It is really hard to describe the Arlberg. It is, in short, one of the most beautiful places i have ever visited. It is at the same time an absolutely huge about of fun!
The day, as i see it, is split into four parts. The first part involves getting up, having breakfast and hitting the slopes. This is great, i love this part, haha, who wouldn't?. After this comes the most important part of the day. And dont think im joking. Austrians take apres ski (after ski) as seriously as the skiing itself. There are some people who come to places like the Arlberg and watch the professional skiing at the start of the day (the week we were there the world championships were on - so cool to watch, even though you see a total of about 1.43 seconds of the skiers!), and then go to apres ski. Apres ski is difficult unless you have experienced it. Basically, at about 4 everyone knocks off and catches one of the last lifts up. They then ski halfway down the slope to one of two places (these are the most famous places in St Anton and really in the whole of the Arlberg), the places are the Krazy Kangaroo or the Mooserwirt. The Krazy Kangaroo, named by an australian who was learning and pissed off about the fact that in german, every 'c' is replaced with a 'k', is the place where most of the Australians in St Anton hang out. They played lots of Aussie music and it there were aussies everywhere! For that matter i was so surprised actually how many australians there are working in the Arlberg. It is incredible. I mean, there would be as many Australians here as Americans. Its so funny to listen in the lines to the lifts and hear the aussie accents and when they yell out to eachother, hearing a nice ugly 'G'day!'. I even bumped into a guy wearing a UTS rugby jersey! He was so surprised to hear that i was thinking of going to uni there next year!
However, the other place to go is Mooserwirt. Everyone starts to arrive here at about 4. There is a rule at the Mooserwirt - no shoes allowed. This is more of a safety thing. Every single person goes in with their ski boots on, and dancing with a thousand (quite literally!) other people with 10kg on their feet can get quite dangerous! I copped a boot in the knee and trust me, wear as much padding as you can to the Mooserwirt! But it really is so much fun. Everyone is dancing away in all their ski kit, jackets boots pants, the full monty! The music is atrociously bad, haha, but good fun all the same. DJ �tzi, as in the 'Hey, hey baby, oo, ah' song comes from Graz in Austria, and i can tell you that if you haven't heard the rest of his songs, you are missing out! Haha! One song which well encompasses how bad the music is, is 'SMS' by the Barcode Brothers. Those with Kazaa, make an effort to download it, it is worth a laugh! But it is not cheap, beers are at least �5, but i was lucky because i dont drink and water is free....haha.
Anyway, this finishes at 8 and everyone attempts to ski down the hill afterwards. This apparantly is the time when the most accidents occur. Haha, no wonder. The third part of the day is dinner, which strangely enough means nothing in the city but it very important when skiing, and then the last part involves going out again! It is a seriously full on day!
Paz