There is something quite wonderful about putting on all your snowboarding gear, boots, helmet, gloves, the whole lot, grabbing your board and walking out your front door to go snowboarding. I mean this is the same place that you leave to go to work or do the shopping not a bed and breakfast or apartment in the Alps, but your home. We did that this morning. Got up early, got kitted up and jumped on the U Bahn. 12 minutes later we are at the bus terminal handing over our snow boards to a kind fellow, proffering our tickets and asking which bus we should get on. A few minutes later we are tucked up in our seats and the bus is rolling out of Munich. We couldn't believe the stuff they kept handing out to the passengers. Successively we each received.
A small back pack and a towel.
Fresh coffee and croissant (we were a bit disappointed as the brochure said we would get bretzel)
Lip Balm
Sun screen
Packet of tissues
Snow board wax
A bottle of Juice
A bottle of water
Vitamin C sweets
News paper
Can of RedBull
About an hour later when we were laden down with our newly acquired possessions the bloke came around to check the tickets. It was then that we found that we were on the wrong bus with the wrong ski company heading to the wrong ski field. At moments like these it pays to keep your perspective on things. After all it was an innocent mistake and the man now telling us we were on the wrong bus was that same man that directed us to get on the bus in the first place. Kein problem. A few calls are made and we are told that we will be dropped off at the correct ski field which is 10 minutes from the wrong ski field where the correct ski company will be waiting for us with our ski passes and bretzels. They didn't even insist that we regurgitate our croissants and coffee and hand all the free stuff back.
Hochzillertal has 171 km of piste and today there was about 17,100 people skiing them. It was cold, about -5°, not gimp mask cold but getting close. The pistes were hard packed and crowded. Neither Annika or I could find our snow boarding groove that morning and we kept heading further up the mountain hoping to get away from the crowds. To give an example of how crowed it was, getting onto a gondola was like Tokyo subway, the attendants were literally pushing people in to ensure that each cabin had it's maximum capacity. We managed to find a run that we both liked and spent the morning messing around there. However it wasn't until after lunch that I really started to relax into it and renew my confidence. We started doing this nice long red run down to a gondola and back. I would spend my time messing around like a goose until a skier or snowboarder would race past me, pushing it to go fast. I would then straighten the board and chase them down, preferably to pass them with my body stance exuding nonchalance, bordering on boredom, and not the abject terror and exhilaration which was really coursing through my being.
All good things come to an end, so did our first day on the snow. The trip back was on the correct bus with the correct ski company and was headed to the correct city. We slept on the bus and before we knew it we were back in Munich. A quick walk across the bridge to the S Bahn where we had to wait a few seconds for the train, one stop later we get to the U Bahn where we had to wait a few seconds for the train, then we are home.
We checked up on our mistake with the bus companies and it turned out we had the benefits of a 63 euro ticket in lieu of our 53 euro ticket. I think we shall wait a while before we pull this one again, just in case they become suspicious.
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