Eesti
Day 1 – Arrival to Vienna
After a quick flight, we arrived in Vienna around 8pm just in time to go out. We met the rest of the crew – 8 crazy Estonians (3 of which almost missed their flight because they were at the Airport bar), 1 French guy and 1 American girl. Between the jäger bombs (and the other crazy shots I can’t write about) at the infamous backpackers bar, the ice was quickly broken between the group. Arriving back to the hostel between 5 and 6 in the morning, we all had a quick nap before our 7:00 am wake up call.
Day 2 – Arrival at Zell am see
Sleeping through almost all of our alarms, we frantically awoke 30 minutes behind the schedule and barely made it to the train station. Thank god we had Liisa, who went on this ski trip the year before and did her Erasmus in Vienna, to direct us through the very complicated and confusing train station. Within 5 minutes of boarding the train, the organizers came through the aisle with morning beers and coolers. The 5 hour train was spent drinking, sleeping and admiring the beautiful views of the Austrian countryside and mountains from our windows. After arriving in our hotel in the late afternoon and settling in, we got ready for our first night social. The first night’s theme was sex change – all the girls dressed with ties and baggy clothes, and our boys slayed it with tight dresses that were a little too short. Shoutout (please pronounce with a Canadian accent) to our MVP Markus, who killed the night with a little black dress,a matching wig and a handbag and his signature sexy hair flip. Taking full advantage of the open bar, we ordered trays after trays of vodka lemons – our unofficial drink of the weekend.
Day 3 – First day on the slopes
A little bit of a late start to the morning, we arrived to the slopes with clear skies, +10 and perfect skiing conditions. The girls enjoyed a couple runs before retiring early, trading in their skis for beers. Around 4pm, we headed down to the bottom of the hill to the Après Ski, a cozy bar filled with drunk adults more than double our age. We spent the next two hours “Auf die Stoulen” (dancing on the benches), “die hände in die luft” and singing “Johnny Däpp” basically every other songt. That night’s theme was onesies or tight long johns with sunglasses if you were Kristo (aka The Scanner).
Day 4 – 2nd Day on the slopes
The girls along with Kris, Markus and Kristo arrived just before noon while the rest of the group headed to the slopes earlier to take advantage of the day. Just before lunch, Kris and Markus decided to lead the way… accidentally taking the group to a dead end at the hardest hill on the mountain, the “Black Mamba”. With the varying levels of skiing experience, this was a nightmare to some of the rustier skiers. After side stepping half the way down, Mari-anna decided she had had enough. A passerby took down her skis while she slid on her butt to the bottom. Proud of her accomplishments, we all celebrated it with more beer and chicken schnitzels. We continued the day skiing and rejoined for Après Ski round two. After 5 minutes and 1 beer, The Scanner made an appearance across the bar dancing with some pretty ladies on the table. “Johnny Däpp” became our new favourite song, we couldn’t go ten minutes without someone singing the catchy tune for the rest of the trip. That night’s social theme was Skype Interview (Formal on the top, boxers/pyjamas on the bottom). More trays of vodka lemons and no party in the room but room in the party.
Day 5 – The last day of skiing
Going a little too hard the night before, most of the group stayed at the hotel and continued to drink. Martin went solo skiing at the old mountain, and Kris, Marcus and Jackie headed to one only a 10 minute walk away. Full of fog you couldn’t see more than 10 feet in front of you. Martin almost skied off a cliff and Kris, Markus and Jackie took a wrong turn leading to a little Austrian restaurant cabin in the middle of the woods. After lunch, we realized the only way to get back to the hill was by a towing machine every 30 minutes. After 45 minutes the restaurant informed us that the machine had broken down. We hiked 800m with our skis and snowboard and arrived just in time to make our train back to Vienna. The train ride was filled with crazy stories and a hot debate on Trump over some Vana Tallinn. Arriving in the evening, we settled back in to our hostel and ate some delicious schawarmas. The 9 boys were in a room with a little Taiwanese woman who barely spoke English, and managed to convince her (basically in sign language) to switch rooms with Romain. We headed back to the backpackers bar, enjoying more jäger bombs and some chuck norris’.
Day 6 – Roaming around Vienna & home
In the morning, we sadly parted ways with our new favourite person, Maddie, the American teaching in Spain. The Estonians headed back at noon and we followed later that afternoon after a few good hours roaming in Vienna. The trip wasn’t only a great experience to see Austria and ski, but to meet an amazing group of people. We’re both looking forward to flying back from Canada just to do this trip again next year!
Jackie Muru & Matt Caputo
Photos: Liisa Maide
Editor: Kärt Mättikas
