Tuesday, March 5, 2013

A Weekend in the Alps

So anyone who is my friend on Facebook will have seen already that I spent last weekend in the Alps. I spent 2 days high on a mountaintop learning how to ski, and then successfully falling flat on my face going down the mountain. There really isn't much to say about the experience other than it was very warm as the sun was out, and the snow was perfect. I learned how to ski for the first time and to really test just how well I could perform, the first slope I went down was the Red difficulty. In Europe the scale goes Blue then Red then Black. For some reason we figured the Red would be the best to start with. Not to mention, we were in the clouds still because it hadn't cleared up yet. So not only was I skiing for the first time, but I was skiing for the first time down a difficult slope in the fog. And I successfully only fell once on it! After talking with some experienced skiers, they likened the Red slope to being approximately a Black Diamond. I guess I can take some solace in that and know that I did pretty well! As the weekend went on, I gradually became better and better. On Sunday, I happened to only fall once. Granted I was going much too fast down a slope that was way too steep and I hit a bump that was much too hard which resulted in my face stopping me much too fast.  Overall it was very very good and I had a fantastic time. There's no way to put it in words really.











































Day Trip Bratislava

So rather than sit around Vienna during weekends I decided to seize my time here in Vienna. That is why just over a week ago I hopped on a train for an hour or so and rode to nearby Slovakia. I figured it would be interesting to see Bratislava. I did not make any formal plans, nor did I have anyone to go with, or even a map to go off of. I was truly flying by the seat of my pants. when I arrived in Bratislava I figured I might as well just wander. Hopefully I would find a street that made its way into the city center. I guess it was my lucky day because I found one relatively quickly. After a long trudge through the now deepening snow in my regular tennis shoes (I was very prepared) I made it to the city center and saw a castle of the hilltop, Hrad. What a good place to start. The wall and grounds where quite nice, but the interior simply felt off. Everything felt too modern. It wasn't until I got to the last room of the exhibit did I find out that a series of fires had destroyed the complex and everything was relatively new. Thankfully everything is relatively nearby in Bratislava, so I made my way to St. Martins Cathedral. A good place to sit, collect my thoughts, and figure out where I would head next. I made my way around, checking out the working man statue, and then making my way to Michael's Gate. That was a much more intriguing museum. After some more wandering around the city looking around it was time to start heading back to the train station. With the weather and being winter, the day was quite short and I had a long walk ahead of me still. Shortly after, I was on the train and back to Vienna. A nice little adventure to add to my experience.