The Semana Santa Saga: Part VI

Where: Innerkrems, Austria
When: Thursday, April 1 (8:20 PM) – Monday, April 5 (7:30 AM)
How: The most harrowing travel experience that we had on our entire journey happened in Vienna. As I mentioned in the first installment of this epic adventure, we misread the Arrival/Departure board at the train station and unknowingly waited for a good 20 minutes on the wrong platform. The train arrived, and when we tried to get on, a man told us it was not the train going to Salzburg; rather it had just come from Salzburg. The following 3.2 minutes were spent in a frantic search for our train, and after asking a couple of people, we jumped onto the correct metal beast just seconds before it huffed and puffed away from the platform. Luckily, our switch in Salzburg was less worrying, especially since we already knew the station, and we caught the next train without a hitch.

A couple of hours later, I looked out the window of our train heading toward Spittal in southern Austria and saw the beginnings of snow flurries that eventually became larger snowflakes. Little by little that countryside was covered by a thin blanket of white snow, which was an exciting contrast to our warm & sunny afternoon at Schönbrunn. At the Spittal train station, Julika, her cousin Nadine, and her mother Marion picked us up and drove us to their small mountain ski village of Innerkrems.

Who: Sarah and I stayed with the Schwarzenbacher family. About three years ago, Julika Schwarzenbacher lived with Sarah’s family in Iowa as an exchange student. Last summer, SK visited Julika and her family in Berlin, and she also spent part of this past Christmas vacation at their Austrian mountain villa in Innerkrems. After having such a lovely time the first go-around and after learning that they spend Easter holiday there too, it was no surprise that Sarah took them up on an invitation to visit again. Luckily for me, they were totally cool with letting me tag along and share a bed with SK!

Julika is a 20 year old university student with plans of becoming a doctor. She has a carefree and rather independent spirit, not really caring about what others think and doing what she likes and not doing what she doesn’t like. Her English is just about perfect, and her slight German drawl is really cute when coupled with her trilling laughter. Although she would seem more on the quiet side of the personality spectrum, she holds within herself a vivaciousness that shines forth from her steel blue eyes. I liked this girl a lot, and we got on quite well from the first moment we met. I’m happy to say that I’ll be seeing her again in a couple of weeks when she visits Madrid (Icelandic volcano notwithstanding…).

Julika’s parents, Marion and Sepp, are an adorable example of how in-tune couples become after being married for years and after having lived a particular routine for equally as long. I watched them cook in almost complete silence, grabbing ingredients from behind each other’s backs, moving pots and dishes at the exact moment as needed, and whisking up a delicious meal with only a handful of words to spread across the counter. Marion’s sweet countenance offered a calming reassurance that life can be tranquil and peaceful if we just take ourselves a little less seriously. Julika’s father was a man of the kitchen, always rooting around for some small delectable or laboriously preparing something special for a meal. His generosity was most evident by his actions, like heaping piles of food on mine and Sarah’s plate or providing everything we needed for our entire stay.

Julika’s older sister, Jana, is finishing up her studies to be a pilot. During her free time in the house, she was usually studying for an exam or talking about boys. Julika told me that her sister prefers to be on their yacht sailing around Croatia’s Diamond Coast rather than skiing in the mountains. And according to Julika, she’s a “pretty skier,” trying to have the best form so that when people watch they’ll see how well she skis. Julika, on the other hand, prefers the mountains over the beach and loves to ski as fast as possible (but she still skis really well).

Nadine is a rather small eleven-year-old, but I’m sure that her picky eating habits contribute to her twig of a figure. Since Nadine is only just learning English, our interactions with her were somewhat limited. Fortunately, you don’t need too many words to play a card game both sides already understand. Nadine loves Phase 10, and so do Sarah and I! Julika, Nadine, SK & I played Phase 10 every afternoon upon returning to the house after several hours of skiing. Being the baby of the household, Nadine got a lot of attention, but she would quietly and sassily respond to the others in German, and Julika would then translate what she said so that Sarah and I could understand. Nadine was Julika’s little shadow, a precious little team that I loved watching interact.

Several other family members were in and out of the picture during mine and Sarah’s stay. Julika’s aunt Clara, who lives a half hour away, came over in the mornings for breakfast and to ski, typically joining us for dinner, too. Clara has the largest nose I have ever seen on the face of any human being. I had to deliberately tell myself not to stare at it during meals. Seriously, I don’t say that to be rude but it was simply a miracle of life. Her 34 year old daughter, Vera, who has her own section of the 4-part mountain villa, popped in and out of the house throughout the weekend. Vera used to be a professional downhill skier, and she was very sweet, but her nose was normal.

