Sorry for being awful at the blog. I've been too busy skiing to want to sit inside on the computer for an afternoon. I'll pick up where we left off *gulp* a MONTH ago.
I really loved Salzburg! I was a bit ashamed that last season we lived 2 hours away and never went to see it so this time on the way to Kapun we stopped for a few days. The old city is so beautiful - it really feels like it hasn't changed for centuries, but there was no tacky tourism like in parts of Paris. It felt really authentic. We had a wander around the old city (see photos) and went up to the Festung Hohensalzburg (a fortress) which was my favourite thing. We could see it straight out the window from our youth hostel. Construction of it started in the 1100s and it felt like walking into the middle ages. There was a little museum inside, we took an audioguide tour and some great photos from the top tower! The fortress was never taken by force in history, except it was surrendered once to Napoleon. In the town there was this gorgeous Christmas market where you could buy beautiful homemade ornaments and candies and candles. I will definitely come back one day on a high enough budget to shop for that kind of thing! There was an outdoor ice skating rink in the middle of the Mozart square so Tom and I went for a skate in the evening which was really nice! It was such a picturesque spot and they were playing music. And on rental skates I was so terrible that going around in circles on the tiny rink kept me occupied. Tom did have one terrific stack where he literally went face first onto the rink :D I was going to do the Sound of Music tour but it ended up feeling a little kitch so I passed, preferring to explore the city.
We took the train from Salzburg to Kaprun, and arriving in Kaprun felt sooo nice. After travelling around the whole year this is the first place I've been that I've been before so it felt so welcoming and familiar. We hung around at the ski school catching up with people for the afternoon before we were shown our accomodation which is MUCH better than last season. We are in the Neumair apartments which are directly above the supermarket right in the middle of town. It's not a particularly fancy apartment but it has everything we need and it's not expensive. It's also great and social since the rest of our floor is all other ski instructors so theres always someone to hang out with. Across the hall are Wieke and Evelyn who are both Dutch, next to them are Nout and Mattijs (also Dutch) and next to us is Bianca who is German. (No, there aren't many actual Austrian instructors!) We can see the slopes out the window which is great motivation to get out skiing!
I've already written about my birthday but there are some added photos in the slideshow album (link at the bottom.) We went skiing on Tom's birthday (both on new skis!) which was a lot of fun. I can't believe Tom is 20 though...he certainly doesn't act it yet!
Work properly started last week and I've already finished with my first group of the season. I had Esprit children (duh) but kids that can ski this season! I only had 3 and it was a pretty easy week (bar one day where the oldest boy chucked a tantie and refused to ski). We saw Santa skiing on Christmas day and it was gorgeous to see the kids critiquing his skiing!
We have had a friend staying at our place for a few weeks now. Florian (he works at the cafe in the ski school) who we knew from last season was really struggling to find a place to stay this year and the flat that he found is only available from early Jan so we let him sleep on our couch. Though a few things are now trickier (organising showers in the morning, who gets the keys, etc) he has been a really great guest - he's cooked dinner for us a few times, keeps his stuff really neat, so I have no complaints :) He's leaving just before Meredith arrives from Canada on Jan 3.
Having a white Christmas was really wonderful, it definitely is more magical with some snow. On Christmas Eve Tom and I had a nice dinner on our own and opened presents. I was working on Xmas morning but in the evening we had a group of 10 instructors for dinner. Wieke did entree and dessert (goat cheese cooked in pastry on a bed of salad, homemade apple pie) and Tom did the main course (chicked breat stuffed with brie and sun-dried tomatoes). It was a really great evening! Everyone enjoyed themselves and it was great to have a group Christmas dinner with friends since no one had family around.
We now have enough chocolate so sink a ship (which we are slowly getting through). Tom has been working in the shop for the last few days and I get my next group tomorrow morning!
I hope that post makes up for the lack in the last month. http://picasaweb.google.com/amanda.jane.cohn/ReturnToAustria is the link for the new photos.
Love always
Amanda
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