Skiing!

We finally made it to the slopes.  This has been a matter of social pressure as much as personal enjoyment.  'Why would you go to Austria in the winter?' is a question we've gotten from all sides (well, 2 continents).  'Oh, it must be the skiing' is all anyone can think of.  Indeed, even our travel books talk about attractions only from April through October, and there are some things that aren't even open from November through March.  But one thing is for sure during these months: great snow on the mountains.

We went on a trip organized by a sporting goods store affiliated with a giant department store.  Each Saturday and Sunday, they offer a bus ride and lift ticket to 3 different ski resorts.  The bus leaves Graz at 7 or 7:30 am (painfully early for those of us who stay up really late communicating to California), and leaves the ski place at 4:30 in the afternoon.  The cost of the trip is exceedingly reasonable - lift ticket plus maybe about 10 Euros for the bus (clearly they get a discount on the lift tickets).  It's really convenient if you don't have a car, and if you don't even know where to start in choosing a place to ski.

Our destination was Riesneralm, a small mountain, relatively speaking, about 2 hours west of Graz. There are just 2 chair lifts, one that goes most of the way up the mountain, and the second that goes the rest of the way to the very top, at 1800 meters.  The chairlifts are those that go slow to get on and off, but in between are pretty fast.  There is also a plexiglass wind/snow shield that makes the ride very comfortable.  The slogan of this mountain is 'less time on the lift, more time on the slopes'.  Runs/trails are called 'Pistes'.  The powder was perfect - in fact, it was snowing lightly on and off all day.  And there was no wind to speak of, which really made things pleasant; I was worried about getting cold fingers and toes, but I stayed more than warm enough.  Another comfort factor: the mountain wasn't very crowded.  No line to get on the lift, not many people to worry about on the slopes.  Final comfort factor, which I just think is so fantastic - ski huts (i.e. restaurants) everywhere - one at the top of the first lift, one at the top of the second, and at least 4 at the bottom.  And the funny thing is, that was all that was there.

We drove up this long, steep winding valley, through a couple of villages, and then the ski place itself (it's not a 'resort' so I don't know what else to call it!) is just the 4 restaurants (2 of which are Guesthouses, and are like large houses), the ski rental and ticket booth buildings, and the lift.  And a big open space for a parking lot.  That's it!  I don't know what else I was expecting but it seemed like something was missing.  I guess everywhere I've been skiing, which is all in the US, has a lot more infrastructure, is a lot more resort-y.  Here, it was more like, just show up and ski!  Another thing that was strange was that from the bottom you couldn't see the slope or the skiers.  The lift went up and disappeared over a mass of forest, and coming over a small hill to the far side skiers would appear - apparently all the runs led to that segment to get back to the lift.

There were maybe about 10 buses in the parking lot - clearly these bus trips are the way to go skiing.  The buses have a box attached to the back for holding skis.

This was T's first real skiing experience (we can hear your shocked gasps - Berlin is flat, okay?), but second time skiing (ask T if you want that story), and I designated myself his ski instructor.  We had the idea of ski school in the back of our minds, but it turns out that ski school is closed on Saturdays at Riesneralm.  Strange!  So, T was stuck with me. :-) We spent the morning at the base of the mountain near the lift, getting comfortable with the feel of the snow and the snowplow/wedge technique of maintaining control and stopping.  After lunch, which was a super yummy Kaese Spaetzle (German mac n' cheese with crispy onions on top), salad, and Gulasch Suppe, we got the crazy idea of taking the lift to the top of the mountain.  I assured T that if he were in ski school he would be starting at the top of the mountain first thing. 

So we made it on, up, and off the lift with success (the tickets, by the way, are cards you keep in your pocket, and you go through a turnstyle with a sensor that senses the ticket and lets you through).  After a moment of loss of control that left T in a precarious and more than slightly dangerous position, we found the blue trail and commenced.  We had 4 hours to make it down before the bus left, and at first it seemed we might need all that time.  At least.  But before long, actually really quickly, T got the hang of it, and I was relieved when first a smile, and then "this is fun!" won the day, and we cruised down the 7 km Piste.

It was a narrow, winding run with a gentle slope, switchbacking across the mountain, with spectacular views of the valley below and mountains in the distance.  At this point it had stopped snowing, and big masses of foggy clouds were hovering around the valley making for some really dramatic landscape.  I don't think the photos here nearly do it justice, but click on them for the larger view. 

We got back down to the bottom in 2 or 2 1/2 hours, legs aching.  I couldn't believe how long the run was, it kept going and going - 7 km is really long!  Since we were both pretty exhausted and there wasn't much time left, we turned in our skis and enjoyed apres ski in one of the restaurants with a view onto part of the slope.  Nothing like a big glass of apricot juice with sparkling water, or a big glass of beer, after skiing one run.

So, all in all a wonderful ski day!

Food chronicles: Currywurst

Heading back to Berlin for today's culinary adventure: currywurst.  It's true, it looks even less attractive than the Wiener schnitzel did in my last food post.  But this is really a popular thing, almost a cult phenomenon, with a Deutsches Currywurst Museum in Berlin, and a novel, movie, and song about currywurst.

This photo is actually a variation, curry buletten (pronounced boo-LET-un), because T doesn't really like currywurst.  Buletten are like meatballs, but slightly flattened, almost like small, really thick burgers.  But it's practically the same thing, just different meat underneath, so I'm going to focus on the more popular variety.

