We spent last week skiing in both sunshine and snow in the fantastic Alpine resort of Soll, in Austria. Although Mandy and myself travelled alone we met Stuart, Mark and Sarah on the first night at what the Airtours reps described as, “A world famous Bar for complete nutters!”.
Exactly, simply a snowy version of the worst sports bar on the Mediterranean, complete with all the maddest travel rep one liners and crazy games.
Anyway, “Spot on” Stuart was doing a great job of learning to board which looks incredibly frustrating at the best of times. Mark had been boarding before and Sarah was obviously a good skier and quickly converted Mandy to Snowblades.
Having people to ski with made all the difference, both in terms of ideas about where to go, what to do when lost in a blizzard and company for lunches and Apre ski. It also meant that Mand didn’t have to spend too much time talking to me, a bit of welcome respite for her.The evenings were spent in the local bars drinking Jagertee, taking the piss out of each other and playing cards, fantastic. This where we met Neil and Wendy, a funny and genuinely likeable couple who also skied with us.
I’m afraid to say that none of us ventured back to the ‘Crazy’ Whiskey Mule Bar, the radical nature of the extreme sports dudes that hang out in those places was just too way out on the edge of a half pipe. Besides that, the inane nature of the relentless Euro Pop made my ears bleed and was testing enough on the piste, let alone off it.
This was by far one of the best holidays we’ve had, and just like when we went to India, was made by the genuine nature of the funny and warm people we met.
Cheers guys, you know who you are!