How our days went:

Our days passed in a slow, relaxing manner. By 9:30 every morning, a tempting display of fresh baked bread, jams & jellies, meats & cheeses, juices, coffee and tea was all set out on the 4-by-10 wooden table. Once satisfied, we suited up in our ski gear (they completed outfitted SK & me), clunked down the driveway, crossed the only street in town, snapped into our skis, and slushed down to the ski lifts. Julika, Nadine, SK & I would ski together for a couple of hours, meet some others for lunch at a mountainside restaurant, ski a few more runs afterward, and be back home by 4:00. In the late afternoons, after getting cleaned up, we’d have a coffee-cake break and then while Julika’s parents prepared dinner, we would read, dye and paint Easter eggs, or play Phase 10. Although everyone speaks English, they had an understandable tendency to slip into German at dinner, but I didn’t mind because I really enjoyed watching them interact and trying to figure out their topic of conversation. Eventually, everyone would drift off to bed, with me usually being one of the first to head in that direction. I’d get more than my fair share of sleep, wake up early, and start the next day following more or less the same schedule… what a shame I only had three days of this relaxing bliss! ;-)

Easter morning was really special, aside from the fact that I base my beliefs on that day. After breakfast, us girls—Julika, Jana, Nadine, SK & I—shoved on our boots and went tromping about in the snow, searching for what the Easter Bunny had left for us around the house. Thinking of plastic eggs or candy pac

kets, it took SK & I a few minutes to catch on to what we were looking for. I stumbled upon Jana’s gift bag of goodies behind a woodpile and Nadine’s package stuffed under a car tire long before I found my own small, wrapped package. SK & I were both given a cute pair of earrings, a chocolate bunny, and Salzburg’s famous Mozart chocolates, Mirabell Mozartkugeln. I loved coming back to this simple yet precious tradition, and I’m so glad that the Easter Bunny knew I was in Austria this year! Later that night, after I had eaten the most succulent steak I have put into my mouth in months, us girls walked down the road to watch the bonfire, an Austrian Easter tradition, drink glühwein, and listen to traditional Austrian band music. Breathing in the crisp night air under a twinkling starry sky, I couldn’t believe how fortunate I had been to temporarily become a part of such a wonderful family, but it also made me very excited about returning to my own family soon.

What about skiing?:

I have a confession to make. I have a very strong love-hate relationship with skiing. There, I said it. I absolutely love skiing… when the conditions are to my liking. I love the satisfying sound of snapping into my skis, the easy shredding down the slopes, and being surrounded by a beautiful snowy landscape. On the contrary, I hate when the temperatures drop below “Bitter Cold” on the thermometer and the freezing winds whip across the mountain tops. I hate wearing layers of clothes that make me break out into a slimy sweat. Yet, the only thing I really “hated” during my time in Innerkrems was the fact that my shins were bruised beyond belief due to improper-fitting boots, causing me intense pain with each turn of the ski on my second and third days of skiing. Overall, our skiing days were great, with conditions much to my liking. We had fresh powder the first day and a clear blue sky on the second. Although Sarah did get a bit freaked out and somewhat frustrated by the really strong winds that blew on our last day of skiing, I actually didn’t mind them.

For someone who just learned how to downhill ski back during Christmas break and at age 25, Sarah has learned quickly and she skied quite well. Nevertheless, she’s still a beginner, and Julika, Nadine, and I had to tailor our skiing to hers. We’d normally send Sarah down first, and we’d wait a few minutes before going down after her, ski past her, and then wait for her to catch up to us at the next ridge. I was quite grateful for SK’s slower pace, because it allowed me to zip down quickly and stop before I began working too hard (and thus I could avoid breaking out into a gross sweat).

Sarah skied well and only had a couple of “oops” moments, but I had an “oops” moment of my own. At the top of the most difficult run, I decided to go fast down the steepest and iciest run on the mountain with plans to ease up after passing the tough stuff. However, I gained too much speed quicker than I expected. I ended up going straight down the mountain at top speed, and I couldn’t make any turns to slow down. I flew past one ridge… and flew past the next. When I say flew, I mean that I actually got air and flew. A rough laugh and a coarse “Whoa…” escaped my lips. In my head I was thinking quickly, but rather rationally, “Ok, if I don’t slow down soon and regain control, this could end up badly. At least there’s lots of fresh powder just off the run… it shouldn’t hurt too badly.” What seemed like minutes but what was probably less than one passed, and I mercifully reached a flatter part of the run that helped me just enough to regain control over my skis, make some turns, and come to a snow-plowing stop. My face broke out into a smile of triumph, the kind that only emerges after a disaster has just been averted. I had gone so far so fast that I couldn’t see the other girls for a while; it took them over five minutes to make it down to where I was. I learned my lesson from that little heart-racing experience: the quickest way down is straight down, but if you’re not careful, you could never make it down… (Ok, so I didn’t actually think about that at the time, but it sounds true, right?)

How it all ended:

It was such a fantastic treat to stay with Julika’s family, truly a wonderful way to end our Semana Santa journey. We had spent so much time running around & touring cities beforehand that staying in a home with a family in the quiet, snow-covered mountains was the perfect way to unwind and reflect on all the overwhelming amount of things we saw and did. I am so obliged to the Schwarzenbacher family, and I will be eternally gratefully for their excellent hospitality. I’m really looking forward to hanging out with Julika again when she comes to Madrid next week.

The morning of Monday, April 5 arrived, bringing with it a blizzard and giving me reason to be happy I wasn’t skiing that day. At 7:30 AM, Julika scratched off the ice from the car window with her driver’s license and then the three of us headed off to Salzburg. Sarah and I said “hasta luego” to Julika at the train station platform, and we hopped onto a train that would take us to Stuttgart, Germany. Five hours later, we arrived in Stuttgart, found the right metro line, and got to the airport thirty minutes later. With time to kill, we had a late lunch and a beer before boarding our Germanwings plane. By 9 PM, I was walking down my street in Madrid, feeling content and relieved to have returned “home” after such a long, brain-overloading, and fantastic trip.

Madrid has become my home, and it has been good to be back these past two weeks. But that is another story for another day.