baby alps

First off--Sorry about the link to the pictures from the party on friday--They were not my photos and the Slovakian girl who took them moved them or something and so now the link is dead

Fabio asked her to give him the originals so I might be able to get them back up here.  

But on the up and up....Mo and I met at 8 this morning at the train station and bought tickets for Semmering, Austria.  We boarded the train and slowly made our way out of the station.  Mind you it has been snowing in Wien for the last week--but we didnt really know what to expect when we got to the "baby alps" (i called them that in the morning and it stuck).  We also started to notice that we were the ONLY people on the train that didnt have skiis or a snowboard.  We figured that everyone was going to Graz--the last stop for the train we were on.  But--when we reached Semmering--everyone got off-skiis and all.  We stepped out into litrally a winter wonderland.  atleast 2 feet of fresh snow and much more packed underneath, beautiful old houses and hotels, and nothing else but trees and mountains.  We realized there would be no hiking today--but sort of decided we had to go skiing.  We just sort of followed a big group of people (with skiis) up the street and about 5 minutes later we saw the resort.  It was really small--and had only about 200 people but it was a really nice spot with a huge mountain.  It was really surreal to be in such a beautiful place totally by accident.  We rented our equipment and went to the bunny slop (mo had a little anxiety about the full on runs--and I was secretly glad I didn't have to be the one to chicken out.  We bought a 2 hour pass for the bunny slop and had a really fun time.  Mo got his bearings eventually and after 2 hours I was ready to go to the more advanced runs---but We would have had to buy another pass and the train was leaving at 4 and it was already 3 and blah blah blah.  We went and had a coffee at the restaurant and decided that we couldn't leave without taking a trip to the top of the slop---with one of the wooden sleds that they rented out!  It was one of the most fun things I have done in a while--and so unbelievable beautiful.  We tobogganed down this huge mountain cutting through trees and snow banks and tunnels and all sorts of amazing stuff on vintage style wooden sleds with almost zero directional control.  It took about 20 minutes from top to bottom and it was a no brainer for 6 euro.

We were both exhausted on the train home and I imagine I will be asleep before 10.  I posted a few pictures from the day--but my camera battery died about halfway through the day.  Luckily Mo had his camera and we took a bunch of the toboggan trip that I will post up when I get the pictures from him.  On a sad note--Mo is leaving GP in 2 weeks so this is likely our last trip together for a while--he may be working in germany and if so Im sure I will see him again..

also--the black dot in all my photos is driving me crazy!!!