AUSTRIA, JAN 2005

Our first winter holiday!

People:

This trip was planned thanks to our friends Erwin and Kinga (E and K herewith, are serious travelers, they have both done Round the World trips) who were part of a group who made an annual ski pilgrimage to a resort in Austria ever since Libi had discovered this jewel of an apartment. The other members of the tour were Miki (also called Teacher Miki, for reasons obvious later) who works with Microsoft, his wife Valeria aka Vali, Miki who is a freelance translator, Zolt who works as a naturalist (enthusiastic bird watcher) for the Hungarian National Park in Debrecen, Lasci who works for the supermarket chain Cora, Zolt’s wife Erica who works in a hotel in Debrecen and Libi – the original finder of our retreat!! Most were enthusiastic skiers and wished to do a little hiking and photography.

Place:

A marvelous house at the foothills of the Alps in a picturesque little village called “Bruck an der Grossglocknerstrasse” near the famous ski resort town of Zell am See in the Salzburg district. The house had 2 self contained apartments to let – a smaller one with 2 bedrooms, a bathroom and kitchen and a bigger one with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and kitchen; all wonderfully shining clean and well equipped. Erwin, Kinga, Randhir and me were in the smaller apartment.

The landlady is a charming, very friendly lady named Helga Haderspöck. Bruck an der Grossglocknerstrasse means Bruck on the road to Grossglockner. Grossglockner is the highest mountain in Austria standing 3798m tall.

Food:

The arrangement was that we cook our own meals. We were on our own for breakfast. Lunch was usually on the move. For dinner, one couple per apartment would return early and make dinner for that apartment and all food would be carried over to the bigger apt in the evening and shared.

Our preparations :

We packed some ready to cook masala packets for our share of dinner, a bottle of champagne, some cartons of juice; deciding to buy fresh meat, milk, veggies, bread etc. in Bruck. We were supposed to hire ski costumes which require a little detail. To ski you need water-proof pants, jacket, gloves with some grip, goggles, ski boots, poles and of course skis. We had decided to rent ski boots and skis at the resort and pick up costumes in Budapest as they were cheaper here. But cheaper still meant a big dent on the pocket (especially when I was already skeptical about my interest in spending the holiday sliding on 2 horizontal poles!!! I mean, reflect!!!). So we decided to beg, borrow or steal. A couple of calls got me gloves, jacket and goggles from Randhir’s friend Piroshka; so I was set. Randhir had size issues!!! We called a few men we knew, but statistics will now reveal that big men in Hungary either dont ski or are shy about proclaiming it to the world. In consequence, we fell back on Plan B which was piecemeal borrowing from others who were getting some extra stuff with them.

We embark:

We had optimistically fixed an early afternoon departure on Friday 14 Jan, but since most people were working, we finally set off at 5.30pm from Budapest. Erwin and Kinga picked us up at our place. The rest of the people (Vali and Libi were to join us only on 18^th) were in 2 other cars which left independent of us. The drive to the border was uneventful. Since it was already dark when we left, I have no scenery to describe. Erwin did all the driving while Randhir and I contributed sparkling conversation from the back seat. The border had mile long queues for non-EU travelers and no waiting for EU ones. (Just for traveling in Europe, all Indians should campaign to be part of EU!!) Since we were cunningly seated in a car (full of) Hungarians, we boldly drove to the EU counters and submitted our passports. The Hungarian passports were barely glanced at but our Indian passports generated much excitement and merited long and detailed scrutiny by all guards in that cabin and no doubt won them the “Examiners of Most Exotic Passports of the Month” award hands down!!! Overall, we were through in 5 minutes and into Austria.

Despite the dark, we noted some landmarks that were pointed out by our escorts.

Within a few miles of the border is an Outlet mall where Hungarians (and probably Austrians) shop for designer labels at slightly less than regular astronomical prices. I was itching to get off and was informed it was past closing time; realized the sheer brilliance of the men in timing our departure from Budapest!!! Well, we women are known for our formidable oh-well-next-time attitude and onward we went. The quality of the motorway distinctly improved and we were shown lots of large, wide (about 6 lanes) overpasses which were built solely for animals to cross over!!!! One such overpass near Vienna seemed rather different and we were astounded to learn that it was the protruding part of a runway… what fun! I wanted to stay at the spot until a plane landed on top of me! The countryside was dotted with sleek, aerodynamic windmills that emitted intermittent red lights.

