Eurotrip Spring Break - Part 1: Innsbruck, Austria

What a fantastic spring break week! My sister visits from Africa, skiing the Alps, drinking great beer, cultural traditions, and religious pilgrimage experiences. Not to mention some interesting communication problems and of course, what European trip is complete without a few train confusions… And how lucky am I to have had my birthday on this trip as well?!

We left Venice on a train to Innsbruck, Austria – destination: skier heaven. As we approached the Tyrolean region of the Alps, I got more and more excited. The mountains loomed over us covered in pine trees and fresh powder. So serene and majestic, and we get to ski those! As we approached Innsbruck we could see lights high up on the mountains but it was so black that they just looked like they were floating. We could definitely identify the ski jump though!

We arrived at night and walked to our hostel (that makes it sound far easier than it actually was, because all I had was a google map print out, the address was #1 but the addresses on that street started at #7, carrying heavy backpacks with all of our ski clothes in them, and oh ya, we don’t speak a lick of German). I did however have the most amazing pumpkin soup at a tapas restaurant where we argued for about 5 minutes about the tipping custom in Austria… 

We spent some time Sunday just walking around, finally able to see the beautiful mountains that completely surround Innsbruck. We witnessed a grass fire on the river and watched that whole scenario go down for half an hour. Then we desperately searched for the tourist information shop that we had faintly recalled from the night before. Got some tourist maps from there and learned of the only ski rental place in town (clearly we’re not in Colorado anymore). 

So we went to the ski rental place. The guys there were awesome, and although I argued with them a little bit about the short skies they were trying to put me on, short being 150s instead of my usual 170s. Turns out that long skis on heavy powder like they have in Innsbruck would have been a nightmare. And the guys set us up with the ski bus schedule (free for anyone with ski equipment…terrific!) And then advised us on the best places to ski for the conditions and weather they were having. Thank god for the Die Boerse ski rental guys!

So we took our equipment back to the hostel, and I had a little Camelback mishap on the bed… And then we went out touring with a little more information from the tourist office. 

But of course, first we needed fancy flower-shaped gelato made by a very handsome Austrian guy who was more concerned about sculpting his gelato than the line of 20 people out the door. And for dessert… Chelsea needed some Austrian strudel, which was delicious by the way. Her excuse was always “hey we don’t have dessert in Ghana, I need to soak it all in while I can!” Fair enough.

We headed to the Hofburg Palace to see an exhibit on the Austrian Alpine Club. It was amazing, so much climbing history, fascinating protagonists, incredible experiments, courageous excursions, and cool equipment and instruments. I’ll share one of many quotes that gave me goosebumps and made me proud to be a fellow alpine enthusiast: “In combat sports you have competitors and rivals, but an alpinist knows rivalry and competition with just one person, and that is himself.”

We also did the permanent exhibit on Empress Maria Theresa and her extended family, as well as the royal palace which was only one of the family’s primary residences. The palace rooms were gorgeous, very bright and fancy, and quite the interesting family if I do say so myself.

Monday was our first ski day! We headed up to Kuhtai on the ski bus (they’re very organized and helpful about the bus system). It was a fairly overcast day with some snow, but we were told that Innsbruck being in the deep valley it is actually was doing far better when it came to snow conditions compared to the rest of Europe, lucky us! Some interesting ski differences: They printed off scannable plastic passes even just for the day, so no lift line ticket scanners, just metal-detector things that you pass through that activates the turnstyle. The tricky part is that if you go through too fast, the scanner-to-turnstyle activation doesn’t work fast enough and you get close-lined right at the hip...(first hand experience) OR, if you don’t go through fast enough the turnstyle bar comes right up between your legs, leaving you to take off a ski and climb back out, where of course you’ve been red-flagged as a hooligan and have to wait 10 minutes before your pass resets… (also first hand experience). After we went through the turn style on the first lift, there was a moving walkway just to get you the 8 feet from the turnstyle to the lift-loading spot (and I thought Americans were lazy).

And they have windshields that you can pull over the chairlift to shelter you in a little bubble from the snow and cold, neato!

We had fun skiing in all that power. We stopped at the Ski Hutte for some good soup and cappuccinos. Now this was a real old-style warming hut, at least 4 times smaller than even A-Basin’s smallest lodge. And sat next to the old timers looking epic in their plaid flannel drinking beers. 

 The sun did manage to peak out for a whole 15 minutes that afternoon. We then headed back to Innsbruck, took an hour to find a good dinner place, and then crashed pretty early - the beds in the hostel were ridiculously comfortable = perfect for post-skiing relaxation.

Tuesday we headed up to Stubaier Gletscher! Yup we skied a glacier! “The sun was shining and the powder bitchin!” as Dad used to say.

Although much more crowded than Kuhtai.

But awesome ski day, so much fresh powder to cut through, BREATHTAKING panoramas, good skiers to watch carve-it-up from the chair lifts, and lots of tree-free terrain to roam free.

This is another quote from the alpine club exhibit: “The skier has a new world: the downhill run, the reverse experience to maintain climbing, a paradoxically liberating experience of gravity, the effortless dance” I’m not so sure about “effortless” though, digging in to get through all that powder when you’re used to skating on ice is an exhausting workout!

We had to cut our day short in order to get back to Innsbruck and the train station. The city bus which stops in EVERY village on the way down, got a little aggravating in a rush. 

But we did pass by the Innsbruck, built in 1925 and used in the 1964 and 1972 Olympics. We ran to the rental place in full gear (btw it’s like 20 degrees hotter in the actually city). Ran to the hostel to pick up our bags, and ran to the train station. And on to Prague in Part 2!