For my vinter ferie (winter vacation), my host family took me on a trip to Bad Hofgastein, in Salzburg, Austria! And boy am I lucky! I can't begin to describe the experience so much like with my last post, I'll let the pictures do the lion's share of expressing, and add my comments as I go!
Morning of the first day! I wasn't able to get any sleep the night before and stayed up from the previous evening right until we got into the car to leave! I was that excited. This picture is of the German morning, resplendent with crimson sunrises and windmills galore!
Miraculously, the seventeen hour drive was very serendipitous even having to sit next to my pain of a host brother. (just kidding!)
As you can see, we got along splendidly.
Frederik also showed me how to train to make my muscles huge! Very few reps, mostly training at what I guess would be threshold? Don't quote me on that, but either way, my arms and shoulders were really sore the next morning!
First view of an Austrian town with the beginnings of mountains in the distance!
MOUNTAINS! SNOW! AHHHH! We had to drive through several mountains to get to Bad Hofgastein, so I got to see plenty of peaks!
Host brother and exchange student, both happy to finally (finally) be where the snowy things are! Snowballs may have been thrown. Allegedly. :)
Day 1 of Skiing! Clear skies, no wind, great conditions for skiing and picture-taking!
The three lads at the top of the mountain, raring to go!
Spectacular views like this one couldn't possibly be made better!
Unless you add in this handsome devil, naturally!
Taking panorama shots of the mountains takes skill, timing, and a good camera. I had none of these, and look how well the picture turned out!
Me and Mette were all smiles, especially since we had such great weather and views!
And here we are, a great first day of skiing accomplished, enjoying the tradition of After Ski, with some friends of my host family's! Warm hot cocoa (with just a little Stroh rum) and cookies!
I found the "Beginner's Trail," as this is the only run (I skied on, at any rate) on the entire mountain where no matter how much one stays in a racing tuck, eventually it's necessary to use your poles and/or skate with your skis to make it to the end of the run.
And on the third day, my pants rose to snow pants heaven, whatever that is. Luckily, Bent helped me stitch this decrepit pair of zipperless wonders into a passable covering until we finished up with skiing for the day. Later, I procured a snazzy pair of green snow pants!
Beautiful morning sun and light fog on the fourth day!
These views!
Avalanche! Or at least, the evidence of one. Don't worry mom, no avalanches happened on the trails while I was skiing.
Inside of one of the many ski lodges
I didn't take wind into consideration recording the above video, but if you couldn't tell, I'm really happy, and expressing my gratitude for the amazing and awesome opportunity that my host family and my real family have given me on this exchange!
More beauteous views of the mountain range!
A perfect way to end the day? I certainly think so.
The last day wasn't great, weather-wise, but some great skiing was had!
-Callum
(figured I've waited long enough on this one. Hope you enjoy the vids and pics! I might write more about this later. There's still a bunch of stuff I could make posts about!)
