About a week ago I've discovered skiing.
A while ago - when the leaves on the trees were just turning that beautiful shade of bronze that I love - a friend from Warsaw suggested that I joined her and some of her friends on a ski-trip to French Alps. Of course, of course! I jumped on the occasion! I've always wanted to try skiing and the only things stopping me before was the fact I wearing glasses and was filled with that irrational fear that I was surely going to hit a large tree that would suddenly appear in front of me...
Well - no longer so!
I've arrived at Grenoble on Saturday evening - my flight late by at least 45min. - slightly relieved cause I knew my friend's flight was delayed as well. Well - it worked out perfectly! We've arrived at more or less the same time. Only to find out that my girlfriend is tottaly pissed (a result of her surreal fright of flying trigerred by watching much to many disaster movies on Discovery). We then proceeded to the car rental office, to find out that there is no car there waiting for us (5 of us to be precise). Apparently we booked it but haven't confirmed the reservation... We spent about an hour there agonizing about prices and sizes of the two available cars (beginning of the skiing season) without reaching a solution (someone once said that indecision is common amongst the intelligence). Finally we've decided to take a bus to Grenoble-City and try to get a better deal there (it was pretty late by that time....). Not surprisingly, there was no car hire open there and no trains running in our chosen direction so we hired a cab to take us to Superdevoluy.
It took 2 hours to arrive at our destination - two hours of looking at snowless hills around Grenoble. With my friend - still "under influence" - shouting out every time she woke up: "la neige" (snow) rather disapointedly. We arrived to a party in a full swing with vodka generously poured round the table. It was long after midnight before we finally went to sleep.
The next two days I spent learning the basics - first trying it on the tiny "bunny" slope and then on a slightly higher slope. I decided to book a couple of hours with an instructor - asked for a tall, dark and handsome option. Well... he was two out of three, his name was Sebastian and he managed to teach me all the basics... or so I thought at the time. We were skiing till 5 - then dinner and party. Two discos to chose from - not much of a dancing experience - but the large amounts of vodka drunk before leaving the chalet helped to appreciate their rough beauty.
The third day I attacked the proper ski lift and tried skiing of a large hill - it went pretty well although I did realize there is at least two things my instructor didn't teach me - how to fall without twisting my limbs out of the sockets and how to get up without almost breaking my thumbs... Well.... I've learned that on days three and four (respectively). I went down the slope quite a few times and discovered that my knees decided to give up on me as well. Knees or not I made it to 2200m and did the first long ride down the mountain
The fourth day was much more enjoyable - I kinda thought I got a hang of it at last and started to enjoy the scenery a bit more - it's much easier if one stops falling every 5min. Skiing was fun - a few breaks - with lots of mulled wine definitely helped the experience (also keeping me warm). And it was getting better and better... On days five and six I saw some beautiful views as I could look up and admire the nature around me - instead of looking at my lovely pink skis. My knees were in much better condition too - it seemed it was that firs slope with it's tiny moulds that made them worse. Or maybe I was a bit immune to the pain by then (haven't had that much alcohol for a long time) as I also managed to do some wild dancing in the evenings.
The last day of the trip was definitely the best! I felt like I finally got the hang of it all and felt much more comfortable with a bit more speed and even starting taking turns with my skis in parallel! I felt pretty confident and that was probably why I decided to go down that long slope so fast - far too fast for an unexperienced skier! Well anyway - it all happened pretty fast - I was going down and knew I had to gather enough speed to go up the hill ahead of me... Half way through I panicked - thought I was going far too fast and probably wouldn't be able to break in time - would go up that slope and instead of stopping go right down the next one - on full speed. Mistake! I started breaking the only way I thought I could in such situation (snow-plough) and ended up falling over and hitting my head really hard against the icy slope. I was pretty sure I really hurt myself as I heard a little crack on the side of my head. Minutes later I knew the crack came from my broken sunglasses... I managed to get up and felt the side of my head swelling fast. I managed to ski down to the little restaurant at the bottom of the slope. Actually skiing that day felt so good I went down that slope 4 more times! Managing to fall on my tail bone in the meantime - slipping on the ice outside the toilet! Uhhh, that hurt - to the poing that I stayed there on the snow for quite a bit screaming - with my friend helping me up - trying to do her pants at the sime time (Isn't she a darling!). Later on she admitted she was amazed to alwas find me fall in the most unexpected moments... and always on the flat ground....
Day seven was all about going back home - we got up pretty early to clear out of the chalet. Our friends got into their cars and on their way back to Warsaw and we back in a cab to Grenoble. We spent a few hours wandering the streets. The city has that specific atmosphere that one can only find in old European cities. I absolutely loved it! The old townhouses, little squares, churches.... And all this bathing in a glorious sunshine - a perfect day!
A perfect holiday actually... Weather-wise (sun shining bright 5 out of 6 days!) and in general! I#m rearing to go again - and soon!
