.Skiing in the Alps.
 

“Good Morning Australia” was how I was greeted every morning by the Swedes working in the ski hire shop. I was clearly the odd one out, a rare spotted specimen high up in the Alps…  

Anything that is your first time deserves a blog post… and when it’s skiing for the first time and in the Alps in Italy, I can only do the trip justice by writing about it.

As an EU citizen most flight companies will allow someone to fly with just a normal identification card, but not Easy Jet. And so as Jakob (my boyfriend) learnt, even though the EU has created ‘open boarders’, always bring your passport ‘just in case’. Back to Sweden he went until Monday night when he could book on the next available flight (it was Friday morning…)

So without Jakob who had been anticipating the trip for weeks, I boarded the plane to Milan with his parents and aunt. Thank goodness for our close relationship and many trips away together before, otherwise the plane trip could have been quite awkward, but it wasn’t… rather I just got all the attention from his parents that he should have been getting!

Day 1 of the skiing and I was glad Jakob had forgotten his passport. My Italian instructor was a big cutie and although teaching me the basics, he decided I picked it up too easily and so he spent the rest of the lesson teaching my how to drink Cafe Machiatto “Italian Style” (just a lot of sugar!)

Waking up in the apartment all to myself was lonely on Day 2 but knowing at 9am I was to meet Guilleamo, there was no reason not to get out of bed! It is amazing the way we can develop skills so easily. In just 24 hours I had gone from the ski school slopes that I once thought were steep, to being able to go on tours all over the ski system.

Jakob and Lisa finally arrived and on day 3 we were a full team… but I still had to have just a couple more hours with Guilleamo (I didn’t need it, but he wanted to show me a really cool coffee place) so another 70 euros later, I spent a couple of hours chatting and having a great time with my new Italian friend.

The food was sensational! Even 3000 metres up, the soups and pastas were of the greatest standards. It doesn’t quite make sense to me how they can be so good up on the pists- maybe it’s because lunch was always accompanied by a glass of wine or Bombardino (a yellow warm liqueur with cream and cocoa on top).

Day 4 and I understood the whole “you’re not going to be cold when skiing” thing. Sunbaking in the alps!? I didn’t think it was actually possible, but the sun was so bright and beautifully warming. It was the first time I really got to appreciate the views and exactly where we were in the world and it was something very special!

The rest of the week didn’t bring the best sunshine but it didn’t matter, I had to experience it ‘warts and all’ and so while stuck in a snow storm after falling over and trying to put my ski back on even though my boot was covered in snow, I really got the picture of everything skiing is.

It’s a balance in the greatest amount. It's warm yet cold, it's active and exercise, yet unconditionally relaxing, it's utter preparation with the correct ski gear and its total unpreperation for what the mountains can bring, it's food and alcohol and it’s a time to all be together, whether in the long ski lifts that can last 5 minutes or of a night time when its only 9pm but everyone is ready for bed.

Here’s to skiing and here’s to not making it one of those ‘once in a lifetime opportunities’.

Note to self: Pretend you don’t know how to ski at the start of every ski holiday… Guilleamo will help you out ;)