Brushing past Vienna, Linz, Salzburg, Bischofshofen (where we started seeing snow by the roadside and were we got our first glimpse of the Alps looming over us), we arrived at Bruck around 1.30am. The rest of the party had reached before us and after a round of introductions and tentative plans to ski the very next morning at 9am, we fell asleep.

15.01.05, Saturday

Must have been a glorious morning. If so all the beauty was lost on us as we straggled out of bed at 8.30am. All seemed quiet at the other apt, no sounds from E and K’s room and we sat pretty, congratulating ourselves on being up early. We were barely into our second cup of coffee and contemplating breakfast in the near future, when Teacher Miki knocked on our door, fully dressed and ready to leave in 5. The next I knew we were in the car munching on hastily put together sandwiches by Miki and Randhir trying to breathe in his borrowed ski pants, fit his hands in his borrowed gloves, zip up his borrowed jacket…..u get the idea! We went to the slopes called Kaprun. It had snowed heavily the previous week and no snowfall was expected over the next few days. It was 9AM, clear sunny morning and I was shaking at the prospect of skiing. Went up one level in the ski lift (did not admire any view……ok., never saw my surroundings till I gave up skiing which is now not very far off……no point keeping any suspense going…Will she? Wont she?), wishing all the time that I should have spent more time looking for a manual on skiing on the internet rather than reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula. So we (me, R, Lasci and T. Miki) went into the rental area. Teacher Miki had appointed himself our friend, philosopher and guide. Hence his nomenclature. (I see a dawn of comprehension on all your faces!!) The remainder headed off to do whatever skiers do.

We had to rent skis, poles and ski boots. So we filled forms stating we were beginners, our height and weight and waited in a queue. First we were given boots. These weigh about a kg each and are made of wood, albeit shiny and colourful (these are impressions mind, not solid facts!). Putting your foot into them is a test of

• how delicate ur ankles are
  
• do u really want to keep ur toes
  
• what percentage of ur body weight do the boots add up to? In my case, pretty signficant.
  

Now the boots are not just protection to your feet, but they must fit well ‘cos you can control the skis with them. So they gotta be snug, but the size that fits your feet perfectly are too inflexible to let your feet in! Murphy or his bretheren at work. So with size 40 boots clinging to my feet, I made my way to the ski counter in a gait like Gaint Robot’s. There I was told to take one of them off so the foothold on the ski could be adjusted to hold just that particular shoe. I swore and after much hopping around took one of, got the skis (which weighed as much), poles and hopped out to get myself together.

Now, I must mention that I had adequate encouragement to ski…….

• Randhir saying “Come on sweetie, it will be fun” in an or-else kind of tone.
  
• The friends who had seen my performance at ice skating saying “Of course, skiing’s easier. You have more than just a thin edge to balance on and the falls are not so painful!”
  

The best was from our absent flatmate who on a call from India quizzed me: Can you roller-skate? No? Cycle? No? Do ballet? No? And running out of options – Lie down in bed? Yes. Then it cant be tough. You are already half-way there!!!!

So out on the ice we went; in the flattish area outside the rental which sloped off on one side (we are at Level 1 already, remember). I can tell you I was already totally miserable. 7 layers of clothes, equipment which weighs enough to contribute further to your immobility and you are expected to sway gracefully downhill! It stretched my imagination so far you could hear the twang when it retracted!

Randhir and Lasci took all of 5 seconds of instruction and started doing their thing. I only saw them when they came back to clarify some niceties and T. Miki had to dig me into the ground to stop me from getting hysterical while he took his eyes off me and answered them. I learned to brake in 5 different ways, climb a hill sideways in the next 15 mins all the time panicking whenever I slid even 5 cms……even T. Miki pointed out how uncannily I managed to slide in the direction of the steep slope no matter which direction  I faced. Soon my lungs gave out and my knees started knocking with the intense pressure of keeping me up and I called it a day. I just wasnt having fun and refused to let my nerves dominate the rest of my holiday. T. Miki was a brilliant instructor but I was too much of a scaredy-cat.

Forgot to mention that the gang was such a regular on the slopes that they were equipped with walkie-talkies, today one was with E and one with T. Miki. We learnt E and K were on their way up, with plans of only hiking around the slopes that day, so I said I would wait for them and join them while shooing everybody else to go on to the next level and so forth. Randhir left with a very disappointed look on his face, I must say. But even that didnt mar the joy I now felt. I started to breathe again and looking around, saw that I was surrounded by peaks covered with snow in picture-postcard fashion! Wow!

