Winter holidays

Some of you already know I have come back from my Alpine adventure weekend in Carinthia with all my bones intact and some fantastic pictures to share. The two nights were spent at a friend's family's house practically in the middle of nowhere (Sankt Jakob im Rosental but don't even think of looking for it unless you own a high-definition Michelin map of Austria like I do) next to a jaw-dropping mountain chain separating Austria from Slovenia.


Kärnten entertainment. The LP includes tear-jerking classics like "Wann I mei Dirndl tua gruassn" and wild instrumental music performed by the inspiring Spörk family.

We were lucky with the weather, which produced a winter wonderland for us and the hundreds of German, Italian and Slovenian tourists (My weekend included a crash course in interpreting vehicle registrations) who, like us, headed to the main ski resort in the Villach area: Mount Gerlitzen (easy on your larynx). We skipped the mainstream cable car and took the scenic (and very serpentine) road to the top (1909 m).



The views were magnificent: here the majestic Hohe Tauer -mountains, over there Slovenia's highest peak, Italy through that gap, The eel-shaped lakes of Carinthia, Klagenfurt airport behind them (not to mention Klagenfurt itself). The sight of eight-year olds plunging down the slopes with their skis and übercool teenagers looking like they were born with a snowboard at their feet was slightly intimidating, so I decided to take it easy first and practise my winter sports in a safer area (the landing strip of the aficionados).


View from the chair lift.

It has to be said I had a fantastic teacher and gradually we decided to brave skiing down from a higher altitude. Our goal was to make it all the way from the top at some point and the practising was going well at the start. Then I took a major tumble which sent my self-confidence down an abyss, and I decided to not risk it and went up to the summit without the skis - I'll admit this decision was influenced by the sight of a helicopter picking up an injured person from the mountain.



Next day, we drove even closer to the Slovenian border and walked through the forest to an inn where I had a very straightforward meal - a huge fresh sausage with some eye-cringingly sowerKraut. After that, it was back to Graz. The weekend tour also included Villach's giant new Interspar and the leafy suburbs of Klagenfurt (a city, it has to be said, not exactly blessed with a very poetic name).



Today I went up to the Schlossberg with a friend and it is fast becoming one of my favourite places anywhere. As if to underline my thoughts, I heard the words "Geah istas soo een faaaner Toog in Gräääz" behind me (I'm still working on my regional dialects). After that, I had the honour of giving two freshly arrived Finnish exchange students a tour of the downtown Spar (including a visit to the unfriendly cashier lady).


Winter weather on our balcony.