Full Moon #3 ~ French Alps

So it happened again! In the space between two mountains, we enjoyed the yellow glow of a huge full moon while driving home last Sunday night. It was the icing on the weekend which featured a yummy chocolate mousse birthday cake covered in a giant macaroon, accompanied by shots glasses of delicious miniature fruit salad, two sparklers and a lot of ridiculous laughs.

We celebrated Marta’s birthday (albeit a bit late) in the French Alps with Marta (of course), Maciek, Kate and Fadi. For good measure, Rajitha visited us from Monday to Wednesday back in Frankfurt, so we only missed Laura and Justin from the old cheese farm. Catching-up with Raji these days was really great. We talked a lot and the visit went too fast as usual. So over the weekend it was very easy to have a nostalgic time with the gang since we stayed at “La Ferme de bon Papa”. It was no Fromagerie de Pere Noel, but it was a perfect little French B&B near Mont Blanc.

We arrived late Friday night, but managed to have a good laugh over truck nuts and tea. Ahhh, aren’t friends great? So that set the tone for the weekend and set Maciek off on a fantastic pooh-pooh tangent. I said hilarious already right?

On Saturday, M&M headed out stinking early to start their 3^rd day of skiing (they arrived 2 days earlier). Kate, Fadi, E and I were slow pokes enjoying a leisurely breakfast whilst humoured by a zombie version of Fadi at the ‘breakfeast’ table. Breakfast was a feast indeed! We had home-made everything! Bread, cake, jams, yoggi’s etc. etc. The yoghurt was the best, but we truly enjoyed sampling the varieties of jams.

We eventually made it up the gondola at about 11:30, where we met up with M&M. K&F tackled the smaller slopes, CyE&Marta went for the red runs (E venturing to the blues after warming-up) and Maciek attacking the black runs. It was a lot of fun. I was especially happy that I could actually snowboard (after 10+years of exaggerated maneuvers and discomfort) ~ all it took was renting the right sized boots!! Next time, I’ll go for the non-stinky ones cuz man, it was really poooofy!

Anyone looking for a snowboard? Great condition, size 43-44 boots? Really awesome step-in bindings!!!

That evening we had some birthday Champagne. It was delicious! Marta got drunk on 1 glass and me, on 1.5. We were hysterical (at least I think we were!!) Haha! I’m pretty sure Kate was a bit drunk too since she didn’t seem to be as up-to-date on her celebrity gossip (i.e. 10 years en retard) hehe! Then after Marta opened some prezzies we went out for a really nice dinner. The meal was delicious and the mousse cake was…. drool… sparkly and delicious. Oh yum!!

We all enjoyed breakfast the next morning and headed straight to St.Gervais for a warm drink and lunch. After a marathon of eating we said our sad good-byes. What a lovely weekend, full of fun and happy talks.

Full Moon #2 ~ Tyrol Region, Austria

Evgueni and I have just returned from a weekend road-trip to the Austrian Alps. We left Friday night after most of Germany had been snow-upon all day. We encountered snow the whole way until just before the Alps when suddenly, the snow stopped!

I had been chatting with my Mom just before leaving and she’d said, maybe the snow system will have ended by the time you get to Austria”. Me, being oh-so-smart said “Humf! Mom… *sigh*, it’s the Alps! As if!” We both laughed, but ultimately, she had the last laugh because she was exactly right! As we arrived, the mountains shone in the moonlight and the stars twinkled above Tyrol.

The next morning I finally met Evgueni’s friend Rebecca, whom he’d first met in Australia about 7 years before. She was wonderfully fun, friendly and welcoming. The 3 of us spent the day on the Glacier skiing (me: snowboarding). It was fantastic!! The snow from Germany had followed us to Austria and hence, goggles were imperative. It was snowing like crazy. We couldn’t see the view and depth-of-perception was extinct. E almost went over the edge of a run not seeing where it ended and the cliff behind started. At one point, he also stopped in the middle of a run thinking he was at the edge. Nonetheless, we had a fantastic time. Near the end of the day we finally met Norbert, Rebecca’s Fiancé. He too, was extremely friendly, welcoming and a lot of fun.

After the day on the Glacier, the 4 of us hiked 1.5 hours up to the top of a mountain to have dinner at a local Austrian Hut. It was perfect! Inside it was like a steamy sauna with all the boisterous people eating and enjoying a warm, post-ski-day dinner. The hut and its fixings were all wooden with authentic details such as hand carved chairs and hunting trophies adorning the walls. There was a particularly impressive trophy hanging of a baby deer stuffed in a hunters back-pack with its head and hoofs sticking out. We were told this is the way to carry one out of the woods. Interesting!

We stuffed our faces with traditional Austrian meals. I had the Kaiserschmarrn* with mountain cranberry sauce (vs. applesauce). It’s like a broken-up eggy pancake sprinkled with icing sugar on top and with cranberry sauce on the side for dipping. Mummmm! Dessert for dinner!

To digest, the 4 of us, each on our own wooden toboggan, tobogganed the whole way down. With low-tech breaks and steering devices (our heels) to keep us from diving over the edge and guided solely by the light of the full moon, I was naturally, the last in the pack (and I actually had a headlamp…). If anyone was listening, they’d have heard me laughing the whole way down!

Sunday was gorgeous! The sky was clear and the views were spectacular! Although my entire body protested, I still geared up for a half day of snowboarding. It was a lot of fun. I wasn’t nearly as “good” as I was on Saturday due to the total and complete loss of muscle control, but still very much enjoyed the scenery and peaceful quiet of the mountains. We did some off-run or off-piste skiing (me: snowboarding) into the depths of some fluffy fresh powder and had a hilarious time. It was fantastic!!!

After warming-up with some glühwein,** cake and more great conversation, Evgueni and I reluctantly left the good company of Rebecca, Norbert and their little piece of the Alps with promises to return soon!

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kaiserschmarrn-mitPreiselbeeren.jpg
**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulled_wine