Skiing in the Alps!

The pro skier Ashley finally fell!
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The weekend after London I was headed to the Swiss Alps! This time I went with Ashley and Maddie (the same girls as London) plus one of their room mates and 4 other girls from their program so there were 8 girls total. We booked our trip through EuroAdventures which is a company that plans trips and provides all your hostel accommodations and transportation.

We left on Thursday around 7 pm. Interlaken (the town in Switzerland) was about 7 or 8 hours on a bus from Florence so we had to prepare for a long night! We brought snacks and some boxed wine, (they literally have juice boxes of wine here in Florence and I know you’re thinking they are probably disgusting and not real wine like Franzia but you’re wrong because it’s Italy! They don’t have bad cheap wine!) but when we arrived there definitely weren’t bathrooms on the bus which could have posed a problem! There ended up being a lot of kids on this trip so there were 2 huge buses. I sat next to Ashley on the bus and we talked and listened to our I Pods for about an hour and then the guide popped in the movie “40 Year Old Virgin” and since I’d never seen it I was pretty excited! We ended up watching two more movies (Wedding Crashers and Super Troopers) which helped a lot since it passed the time. Surprisingly we only had to stop 3 times for bathrooms and dinner. We finally got there around 2 am!

Me and Ash on the bus ride there in our newly purchased Avaitor sunglasses...we need some sort of goggles!
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The hostel we stayed at was called The Funny Farm! A little scary but it wasn’t bad at all! They even had a huge traditional mountain Saint Bernard dog named Spliff! He was sooooo cute! All of us girls got one big room with our own private bathroom which is something you don’t always get at hostels! Since we were all so tired we decided just to pass out and get ready for the long day ahead of us!

We woke up around 7:30 am on Friday! Unbelievable but Ashley is a real diehard skier so she was pumped to be able to ski again! We had to take a bus to get to the ski rental place but it wasn’t far from the hostel. I’m actually glad we woke up so early because renting all the stuff took a long time and we definitely beat the rush. Since I obviously didn’t pack my ski gear we had to rent everything from jackets to pants to gloves and of course all the boots, poles, and skis. I bought a really cool hat though, it’s white and had a little Swiss flag on it!

Me and the hostel dog Spliff
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After we got all our gear fitted and ready we headed right down the road to the train station where you had to buy the lift tickets. We decided to do two days of skiing since there wasn’t much else to do! After we bought our lift tickets we had to take a train which brings you up to all the different parts of the mountain. The mountain was pretty big and the train routes were not easy to figure out. We ended up just getting off where a lot of people did and then we had to get in line for a huge gondola that takes you up to the real top of the mountain.

Ashley in her rented gear rarin to go!
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All of us packed onto this 50 person gondola! I was a little disappointed at first because on the gondola side of the mountain there was barely any snow so I got a little nervous but once you get to the top and look down on the other side I was amazed at how beautiful it was! Huge snow covered mountains all around and did I mention the sun was shining with no clouds in the sky? By far the prettiest place I have ever been in my life!

When we got off the gondola we snapped on our skis and I’m not going to lie I was a little nervous to ski with Ashley because I knew she was really good and I hadn’t skied since two ski seasons ago! The first run was nice and easy and long! It was a good place to start and it didn’t take very long to get back into the groove! I’m pretty sure I was smiling the entire time because how can you not? It’s a beautiful sunny day and the views surrounding you are breathtaking and you’re in the SWISS ALPS!!! We stopped for lunch and I bought what I thought was just a cheese sandwich but no it definitely had this weird mustard type sauce on it but it wasn’t bad! We hit the slopes again but this time we split up from the group a little because surprisingly me and Ashley and two of the other girls were more experienced and went a lot faster. Skiing again really got me pumped for next year in Boulder! I’m excited to get a ski pass and hopefully some new, more modern skis and hit the slopes like every weekend I can! It’s so relaxing!

Gettin ready to go skiing!
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The lifts close at 4:30 so we met back up with the other girls. Since Ashley is such the expert skier she taught us all about what she calls “après-skiing.” It’s apparently what she does all the time back in Colorado. You pretty much keep all your ski gear on and just head for the bars! Lucky for us our last run ended right in front of this very interesting bar! It was outside and the bar was inside a tee-pee. I didn’t even know they had tee-pees in Switzerland but I guess you learn new things everyday! We had a couple drinks there, but everyone was tired so we hopped on the train to head back home to the Funny Farm! Unfortunately since the trains were so difficult to figure out we got a little lost but eventually we found our way back!

View from the gondola ride up the mountain
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It was so nice just to be able to hang out in my sweat pants that night and drink a nice cold Swiss beer! We were all so tired that none of us showered and just headed down to the lobby to hang out! We had no one to impress! We ate some dinner and to no surprise were in bed by 10:30pm!

The next day we did pretty much the same thing, woke up around 7:30am, ate breakfast and headed for the slopes. This time we went to a different section of the mountain and Ash and I went off together to get some more skiing in! I only fell about 5 times total for both days which I was pretty impressed with! Half the time when I fell I was trying to race down the mountain so fast and apparently I thought I was Pecaboo Street or something! The only difference about the second day was that it snowed! It was so exciting to be able to experience both types of weather! Again at the end of the day we met up with the rest of the girls and we were all going to take the gondola back down the mountain but Ashley found a black run to go down and so she met us down at the bottom! Part of me wanted to go with her but it was icy and steep and I was tired so I backed out!

View from the top!
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This time we went into the little town after skiing and found a little sports bar to eat and drink at. It was cool because the restaurant looked over an indoor hockey rink and people were playing so we ha something to entertain us! We got back to our hostel a lot later this night and so we pretty much did the same thing as the night before, changed into sweat pants, got a beer, and ate a pizza! I think this night we didn’t go to bed until 11:30 or 12! Haha!

The original plan for the next day was supposed to be that Ashley was going to go ski for half the day by herself and I was going to go skydiving! Unfortunately the weather ended up sucking and so no skydiving for me (lucky Mom and Dad) and no skiing for her. We took the train up to the mountain though so we could walk around and shop in the cute little ski towns. For lunch we stopped in this little restaurant and I experienced my first fondue! I think I would have liked it more in a country other than Switzerland since their cheese literally stinks sooooo badly!

Another view from the top
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We headed back to the Funny Farm around 2 and the bus didn’t leave until 4 so we had some time to kill. I just hung out and did a little reading for class, so I looked like a dork reading my politics of the European Union book but no big deal! I’m pretty used to it! The bus ride home was terrible just like I imagined it would be! Especially since me, Ashley and Maddie were crammed in the last row of the bus with two other girls! To top it off we made the mistake of getting on the opposite bus we rode up on and so we watched the exact same 3 movies on the way home! The volume was so loud and it was so uncomfortable to try to sleep! We arrived back in Florence around midnight and I got back home safely. Luckily I could sleep in the next day since I don’t have class until 12:45!

Look at all the skiers!
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Next weekend is Prague…