E and K arrived and I put K in confusion by asking her if she would like to ski since I had already rented all the equipment and it was paid up for the day. After much debate, she took over my stuff and I set off sightseeing with Erwin.

We climbed two more levels in the ski lifts and went to the topmost stop. There we had a breathtaking view of mountaintops bathed in sunlight, glistening with snow, dotted with colorful skiers and a sky so vibrantly blue, I wanted to wrap myself in it! We trekked down a tunnel half a km long and reached a viewpoint from where the highest mountains circled around us with Grossglockner at the extreme left. It was now nearing 3pm and the shadows cast on the mountainsides created illusions of myriad shaped smooth sided bowls in the snow where there were actually sharp falls!!!! A queer feature of these mountains is that at the top, they get two-dimensional i.e. the sides flatten to meet in a sharp edge on top. Therefore, the range seems like an undulating knife-edge, sometimes white, sometimes brown, sometimes grey and even pink for a few minutes before sunset. Oh glory!!

Spent lots of time there and then had an exhausting trek uphill in the tunnel. At that altitude, you are fighting for oxygen anyway and it does not help that you have not kept up with strip-tease aerobics or yoga-with-ur-pets or whatever is “in” in New York these days!

We made our way leisurely down the slopes in the last lifts of the day at 4pm. At the bottom, we met up with the rest of the gang. R was completely thrilled with all the spills he had taken and was declared a natural by the expert skiers. Once on top, he had let everyone go their own way and experimented his way down, which filled me with a lot of admiration for him!!! All of us set off to the supermarket. E and K decided to cook that night from our apt. We shopped leisurely and returned to the apt for a hot bath, some rest and a great meal of Thai chicken soup and rice (courtesy E) and Hungarian fare (courtesy other apt) about 7.30pm. The gang was also into videotaping the day’s skiing by various people, which would then provide comic entertainment to the rest and material for introspection and improvement to the actor. The landlady, Helga, is a real gem. She sent up a miniatures collection of single malt whiskey for the men and bottles of wine for the women to greet us!!!! Chatted about this and that, drank a lot of wine, palinka, popped our champagne and went to bed around 10pm thoroughly exhausted.

16.01.05 Sunday

The scenery over the next few days followed the same pattern and was guaranteed to delight the senses no matter how long or how often u looked at it. Therefore, I will not go into repetitions. We were better prepared on Sunday morning (another bright sunny day). Randhir had decided not to ski and we went with the gang to the area named Schmittenhöhe closer to Zell am See. The skiers did their thing; we bought passes on the ski lifts, stopped at every level, and admired the scenery from all sides. A restful day. At the top is an open-air restaurant and bar playing blaring music (strikes a jarring note). We had our lunch there, trekked to another nearby peak, parked ourselves on the snowy slope on deck chairs in the sun with chilled beers and gazed in the distance at the completely frozen lake of Zell am See. It is about 3 times the size of Ulsoor Lake and looked like a plate of translucent glass covered it, with cracks shaped like ripples, giving the impression that the lake had frozen over in an instant as waves were rippling across its surface!

The last lifts down are at 4pm and if you miss those, you can only come down skiing. In addition, it starts getting dark by 4.30pm and the slopes start emptying and close at about 5pm. A few beginners in the group (Erica, Zolt, Kinga, and Lasci) have skied only a few times before and are comfortable on blue slopes only. The hierarchy of slopes is blue (beginner), red (intermediate) and black (expert). That evening the gang missed the last lift down and was forced to descend on skis and the last slope down was a red one. The beginners all came back with horror stories, had to be helped, and coaxed every step of the way down. Zolt had to be carried down on a snow-mobile (he was so tired), Lasci took a wrong turn and ended up at the base in Zell am See town (where he was rescued from a bar!!) and Kinga had lots of spills and took over an hour over the last slope, usually done in 10mins by ordinary skiers. As we waited at the base (we had made it to the last lift), it was great to see even 4-5 year olds skiing down the red slope with aplomb.

It was our turn to cook and we made Mutton Roganjosh with our trusty packet of spice, with rice. Randhir was chief chef and I was cleaning crew. Dinner at 8pm and our dish disappeared in minutes!!! We also had some Hungarian food from the other apartment and some wonderfully thin pancakes made by Lasci. We were introduced to the rules of a strategy board game called Risk, but were too tired to play that night.

