the hills are alive

so i went to austria last week. i went skiing in this little town relatively close to salzburg, except i forgot its name. oops!

anyhow,

10 THINGS THAT MADE MY TRIP:

10. w. and m. also known as fam. b's closest, dearest, funniest friends. came with and were rather much a blast to have around. i really really really had fun with them, although m. liked to tease me about boys.

9. stefan potzinger's traminer 2006. a.k.a. the wine that m. and n. ordered every night. so in our 6, 7ish days there, they consumed roughly 10 bottles. apparently, it was a really really good wine.

8. cnn. a.k.a. the only english channel on the austrian television network. thus, i am now an expert on the joys of the clinton/obama campaign trail, which, along with the u.s.a.'s falling dollar, seemed to be the only news in the world. wow.

7. ski boots. a.k.a. torture devices for my shins. although, by the last day, they were rather comfortable.

6. s. sharing my bed. every night. a.k.a. automatic lack of sleep. because as sweet as he can be, he likes cuddling, which would be fine if it wasn't painful (which it was as it usually meant jabbing a limb into my back).

5. food. especially wiener schnitzel. a.k.a. my downfall. there was sooooo much good food at the hotel where we stayed, i swear it was amazing. and mama, for the record, every morning i had a slice of bread, 2 slices of cheese, tomato/meat, and then fruit salad on three scoops of plain yogurt. so yes i ate my fruits and veggies.

4. ski lessons. a.k.a. the time of my life. 5 days, four hours a day. an all dutch (except for d. on day one and a. on day three) group. lots of fun. lots of insta-friends. lots of falling (but not by me! i only fell twice the WHOLE WEEK! yay!) lots of almost-sunburnt faces and sweet ski clothes (like my jacket, woot).

3. d. and his wife. a.k.a. this lovely british couple i met and befriended. d. was in my ski class and let me tell you was the life of the party day one. then he broke his toe and no longer came to ski class. sad. but i still saw him around. he was the epitome of the perfect older, sarcastic, hilarious british guy. i was his cheerleader. it was fun. she was lovely and funny and i rode the ski lift with her a few times.

2. kevin-whose-name-is-joel. a.k.a. my ski instructor. he's a canadian who's been in austria for eight years, and you have no idea how excited i was to see him. another canadian, guys! for real. unfortunately, despite knowing full well his name was joel, my brain refused to accept him as anything other than kevin, which led to me calling him kevin-whose-name-is-joel everytime i addressed him. which led to moments of me, screaming my way down a hill, yelling "kevin-whose-name-is-joel, i don't wanna die!" ah, entertainment.

1. the mountains. a.k.a. the glorys of the world. beautiful. just beautiful. i don't even have other words for how incredible they were.



p.s. it was exceptionally hot. in dutch we say bloedheet which is literally blood-hot. just think about that.