so incredibly patient. I was so grateful for that! We all decided to take a break at a lodge about midway down the mountain and eat. I had pancake soup (called something like Fritatten). It was… interesting. ; )

Then, back to the slopes. It took me about five to ten minutes to get the feel for it again… I was falling incessantly… again. But, then I got it… again. By then, it was nearing closing time at the ski resort so we had to head back down the rest of the mountain. Except, the only route we could take a lift to was a blue slope. Ah, perfect for a beginner such as myself. But, the entire way down I only wiped out three times! Now… I was certainly no pro. I haven’t learned to make an s-turn yet… so I could only steer with my left foot forward or turn my board sideways to slow down. But, I did snowboard! It was awesome! Now, I’m hooked. Next winter, I MUST live near the slopes so I can get my snowboard game on!!!!

The next day Julian and I wanted to hit the slopes again… but they were closed due to a big storm higher on the peaks. So, we had a great lunch in a famous resort town, Kihtzbul. Maria and Antonia had stayed behind to go shopping. The rest of the afternoon and evening we all just chilled out… holed up in our Austrian Alps retreat. I kept gushing thanks to Maria, Antonia and Julian for making this amazingly awesome trip a surprise reality for me… It was good times!

I didn’t think it could get any better or that these guys could do anything else for me… they had already done so much! But, then Maria and Julian informed me they would go ahead and drive me to Salzburg so I could get a cheaper train from there to my next stop: Graz. Maria also set me up with a discount card that gives you 50 percent off any train ticket to anywhere in Austria and 25 percent off any ticket from a neighboring country and back. The amount I saved on the first ticket paid for the cost of the discount card… so just with my first ticket, the discount card had paid for itself. I would have never known about it if it weren’t for Maria. Maria’s nonchalant generosity and help is just stunning. She’s an incredible woman.

So yeah, we made it to Salzburg (I sang in the car the entire way… the soundtrack to the Sound of Music and Disney songs from Beauty and the Beast, the Little Mermaid and Aladdin. Julian and Maria were really good sports and just laughed at my childish joy… they didn’t complain about my singing. What troopers!) From there I caught a train to Graz… but now without my new poster that Julian slid down the car of the train to me as a last minute surprise, he jumping off, as the train moved away from the platform. I had no clue what was going on… but had to laugh when I pulled the poster out of the tube and saw that it was the Sound of Music. Julian loves to do things like that… what a quality to have! The Sound of Music was shot in Salzburg… and I must come back to go on the tour!

But, in the meantime, I managed to become friends with the chief of the train to Graz. We shared a beer, stories of fusbol (soccer) and philosophies on life. Then, he drove me from the train station to my host’s house… the house of a woman in Graz, Austria. I had made arrangements even before the start of this whole travel adventure to stay with the woman, Claudia, and her daughter, Lisa. The trade off was free lodging for an extended period of time in exchange for exposing Lisa to English and watching her occasionally from time to time.

Claudia and Lisa are great. Claudia and I are so much alike, but Claudia’s adventures greatly surpass mine. She’s had a life full of brave and exciting experiences. But, those are her experiences to tell. I will just say this… this woman truly shares the same spirit for life and adventure as I do. And… she has now raised the bar for me… I’ve got to catch up and really start taking on some adventures. Europe has been an absolute dream… but, it’s still Western, and still rather “safe and protected.” The more she shared with me… the more the call stirred within me to go discover my own wilder adventures.

The plan was to stay with Claudia for about two weeks… and see how things went for both of us. I would then go travel around Europe more, visit a few friends for a couple weeks… and if things worked out with Claudia, Lisa and I… I would come back and stay longer.

But I think only a day and a half passed… before all that changed. So… can you guess where in the world is Laura off to next???