I arrived at about 4 in the afternoon and was met by my family. It was a really strange feeling when i arrived back. I had only been living in Graz for aobut 2 weeks and when i arrived back it felt as though i was coming home, and i was happy to be home, which was even stranger. I think that is a good sign however, that i am really settled in! Anyway, i had a couple of hours to repack and get clean things and we headed off to the night train - at 10.30.
Now the night train is a great idea. I mean, it is about a 7 hour journey to the Arlberg so in theory, one should leave at about 11 at night, then arrive at 6 in the morning, having had a sleep on the train, ready for a big day on the slopes. Well, for me, the first parts worked, them being the parts where the train leaves at 11 and arrives at 6. The sleeping part, however, in no way works. I mean, i cant sleep on a plane unless i have had a sleeping tablet, and take that sort of feeling of inability to sleep, and add more bumps, a bright green light about 20cm from your eyes, people smoking, drinking and laughing just outside the cabin, and you have my experience. Nah, it wasn't that bad, it was just the fact that i could get no sleep for like, well 7 hours, so 7 cds later, we arrived at the arlberg, and faced the last part of the experience - an awesome day on the slopes, and despite the night before, this one was fulfilled.
After having hired the skis and seen the hotel and booked into lessons and gotten the skipass, we sat on the chairlift on the way up and i hoped like hell i remembered all that i had learnt ages ago, the last time i went skiing. Luckily when we got to the top i was pleasantly surprised to find that i had actually improved in my absence, and that i was skiing fine. After a few pointers from Konrad we tackled all the slopes. He then said to me, hey your doing really well, lets try something different. I hadn't realised that up until this point, we had been skiing on flat slopes. Not flat in the sense that they werent steep, they were, but smooth. We traversed a little to the next slope and i skied right to the edge to look over. Moguls, jumps and lots of bumps greeted me. Haha, i thought, no problems, i have seen this done on tellie, and all you need to do is stay really weak and flexible in the knees. Yes well, i should just say, it LOOKS easy on tellie. I built up an incredible amount of speed, overtook Konrad and flew down the slope. I was really doing well, until, well i suppose i wasnt weak enough in the knees, and launched myself of the end of this slope, luckily into a freshly dropped patch of powder. But hey, whats skiing without at least one big crash?
Paz