Bad Gastein, Austria

Okay stop laughing. That's really the name of the town, I promise!



Susan and I, along with a few of our friends took a weekend trip up to Bad Gastein, Austria for a little snowboarding (for the dudes) and spa/sauna (for the chicks).

Now if you've read any of my other posts, you'll realize that I like snowboarding, but I'm not very good at it. Still a beginner, still learning.


Since I grew up in Texas, snowboarding, or for that matter - snow at all was not something familiar to me. Its only been since I've been stationed here in Italy, living right at the foot of the Alps that I've really found out that I love the mountains.

I knew this would probably be my last boarding trip of the year, so I wanted to enjoy a little mountain village that I'd never been to before. And as any other time you drive up to Austria, you better be ready for some winter weather - no matter the time of year.

The drive took about 3 or 4 hours. This town was located about 1000m above sea level. As you drive towards it, eventually you stop at another town and put your car onto a train. The train takes you through a 15 minute tunnel up to Bad Gastein. I guess the roads are just too dangerous to drive in the winter.



It was a really nice place. Apparently its one of the biggest resorts in Austria, they've got runs that go on forever. The weather was pretty cold. it was mostly overcast so you couldn't really see the tops of the mountains 2600 meters up. At the top the weather was flat nasty! Windy, snowy, and bitter cold. There were times when you couldn't even see the trail you were on. Still, as a learning snowboarder, I pretty much held my own. Didn't take any falls that were too nasty. And I only went off the runs once -- But that was enough for me because I ended up sinking almost 3 feet into the snow. I had to roll myself down to the run. If you could have seen me, you'd have fallen down laughing. Luckily my friends didn't see it!

It snowed almost all day Saturday. We boarded for a good 5 or 6 hours while the ladies checked out the co-ed naked spas... (yeah, that's right, co-ed AND naked) but that's not my story to tell! You'll have to ask Susan about that one!


Saturday night we went out to a few of the local pubs and hit a good restaurant. A good time was had by all!


Sunday we hit the slopes again but this time it was only 3 hours before I was ready to call it quits. I was ready to head home after a late lunch.



The drive home seemed a lot quicker than the drive up there. But it turned out to be a great weekend.
I've only got one more weekend here before I head to Spain for the whole month of April. I'm pretty sure I won't be snowboarding there!