So what is it?  Well, 'wurst' is sausage, so it's sausage cut into slices and topped with curry powder and ketchup-like spiced sauce.  That's it?  That's it.  So simple!  With a little tiny plastic fork stuck in on top.  Served with fries, which are commonly eaten with mayo as well as ketchup.  There are currywurst stands all over the city - small snack shops (called Imbiss) or even trailers with a counter, maybe a standing table or two, and you buy your currywurst and stand at the counter and eat it.  This was a staple of T's youth (though of course he opted for buletten, not the wurst).  For me... I can't say it holds the same appeal.  T does make really good buletten himself though (once when we had friends over for dinner this one person amazed us by packing away an unbelievable number of buletten.  Which we didn't realize until dinner was over and we whispered to each other, 'where are our leftovers?'  Alas.  Or rather, good thing we made plenty!). 

I really enjoyed this video from the Currywurst Museum (below).  You don't need to understand the German to get a sense of the atmosphere here...!  11 Euro admission is a little steep, though.  That's like 5 currywursts (maybe 3 if you include fries).

The Ball der Technik 2010

It's Ball season in Austria!  The winter doldrums between the Christmas holidays and Carnival/Mardi Gras are enlivened by balls, and on Friday, Jan 29th TU Graz (the Technical University) held its big, annual Ball der Technik.  There's nothing geeky about it, except for the technical theme (this year it was electricity and Tesla) and a small room with exhibits - info on Tesla projected on the walls and some historic-looking electrical contraptions, including some interactive thing with switches and a voltage meter (that's all I can say - my German language skills do not extend to electrical engineering vocabulary).  Ok, so maybe that is pretty geeky for a dance...

The ball was just grand.  The Grazer Congress is a beautiful cream-and-gilt maze of elegant building with a sweeping grand staircase and a magnificent ballroom.  A mass of people, of all ages, dressed to the nines, made for great eye candy - sparkling, colorful, long formal gowns in every color; suits and tuxedoes with medals and a few kingly-looking necklaces like the Chancellor wears at graduation.

So what did I wear?  I wore a long, dark red velvet, sleeveless dress, with elbow-length white gloves (is that called 'opera length'? I'm not sure), a white silk flower, and pearls.  (Special acknowledgment goes out to my sister for the dress and my Mom for sending it and all the acoutrements!). I've never worn long gloves outside of Halloween costumes, so I was pretty excited about this!

The ball opened in the main ballroom, orchestra playing, a dancing cohort of young women and men framing the entrance of the VIPs.  Not sure how you get to be a VIP... Then a speech by some university head honcho, and a choreographed program, ending with a waltz (Viennese, of course) to which everyone was invited to join in.  After that, the ball was officially open! I took a sampling of video from the opening, from the gallery above:



There were 3 dance floors and a disco. The main ballroom had the orchestra, alternating with a 3-person cover band that did a range of American music quite well, from oldies to the 80s.  We even did the twist.  Here is a sampling of the waltzing with the orchestra:


We didn't have the courage to try it - you have to spin while also going around the dance floor, and it's easy to see how you could get run over if you don't know what you're doing.  In the first part of the video you can catch a glimpse of a woman in a dirndl, traditional Austrian dress.  Not so many of these at the ball, but we did see a couple.

The second largest dance floor, with blueish lighting and a more modern feel, was a Cuban band, playing excellent salsa and cha cha music.  The floor during the cha cha (called cha cha cha here) got to be quite dangerous, as men flung their partners around with wild abandon - T and I quickly tried to escape, but not before we each had a heel crush our toe.  The third dance floor was smaller, featuring swing music, and set amidst many of the tables at a juncture in the long, wide corridor that connected the entrance part of the building to the Tesla room and the Cuban band room. 

So the tables - for an additional 5 Euro you got a seat at an assigned table.  There were a handful of rooms dedicated to tables, and then several tables along this hall I just mentioned.  Ours was there, so we had nice views of people walking by, the swing dance floor, and the music.  There was a small menu of expensive food, and then little snack stands for open-faced sandwiches, regular sandwiches, and soft pretzels.  I was hungry and T asked if I wanted a sandwich, and I replied, 'I didn't come to a ball to eat a sandwich!'  Picture me in my long white gloves eating a sandwich.  There were also, of course, lots of beverages, including some excellent Styrian red wine.  I didn't realize before coming to Graz that there was so much wine produced in Austria. 

At 1 am, the Quadrille!  Another ball tradition, this is similar to a square dance or contra dance, but way more genteel.  This is the kind of thing you see in the movie adaptations of Jane Austen novels - 2 lines of people, going to and fro with a lot of bowing/curtseying, turning and changing places. (This youTube video gives you a really good impression of how this goes - ours looked very similar) The traditional one for Austrian balls is the Fledermaus Quadrille, and it's supposed to be at midnight but ours was 1 am.  We filled the ballroom with 3 pairs of lines.  T and I partnered with a colleague from TU and his girlfriend, who had been at a ball in Vienna the night before (and who said that that Quadrille was chaos, because the caller didn't explain the steps at all).  The woman who supervised the opening dance program (who you can see in the first video standing at the lower left with a really awesome pastel blue and yellow/gold dress) explained each figure, and walked us through each.  Then we practiced with music.  I think there were 4 different figures.  Then we did them all together, a few times, each time a bit faster.  It worked pretty well!  At the end, there was something about galloping down the line, then reversing direction, (which you can see people doing prematurely in the video linked above, from a different ball) but this quickly devolved into chaos, so the woman in pastel shouted for everyone to dance around the floor counterclockwise, and we all surged in a huge mass until the music stopped.  Lots of fun!