Snowboarding in the Alps!

Time for another update on the Adventures of Emily in Europe! This weekend we had a long weekend because of Easter, and what would be more fun than a ski trip to Austria? Nothing, really. Well, snowboarding for me.. I've always wanted to try it and figured the Alps would be a pretty awesome place to go. We left Friday by train.. 3 trains and many hours later, we arrived in Schladming, Austria. I must say it is probably the cutest, quaintest little town I've ever been in. It's also where Arnold Schwarzenegger goes skiing, fyi. After such a long day we were of course hungry, and proceeded to supper. The hotel served a 5 course meal, much fancier than I'm used to for sure, but it was good. The soup was some of the best I've ever had in my life! In fact, it was better by far than any part of the meals. The first night we had a vegetable bouillon, then potato leak, and the last night a mediterranian vegetable. mmmmm!! Also that evening, I had the opportunity to watch a little bit of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in German. Now many would say, what's the point of watching a movie in a language you can't understand, but when you know the movie as well as I do, I knew what they were saying anyway.. so that was kinda cool.

Saturday we hit the ski shop to rent our gear, and I signed up for a beginners snowboarding lesson. Given that I've never snowboarded before and really know nothing about it, I figured it'd be a good idea. So my friend Josh said he'd help me get to the right place for my lesson and I could hang out there and play around on the easy slopes and he could get on with skiing, since he's good and knows what he's doing. Well, we went up the wrong mountain.. instead, we came to the top of a 1,800 some foot mountain full of intermediate and above level slopes with a beginner slope here and there. And I had to get back down to the bottom. Now, never having been on a snowboard, I was a bit intimidated.. and I fell.. a lot. One such fall, my best one, involved a bit of a role and what I at first thought was a broken arm, as I could not move it. Fortunately though, I was able to get back up and the pain subsided for awhile. After 3-3.5 hours, we made it to the bottom! I was so relieved! I made it back to where I needed to be not too late for my lesson and learned how it was done. By that time it was already 3:30, and having the morning I had had, I was ready to call it a day when we got to the bottom.

Talk about personal growth, haha! I was pretty proud of myself for making it all the way down that big mountain, knowing absolutely nothing about what I was doing. By the end of the day my legs were on fire and my whole body ached, but it was soooo much fun! I definitely want to go again. My instructer was impressed with what I had done and said I was a really fast learner, so that was encouraging as well.

Unfortunately, Saturday night I must have eaten something that didn't quite agree with me, because I got sick.. and even more unfortunately I didn't get to go snowboarding the second day, due to the fact I spent most of the morning throwing up.. which was not fun. But I was feeling better by Sunday afternoon, and was able to walk around the town. And Monday we headed back to Olomouc, and classes began again today. And that's it!