Ciao, Italia!

The alps

After another day of doing very little at all in an effort to recover in time for the snow, we left fair Bologna for Innsbruck in Austria. Alex decided to tag along and was rather excited about being able to ski the Austrian alps.

Innsbruck made an immediate impression with the city being smack bang in the middle of a whole bunch of snow-capped mountains. We took in the view for a few minutes then headed over to the hostel. For dinner we did the Austrian thing to do and cooked a bunch of sausages.

Italy overview

Days spent: 9 nights (4 nights in Rome, 5 nights in Bologna)
Sick days: 5
Gypsies stealing our McDonald's French Fries: 1
Times carded at pub/club: 0

Don't forget to bring your towel

Ok, so this is pretty much an exact recollection:

*last morning in Bologna*
Me: "Dave, don't forget your towel"
Me (thinking to self): "Hehe, would be funny if I ended up leaving my towel"

*first night in Innsbruck*
Me: "Ah crap"

But anyway, day 1 of snowboarding finally crept up on me and I was still feeling a bit crook. I managed to muster one run on a crappy hill before deciding that I'd just watch Dave and Alex fall while trying to learn to snowboard. The place we went to (Stubaier Gletscher, or Stubai Glacier) gave some good views, but I really couldn't judge it in terms of boarding due to what little I got done.

We got home after a really long bus trip where I got some much needed shut eye and decided to get some traditional Austrian cuisine. For me eating dinner was a good sign because I managed an entire chicken schnitzel (wiener schnitzel, hehe), which meant I must have been feeling much better. I slept early and awoke pumped up about riding that glacier.

Unfortunately, due to a lack of communication, we ended up at the wrong resort, which was a bit annoying since we had 5 days of gear hire at the glacier. Fortunately, we could use our ski pass there so we just bit the extra hire fee and spent the day at Axamer Lizum. Getting lost turned out to be a blessing in disguise for me because the resort was really nice, and the view from the top was spectacular. On the run down I had one of those moments where you go "yup, this is why I snowboard." It was great.

What wasn't so great was Dave falling hard on his back and snapping the wrist band on his watch (and he almost lost the watch too). We had more Austrian cuisine for dinner, and had it with Eve, the English backpacker from Alex's room, so lots of stories were shared and fun (and strudel) was had. I also managed to score a free towel from the hostel.

Austrian chicks are hot

That is all.

Adrian vs the Glacier, part 2!

Today I finally got to check out what this glacier business was all about. I must say I wasn't terribly impressed by it. This was probably due to the fact that it was a bit icy at points, and the bits that weren't icy had moguls because of the amount of skiiers (yes, they run rampant here like everywhere else). I'm hoping for a big dump tonight so we can see some freshies tomorrow.

The good news for today? We managed to get some money back from not using our gear yesterday. The bad news for today? Dave managed to injure himself even more by somehow spraining his ankle. Alex was a bit sore from falling a lot too. In contrast, I was totally fine. It seems that now I'm feeling good, the others are feeling bad.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Well the weather outside was frightful... but it meant some cover, at last. The snow on Monday didn't really bring a lot of powder to the glacier (though it was pretty to look at) but what was really impressive was the snow yesterday (Tuesday). I was skeptical that the glacier would get any decent cover at all, but I was proven wrong by the blizzard conditions yesterday, which brought about lots of powder on the mountain. It also meant a lot of the lifts were closed but that didn't matter cause I just kept doing the same run over and over againm, practicing switch and other stuff in the zero visibility powder-filled run. It was great and made the expensive trip worth it.

Today we arrived in Munich and it started snowing as soon as we checked into the hotel. Reminded me of "Weather With You" by Crowded House. I had a very nice kebab (kebabs in Germany seem to be infinitely more awesome - and more common! - than kebabs in Australia) and now we're figuring out what to do next.

Austria overview

Days spent: 6 nights
Snow bunnies: 0
Incredibly tall Austrian waitresses: 1
Times carded at pub/club: 0

Beer!

It seems to be a common theme here in Munich. Needless to say, lots of alcohol (mainly beer) was consumed over the past couple of days. Yesterday we did a walking tour of the city, which was very informative (and very cold). When the tour finished we checked out the Deutsches Museum, a rather impressive science and technology museum. I wish I could have spent an entire day there, because there was some really cool stuff on display.

We grabbed some dinner and a new SIM card before heading over to the Hofbräuhaus, the world-famous beer hall. We headed back to the hostel bar afterwards and crashed in the early hours of the morning after watching Kill Bill vol. 1.

Right now we're on the train to Hamburg and the seats are rather uncomfortable. I was a bit annoyed to find out that some people at the hostel had gotten tickets for the Bayern game tonight and were looking for takers. Two nights in Munich just wasn't enough. Oh well.

I still haven't had a hamburger...

Although hamburgers don't actually come from Hamburg, but anyway... Yesterday we had we were picked up by Finn and Jenny (Dave's distant cousins) at the Hauptbahnhof (central train station) then had stuffed baked potatoes for dinner. Now, this may not sound too filling nor exciting, but the potato was rather large, and the taste of the random stuffing was surprisingly good.

Afterwards, we decided to grab some beers from the supermarket (I love how beer is so cheap here) and drank them while looking at stellar night-time views of the lakeside (I love how you can drink in public here). We then headed to the Reeperbahn, the central spot for nightlife in St. Pauli. We hung out at a bar dedicated to Barbarella, suitably named Barbarabar. It got a bit too smoke-filled in there after a while, so I decided to walk down the street and grab some KFC and meet the others later on.

After we were reunited we had a quick stroll down Herbertstraße, the prostitution street of Hamburg, and reminded me a lot of the Red Light District in Amsterdam, only the girls here were a lot more attractive. It was amusing as usual, with the whole walking down a street with red lights and scantily clad women in windows thing.

We danced the night away in some clubs along the way to the harbour, which was fairly busy even in the wee hours of the morning. It was also an unexpectedly nice sight. We crashed at around 4 in the morning - we had to sleep early for the trip to see more of Dave's relatives.

We got up fairly early today - at 1 in the afternoon - then headed out to see the Seligers after a quick breakfast. We were promptly thwarted by a traffic jam on the autobahn caused by a 3-car prang. After passing the horrible-looking crash, we proceeded to cruise at a steady 140 km/h (gotta love how there's no speed limits). I think we reached 160 at one point, and it didn't even seem like we were going that fast. The Germans sure make good roads and cars to go on them.

We got to the Seliger residence at around 4 in the afternoon and had a late lunch. It was incredibly tasty and reminded me of one of my US grandmother's dishes. Dinner soon followed, but not before a short tour of the magnificent house ("old school" as I'd like to call it) and a few tunes courtesy of Finn and Paul (Jenni's boyfriend). I also played a bit, as did Dave.

We had a lengthy discussion during and after dinner about topics ranging from beer to bird flu. What followed was a great jam session from Finn and Paul and then photos. We finally headed back to Hamburg at around 9 pm. When we got back to Finn's place I was feeling rather tired, so I decided to opt out of another night out.

Right now I'm writing up this blog and checking out the schedule for Berlinale (the Berlin International Film Festival), since we might be able to catch a few flicks while we're there (and I hope we do).


That was a pretty lengthy update, and I don't know when I'll be able to update next so, 'til next time...