17.01.05 Monday

Randhir decided to ski again and as they were headed to the same slopes as Sunday, I decided to take a day of rest and look around the village of Bruck. All set off by 9.30am. Had a leisurely shower, cleaned up the kitchen and set off to the railway station to enquire about trains to Salzburg. The station is a 10-minute walk and you cross over a stream that runs through the village. Stood for ages on the wooden bridge and watched mist curl up from the water. Was informed at the station of the timings and that tickets were applicable only to the next train, so we should buy just before our journey. There was no need for reservations.

Went to the church….. Beautiful altar. Walked back, going into little lanes and gazing at the stream from various bridges across it. Went to the supermarket, bought chicken (after much comic miming as I didn’t know the German word for chicken and to my dismay, the woman at the counter was among the only 2 non-English speaking persons I came across on this trip!!!), discovered a bus stop not far from our apartment giving us access to nearby towns. Returned to the apartment, which opens to a great view of the hills from the front room (which is kitchen cum dining room with large French windows leading out to a sloping lawn) and sat there with a book. By 2pm, R called to say he had had enough of skiing and was headed back. He had a great day, navigated a blue slope without a fall and the sum total of his injuries was a painful knee. We prepared for dinner and set off by bus (my German coming in useful) to Zell am See, 11 minute ride away. We walked over for a closer look at the frozen lake. At one edge, the water was still unfrozen and there were coots and two huge, white swans floating about. Found a little café and had hot Apfelstrudel with Vanilla Cream Sauce (absolutely yummy), bought some more for serving as dessert and caught the bus back.

The Chicken Curry with pita bread was again a giant hit. Apfelstrudel and assorted drinks later we settled to a game of Risk. I partnered with Lasci, Zolt with Randhir and the two Mikis completed the quartet. Unofficial treaties, suicidal attacks, discovery of new rules mid-game, Hungarian secret messages – all made the game absolutely hilarious. Lasci and me won by our cool and sound reasoning!!!!

18.01.05 Tuesday

We had high expectations of being able to catch the 8.30am train to Salzburg, but laziness won and we finally just made it to the train at 10.30. We reached Salzburg at noon. The journey was spectacular, the train comfortable. The tracks go through the mountains and we saw small icefalls (a frozen waterfall …it stands out bluish against the white snow) and trees coated on every individual twig with snow. On arrival, we enquired about R’s onward journey to Budapest and found that if he did not want to make 5 changes, his options were the train at 5.05pm or the next at 2am which required only one change at Vienna. We opted for 5pm and I found a train departing to Bruck at the same time. That gave us only 4 and half hours of sightseeing. We had erroneously planned for a stay until 9pm assuming there would be frequent trains to Budapest. So in a rush we bought bus tickets to the city-center and back, and a map.

The city center is beautiful, but we have lost interest in staring at buildings, I guess. Nature is so much more appealing. We went to the Cathedral Square, into the Cathedral, nearby to St. Peter’s abbey, admired the Hohensalzburg fortress (perched atop a hill) from below and decided to take a guided tour to squeeze in the most possible places. Had a nice lunch and boarded a van for 1 and half hour guided tour in which we were the only 2 participants. Went across the river Salzbach that had many beautiful small gulls migrated from Scandinavia. Drove past Mozart’s birthplace, building where he lived, couple of palaces and churches, theater, buildings built with their back to the cliff which have survived since the 15^th century, the lake and house where Sound of Music was filmed, Maria von Trapp’s Abbey (established around year 700, it is the oldest nunnery north of the Alps). Do not think we wanted to see more of the buildings anyway, so we were quite satisfied. Headed to the station by 4.45 and bid each other goodbye. Boarded my train to Bruck and was picked up by E at the station at 6.30pm. E had cooked Thai chicken curry and (as he jokingly remarked that it was because R had left!!) that was enough for both apartments and the other food was put away for the next day. We played another game of Risk that night. I was on my own and T.Miki won this time.

