Only about a week and a half late, I decided I really ought to show you around Innsbruck before we head to Prague and I get all backed up with blog posts.
Innsbruck is just under 2 hours (by car) from Munich, and very, very pretty.
It is a relatively sized town in the middle a valley, with a BIG university - goer presence. This may have had something to do with the weekends events, or the fact that Innsbruck is well known for it's medicinal marijuana clinical trials, although that could just be me jumping to conclusions...
There are a lot of little streets lined with even more little apartments, and every building is painted a different shade of pastel.
Everywhere you look, you see those glorious mountains...
And lots, and lots of tram lines.
On the Friday night, after gorging ourselves on the first sushi since DURBAN we found that there was a little concert, and demonstration by the 'rookie' snowboarders, doing rails and other tricks in the centre of town. We watched for a bit, and then sought the comfort of the warm, and age-restricted, Irish Pub.
The next morning, we woke up, stretched, did some star jumps and prepared for the trek to the
Billabong Air & Style contest.
At least I wished we had (it really was a trek). Instead, we did the only logical thing we could think of, and bought some South African wine, which we then proceeded to drink on the way up. It was FAR and STEEP -two of my least favourite adjectives - I needed some encouragement.
Unfortunately (or very fortunately for our soon-to-be cold toes) there was no alcohol allowed in (HORROR!), so we, ever classy, downed our bottle. And off we went...
The Olympic Ski Jump, where the contest was held. Waaaaay up there...
(Note the tram lines!)
Wasn't the view just awful? Those mountains? and that SNOW?
As the sun set, it began to get raaaaather nippy. But, just as we were about to give up all faith in ever being warm again... An angel from heaven approached us.
Ok, more like a guy with a Gluhwein-Backpack-Dispenser.
When our teeth finally stopped chattering, or our ears grew too numb to hear them, the contest started.
Rookies first, then professionals. Doing flicks and jumps and cartwheels and spins, all whilst strapped into their snowboards and (most of the time) landing perfectly. Easy peasy stuff really... yeah, I wish!
Once the contest was over, Pennywise (punk rock, not my thing) played, and we, being the Munich residents we are, went off in search of some Wurst, Bread and Mustard. A typically German meal... and very good for soaking up excess Gluhwein/ Beer you may have consumed.
After that it is pretty much a big blur, but from what my photo's tell me, we had a few more warmer-upper drinks, got a little bit silly-dilly and had a whole lot of fun. Granted, there were headaches in the morning, and some stubborn bits of lemon in my eye (there's only one real way to drink tequila), but it sure was a good weekend.
