2nd Day at Selva

I woke up today at 5am - which was slightly better than waking up at 4am.

Surprise surprise - I was the first one down at Breakfast today (after being the last one down on the first day). My mum had given my brother for his birthday a 6 day lift pass - but Taeko was only keen on skiing for about 4 days (albeit with lots of hot chocolate breaks) because of hard-packedness of the snow doesn't resonate with her repeated crashes on her arse very well. So Sacha gave up the snowboard (which was way more expesnive than hiring out skis) and rented some skis and some boots for 100 euros for 5 days - which is very reasonable considering that they were good skis (vokels) and boots - and that Australia would cost $100 for one day probably.

You may be surprised but there is pretty much a total lack of snowboarders here at Val Gardena. We were guesstimating that for every snowboarder - there would be about 8 or so skiers - so they are very much in the minority here in Italy.

Before we head out to the mountain - because of Taeko's revelation that she suffers from motion sickness - my dad splurged out on getting her some wrist bands with pressure points on your veins so you don't need to take drugs. They seemed to work somewhat for Taeko - but didn't completely cure her of the sickness.

We went up the gondola and skiied back over to St Christina. My mum, and Sacha and Taeko (I'll just shorten it to S&T) - skiied down the red run to St Christina - which goes past "the castle in the snow" - which will satisfy Taeko's castle fetish for today. Whilst Dad and I skied down my favourate run - the black super G course to St Christina. There is nothing really hard about the run - I think it is black because it is a racing run - but it was all groomed like a baby's bum - so it is not challenging in the slightest.

Speaking of the colour coding of runs - Blue runs in Italy are Green Runs in Australia (eg: beginner), Red Runs in Italy are Blue Runs in Australia (eg: intermediate) and Black Runs in Italy are Black Runs in Australia - only that the black runs in Italy feel no harder than Front Valley at Perisher. To make things more complicated - there is this "green run" and a "orange run" - they are two ways you can get around a bunch of mountains - called the Sellaronda...

I just like the fact that "Red Runs" sounds like "Red Rum" (which we all know what that spells when seen thru a mirror). I kept doing my best little kid from the Shining "Red Rum" impersonation - but no one else has seen the movie... For shame!

We all got a coke/coffee/hot chocolate/ misc drink from a little cafe down at the bottom of the St Christina run. We had been there the day before - and there is this huge St Bernard dog which was drinking from the bar the previous day. Today - Sacha took a picture of himself tonguing the dog. It all felt a bit like Cujo - although I'm sure this St Bernard didn't have rabies and wasn't attacking a mother and kid in their car... (Note to self - what is with all of these stephen king references today).

After the coffee/misc drink - we all walked over to a nearby train to catch it to the other side of a mountain (well - it was more of a hill). It was Val Gardena's answer to ski tube - although it was much more modern and a hell of a lot shorter than the ski tube. Once we got out at the station - we had to catch a gondola (with a hella crazy queue) before skiing down and catching a quad (with an even worse queue) before doing some more skiing on groomed runs. Speaking about queues - the queues here are particularly bad - not in length - but because everyone doesn't queue and have no manners. Gondola queues are usually a free for all (once you get past the ticket barriers) - people don't seem to respect any sort of personal space, people knock you over with their skis and impale you with their stocks, they will try and cut you out of the queue as if their life depended on it... and so forth.

Val Gardena is a bi-lingual place (they speak both Italy and German) - and I would of thought the German side of people would have made them very ordered and structured - but queues here are just so chaotic and painful... I basically think of them as what a ski resort in China would be like.

Anyhow - we had a few runs down this quad - the snow "was nice" (with a borat accent) but again - not very challenging. There was a bit of a cheap thrill half way up the mountain with a group of post-middle aged fat men sunbaking with no tops on...

At the top of the chair - we see a sign saying 10.5km run to St Ulrich - so we decide to do something different and check it out. Along the way - we stopped off at a great cafe for lunch with terrific service and big beers. It was a bit cheaper than yesterday's lunch but much better value. Plus the views were terrific.

Anyhows - the long run to St Ulrich was very much roads/goat trails in parts and Taeko had a big stack part way down the mountain that no one had witnessed. Sacha decides to ski down with Taeko - and lets my parents and I ski together for the rest of the day. Getting back up the mountain involved not only a gondola ride but also a cable cart ride.

As it was drawing close to the end of the day (most lifts close about 4 or 4:30pm as there is not much sun by that time) - we head back for the train. Surprisingly - a lot of the runs are quite mogul-y which was fun for something different. When we catch the train back to St Christina - my mum calls it quits and attempts to catch the bus back to Selva - whilst my Dad and I ski back to Selva. We discover a great black run (altough again - not very hard) which is sort of like a Crackenback run at Thredbo - a long home trail which was pretty much deserted.

When I get back to the Hotel Olympia - I dump my stuff and head down to the supermarket for some supplies including some beer (2 euros for 3 beers). I also bought a pen - well technially I didn't buy it as the lady at the checkout didn't scan it because she thought it was mine to begin with... Yes - free pen - things are looking Milhouse. It was fairly funny walking around Selva and seeing people walking around in ski boots slipping and sliding all over the place.

I chill out at the hotel and watch a bit of German MTV. My new favourite German artist (behind Boys Noize, Digitialism, Booka Shade and M.A.N.D.Y...) is Jimi Blue who looks the whole age of about 15 and isn't at all attractive (they try and cover up his fact with lots of hats like a recent Michael Jackson video). His song is "I'm Loving It (L.R.H.P)" - and you guessed it - L.R.H.P = Little Red Hot Pants". The chrous goes "I'm loving you sexy girl, I'm loving your sexy dance as long as you wear those Little Red Hot Pants" (all in a thick german accent). There are the ubiquitious ho's in the video - although surprisingly - none are wearing little red hot pants. I'll be looking out for Jimi Blue on Australian Itun es. There is also another song which is a german version of Amy Winehouse - and it goes on and on about how her man "cheats, lies, he is a cruel man" but then she goes on to say "he is my man and I hope he loves me!" - you go sista.



German MTV seems to still have the wall-to-wall Jamba (German version of Jamstar) ads - instead of the Crazy Frog, or the Horny Cow - they have this little bunny rabbit who sings a highly annoying cute song (the "bushy" song - not actual german spelling). S&T thought the lyrics were "Pussy Pussy Pussy Pussy!".

I head over to my parents for their world famous pre-Hotel Olympia dinner drinks - when my mum tells me of her horrible story of trying to catch a bus back to Selva. She had to wait for an bus for about an hour and it went in the wrong direction or something... S&T seemed to have the same problem - as they had to catch a bus from St Ulrich (the town next to St Christina).

At dinner - we were tyring a best Borat impersonation - our waiter being our inspiration ("In my country - you would be popular. You not so popular".). I had ordered "English Style Roast Beef" - but to my horror - it was cold rare roast beef (eg: the stuff you buy at a Coles Deli) on a bed of rocket leaves. Something is obviously lost in translation here.

After dinner - I headed back to my room to watch "America's Next Top Model Series 2" - all dubbed into German. There is something strangely odd and ironic about it all...