Gondolas, Glaciers, and Goulash: The many joys of Innsbruck!

My trip to the Alps starts and ends with an 8 hour bus ride. We left on Thursday afternoon after school and arrived at the hostel in Innsbruck, Austria around 11pm. It was too bad that our drive into the Alps was in the dark, but we got to see our fill of the mountains during the weekend and on the drive back to Florence.

Friday morning I got up at 7am (a normal wake-up time for a ski day) and had breakfast in the hostel, they had Smacks cereal, yummy! Left the hostel at 8am and went to the rental place. The rentals were pretty cheap. I got skis, boots, poles, pants, and goggles for 2 days for 56 euros, not too bad. But the boots HURT so bad. I have never been in that much pain from skiing before. I tried to loosen the boots to make them more comfortable but that was really hard on my ankles. The skis were also too short. Nevertheless, it was all completely worth it, because I skied the ALPS! Anyways, it took about 2 hours for all 80 people to get their rentals and we had to leave together to get the mountain even though we were in two buses. Finally we made it to the mountain and got to ski! It was so much fun! I can’t imagine many things that would have been better than skiing. I felt so bad for all the kids on the program who never learned how to ski or snowboard so they either didn’t go on the trip to Austria or went but couldn’t ski. The mountain we went to that day was Axamer Lizum, and it was used during the 1964 Winter Olympics. Pretty sweet!

Had to take a picture of this before skiing down my first run.

I conquered that!

Snowbunny pose!



Innsbruck, home of the 1964 Winter Olympics, and here's the sign to prove it!

Friday night Peter (he is the travel director for Gonzaga-in-Florence and about the greatest person I know) arranged a group dinner for all of us that included Tyrolean dancers. The dancers were fantastic! The men wore lederhosen and the women had these beautiful dresses with full skirts that spun out as they twirled round. They danced so much! I do not know how they did not get tired! The girls spun around and never got dizzy and the men clapped and clopped and did some amazing high kicks! At one point they brought out a log, two axes and saw for the “Song of the Woodchopper.” The food at dinner was absolutely delicious too! And, it turns out that Innsbruck is Peter’s hometown. He was so happy during the dinner, and he really enjoyed showing us Innsbruck.

Peter said this was the song of the millers, hence the white hats and aprons.

Apple strudel!

Saturday there were two options, we could either go to Kitzbuhel to watch the World Cup Ski Race or go with Peter to Stubaier Gletscher, a 10,000 foot glacier for a second day of skiing. I went to the glacier and it was amazing! We had to take the public ski bus there so it took a long time to get there, but that was just part of the fun. It took almost 3 hours to get there because we had to make stops at other places and change buses once. The bus took us by the landing spot for paragliding. That was certainly a sight to see! Once we got to the glacier and rode the gondola up to the top it was like being on top of the world. All you could see for miles and miles and miles in every direction is mountains; it seems like they just go on forever. I’ve never seen anything like that before. The second day of skiing was so much better the first. We were completely above the tree line though, which is not at all like the skiing back home. I guess in the Alps it’s rare to ski below the tree line. But the snow was great; the runs were so fun and even though the dang rental boots hurt like heck, I was so happy to be there. Also, because of the ski race, there was almost no one on the mountain. Both days we almost never waited for a chairlift. I also had a pretty sweet wipeout that included a face plant into the snow and the “hike of shame” to get the ski that popped off 10 feet up the mountain!

Riding the gondola higher and higher.


This guy knows what's up.
On top of the glacier. It was the highest mountain around that area we all felt on top of the world from there.


After my sweet crash!

For dinner a group of us went downtown to a restaurant by the Golden Roof. (The Golden Roof is the most famous sight in Innsbruck, built by the Hapsburgs.) The dinner was again great. I had beef goulash with dumplings; along with a locally brewed beer. I wish this trip hadn’t been so short, we only got to see Innsbruck itself in the dark, and it was such a cool town. People from all over the world go to Innsbruck to ski and snowboard. I also think Dad and Nick would have loved it there, I so wish you guys could have been in Austria with me! I mean there was no one to make the hardboiled eggs that we need for skiing, right Dad? I did, however, out of habit have a candy bar in my pocket to let is freeze while I skied. But since we were getting to the mountain so late everyday I didn’t really need that 10:30 candy on the chairlift before lunch.

The Golden Roof



Enjoying my goulash and beer at the restaurant in downtown Innsbruck.

Sunday morning it was unfortunately time to pack up and head back to Florence. The drive through the mountains was absolutely breathtaking. All the little houses nestled up on the hills, it was like Heidi (sort of).

The bus ride was more eventful than normal. We had to stop in some town in northern Italy because a girl on the bus had to go to the hospital (she is okay now) and Federica from Student Life had to get off with her so it was just us and the bus driver for the second part of the trip. We also watched ConAir to fill up time.

I have decided that global warming sucks. All the postcards and pictures show snow in Innsbruck. There was none in town for us though. We had to go to such high elevations to get to the snow, even though it is January! I have heard that Europe is getting warmer more so than other places. But Dad told me that Oregon is having a really good snow year, so that is good news for us Oregonians!

Next weekend I am going to Venice for Carnevale!

I am pretty open this semester travel wise. Does anyone have any good suggestions for places that are not expensive to travel to? I want to go to Scotland. I am also hoping for Copenhagen, Denmark and maybe Switzerland or Munich. I also am going with my school to Southern France and Vienna, but I have a lot of open weekends right now.