19.01.05 Wednesday

Fresh snow had fallen in the night. We had decided to do some hiking and set off to a nearby slope. We started a slow climb at about 200mts and were informed that trails ahead were closed due to expectations of snow that day. We decided to go a short distance and started climbing a narrow trail through the forest. The snow was a foot deep and climbing was tiring but fun. We stopped at a small waterfall called Kesselfall where many narrow streams joined to make a 20ft or so high fall. We continued to climb as the map indicated a reservoir about 0.7km from where we were. 2 hours after we had started, at 1370mts, we reached a landing. It was so cold that there were small boulders of pure ice here. Towering to our right was a huge icefall and the trail ended there. There was a funicular and we saw, from photos posted on the info booth there, that there moved on it a giant cabin, accommodating about 200 people which operated in summer and hoisted people to the top. Saw a huge circular man-made tunnel going down, barred by a wooden door, and had fun making weird noises and listening to distant echoes!!!!! The guys decided to climb further. Erica and I decided to head back. The journey down was easy and took us about 40 minutes and the guys followed us not long after. They had reached a dead end a few meters ahead but had shot beautiful pictures of large stalagmites and stalactites. It was now 2pm and we went to Zell am See for lunch. Had a nice Danish pastry, saw an ice sculpture in the square. Headed back for rest. Vali and Libi arrived and Libi moved into my room. Had dinner and then drove back to Zell am See for some partying. The well-known pub Crazy Daisy was filled with oldies so we walked around until we came to a place with thumping music. We entered (not before we had seen a sign outside that said “we are different”)!!!!!! The place did have guys with silver wigs, sparkly earrings, frilly fur coats!!!! There was also a regular crowd, so we stayed. The place was packed and we elbowed our way to the dance floor where E, K, Libi and I stayed only until midnight. The rest partied away until 2am.

20.1.05 Thursday

Woke up to find that the entire view from our front room had vanished. It was like changing the backdrop in a play…..Scene 1: Glorious snow clad peaks

Scene 2: Grey gloomy mists!!!!!!!!

Astounding! If you had just arrived that morning, you would have trouble believing there were mountains in the scenery. We could just see a few rooftops beyond our apt and the rest was grey.

The hardcore skiers decided to ski despite failing light, poor visibility and forecast of strong winds on the higher slopes. Peace lovers and beginners decided to spend the time indoors mostly, with very tentative plans of a walk later in the day.

All was peace and quiet. The intensity of snowfall increased through the day. By 2pm when we stepped out for a walk, the snowflakes were the size of Glucose biscuits (sorry, cant think of any other object!) putting it in the category of Heavy Snowfall. We (Erwin, Erica, Zolt, Vali and me) walked around the village for an hour. Mid way, I decided that it would be fun to eat fresh snow and the freshest it is, is when u catch it when it is still falling to the ground. The idea caught on and so for a few minutes, the inhabitants of Bruck were treated to a spectacle of 5 people running around with their tongues sticking out and staring at the sky!!! It was hilarious. However, by the time, we seriously started weighing strategies for the best way to catch the biggest snowflakes (the next logical step being formulating Rules of the Game), we realized we were outside a café and hot coffee suddenly displaced all other thoughts. The skiers arrived early as the slopes were closing down. It had snowed 10cm in 3 hours! I even tried my hand at shoveling snow on the short driveway of our apt. Tiring work. All those (light as) snowflakes sure add up good.

We had a relaxed evening. There were half-hearted suggestions of going dancing again but the roads were too treacherous and we were too warm and snug. Erwin, Kinga, Zolt, Miki, Libi and me settled for a few games of Cluedo. Great game albeit more serious. Crashed by around 2am.

21.01.05 Friday

Time to leave. Were set to depart by 10am. It was snowing heavily again and visibility was poor. The first hour was harrowing. Snowfall was a misnomer that day. It was so heavy and with the wind, it was more of a snowdrift. It blew right at our windscreen and rendered any object 20mts ahead invisible. Add to that slippery roads and we were in an adventure. There was a stream in a 50ft deep channel, which flowed alongside the road. Over the stream, from my window, it seemed that a river of snowflakes flowed steadily at eye level in the direction opposite to ours. Very mesmerizing and incredibly beautiful. The radio reported accidents on the motorways in Northern Austria due to black ice. However, after Salzburg, snowfall ceased and by the time we neared Vienna, it disappeared altogether. It was only visible on the distant mountains we had said good-bye to. The countryside was now green rolling hills dotted with cottages. Very serene after the violent weather we had left behind. Stopping for shopping at a giant mall near Vienna, for a meal etc. delayed our arrival into Budapest and I got home at 9pm, tired but supremely satisfied!