For something a little different this week I decided to learn to ski. I booked a tour through Topdeck since I figured it would be a lot easier if all I had to concentrate on was the skiing. I didn't want to bother finding what places were good to ski, and specifically good for beginners. Nor needing I worry about booking lessons and accommodation and all that. It wasn't all that cheap, but it was worth it. It was also over the week of Christmas, so I knew I would get to do something interesting for Christmas and spend it with people.

I arrived in Kirchdorf on Sunday afternoon and after wandering around for a while trying to figure out where the hotel was I eventually found it, got booked in and was ushered straight into the bar by the owner and asked what I wanted to drink. She was a great person, funny and always making sure we were drinking something. There was only one other person there at the time, but slowly more and more people started to show up. When everyone was there we had a quick meeting with our guide and then went and got all our ski gear sorted. Only me and two girls were actually doing the ski lessons. Everyone else decided to go for snowboarding. A few weren't doing lessons at all. Then when that was all sorted we were taken to one of the local pubs and had some more drink and some dinner.

Kirchdorf was an amazing little town. You could walk from one end to the other in maybe 30mins and the beginners slopes where we had our lessons were right at the edge of the town. There was a bunch of little restaurants and pubs and the like too. We spent plenty of time in those.

We had to be up at like 8 each morning to be at the slopes by 9 for our lessons. We met our ski instructor at the slopes, and awesome Aussie game called Jeff (the guy in the photo). First day was basically learning all the basics, we barely even went on a slope. I think the first thing I noticed when hopping on the skis is just whole slippery the snow is when you're on them. Second was how long they were and how easy it was to get tangled. But after a while I was getting the hang of it. Over the next 5 days I would eventually get to the point of going down from the top of the beginners area, which I guess is pretty much at least where I was hoping to be by the end of the lessons.

The lessons were always split between the morning and afternoon session with lunch between. Often we'd go to this little burger shack and get a burger and a beer. Beer was good for skiing because it loosened you up a bit and helped with the aching muscles. And boy did we have some aching muscles. There was one activity in particular that Jeff had us do which was absolutely killer. It was called the alpine position and it's basically the position you take when you're on a steep slope. You stand sideways on the slope with your knees bent slightly towards the mountain and all your wait put on your downhill ski. This is a position which allows you to stand on the side of a slop and not move. By itself this position isn't too bad. But when we were learning it, it was hot up the slope with the sun out and we were standing in that spot for about 30mins while he gave instruction and made sure everyone was doing correctly etc. And you couldn't even really shift your weight, because if you did, you lost the position and would start to move or could risk falling down the slope. Torture. It also didn't help that there wasn't actually a lot of powder on this slope, it was very icy. I wouldn't later realise holding this position on a proper slope with powder was far easier.

Unfortunately a missed one day of ski lessons, Christmas day. I was far too hungover to go skiing, so I just spent the day basically lounging around. Turns out in Austria they celebrate Christmas on Christmas eve. So we basically did too, had a big night. We had gone to a nearby town called Sankt Johann which was quite a bit larger. We had dinner there and then kicked on to a bar called Bunnies. Because of ski lessons I remember saying something like "I'll come, put in an appearance, maybe have a beer or two". That turned into many many more. The place was dead when we got there but picked up quite quickly. They had foosball, beer pong, and pool table and this hammer and nail game where you have to hammer a nail into a stump using the wrong side of the hammer. We ended up staying there very late. Then when we caught a cab home a bunch of us kicked on for a bit longer with a bottle of vodka, playing in the snow and on the swingset behind our hotel. Then when the vodka ran out we kicked on with some schnapps of various flavours such as mint and chocolate. There was really no surprise I was feeling pretty rubbish the next day. Honestly I was actually surprised I wasn't feeling a lot worse.

So Christmas day ended up quite uneventful, basically lounging around. When down to a restaurant for lunch if a few guys who were also have a rest day. That night however the hotel owner cooked us a delicious roast Christmas dinner. Unfortunately the next day was the ski race. All the people in each of the ski classes would race a slalom. Each level of class only racing against others in their own class. I say 'unfortunately' because I didn't get to participate because I had missed this day of lessons and hadn't yet gone up the slope far enough for where the race was beginning. The two girls from Topdeck who were also in my class also didn't participate due to missing the lesson. So Topdeck had no one representing them in this race. Was a shame because medals were given out, would have been a nice souvenir.

A couple of other activities we did on this tour were Curling and sledding. The Curling was amazing fun, though it was actual Curling but something similar. It was more like lawn bowls on ice. We didn't have the brooms or anything like that. There were two lanes so we split into 4 teams and played first to 3 wins. Then the two winning teams played off and the two losing teams played off. We flogged the other team in the first round and then came back from 2 -0 down to win against the other winning team to be the champions. Don't wanna toot my own horn too much, but I think my ten pin bowling experience came in real handy in this game. I didn't find it too hard to but the paddle thing pretty much exactly where I wanted it.

The sledding was insane. Basically they were these little wouldn't sleds which we got towed up to the top of a mountain on by a tractor. The we would sled down this run which was very dark and very curving. The only way to slow down was to put your feet down and the way to turn was to put just one foot down. These things picked up some pretty insane speed and were quite dangerous. There were a few stacks. We got to do two runs. I think most people definitely threw caution to the wind a bit on their second go. I know I certainly didn't and picked up a lot more speed than my first run. The last turn of the run was known as the wall of death. Basically because on the turn was a big wooden wall. Just before it was an orange flashing light letting you know it was coming up and to slow down. On my second run I didn't quite slow down quick enough, but I didn't manage to turn enough that instead of slamming into the wall I kinda rode up it a bit and back down around the turn. Was awesome! I think it was this night that we found ourselves in Bunnies again. This time there was some live music going on. Things didn't quite get as crazy as the last time.

The last day of skiing was one without lessons. So we went to Sankt Johann which was a larger slope, with proper runs. We only went down the easiest blue run, but man, so it so much more awesome that the stupid beginners slopes. We went down a few times. On the first time I stacked it plenty. But after that I was fun. I was really getting the hang of things. Too bad it was our last day of skiing, just as I was getting going. I did discover on this slope though the benefit of ski socks, which I had to buy. After just one run on a slope that had some length to it and actually had powder I couldn't even feel my feet. The view from this mountain was also amazing. Most of the photos I took on this trip were from there. I didn't really have much time to be taking many photos any other time.

Overall the tour was well worth it. Some of the most fun I've had in Europe so far. Skiing is awesome, and the people I met were amazing fun. Austria in general is a great country. I will definitely try to ski again at some point I think. When the tour was over I had to make my way to Munich to fly to Madrid where I was spending New Years.