Christmas in the Alps
Never thought I would be saying this, especially after having spent a fair amount of time in Africa. Ironically (and by pure luck) we ended up selecting a small Austrian ski village, Obertauern, which was one of the only places in Europe to have a white Christmas. The adventure began with a 2 day 14-hour drive across 6 countries with several hours of thick soupy fog and a burned out headlight. Despite being Europe we seemed to experience some of the challenges that hit us in Africa such as a 40 minute wait to get temporary plates in Serbia since they do not recognize our Kosovo plates and registration. And to enter the EU in Croatia we had to pay 240euros for 15 days insurance, and then upon the return drive to be 'caught' in Slovenia without a road vignette (ticket) resulting in a 150euro fine. This said, the road conditions were fantastic and the scenery wonderful, although without the white blanket we were expecting. Only upon our approach to the final destination did we actually see any natural snow.
Fortunately my sister and dad were able to join us as well. As this was our first Christmas without mom (and she was always about tradition) it was important that we celebrated together in her memory. Adi and Rea loved having them around as did we to allow Pranvera and I time for ourselves. The hotel was perfect with its own spa (only used twice), large pool with 100m waterside (all just next to our room), a play center for the kids, wonderful bar/restaurant, main dining room and best of all, a ski-in/sky-out location where I just walked out with board and boots and hit the mountain.
We had Adi in school school for four days complete with a bus pick-up/drop-off and lunch. He was coasting down the blues by the end of the week and I was able to do a run with him as he sped ahead with his coach. As for myself, I had 4 unbelievable days on the largest most expansive mountain range I have ever seen. Almost all the runs were open and with 26 high-speed lifts and 100km of trails I was able to spend each day almost without repeating any run twice and making my way all the way down and back around to where I started. Having a Weiss beer and sandwich mountain top each day to recharge it was picture perfect blue skies and the cleanest air and most incredible views. Too bad I was skiing solo this trip but I ran into by luck Pranvera and Rea with Stacey and dad at one of the mountain top restaurants that they reached by gondola which as a nice break in the day.
Of course this was enjoyed not without incident. Having just done about 6 runs my rear binding broke mid-slope but I was able to not crash and had a tool with me to rescrew the straps back on. Then I noticed that both the souls of my boots literally pealed off as I walked to get on the next lift since the rubber was so old it deteriorated. So my Xmas present to myself was new boots and bindings to compliment my already new board that was given to me earlier in the year for my birthday. Making over 50 runs I walked away with only a bruised rib and a jammed toe (from the spa;-)
All this high altitude adventure was complemented by hours in the pool with Adi racing down the enormous water slide and Rea not getting enough of the pool and Aunt Stacey. Since there was no fresh snow the sledding was a bit more challenging and icy and Pranvera and I weren't able to use our snow shoes. We walked around the little town a bit but mostly hung out at our place which was slightly out of town. Santa even arrived in a horse drawn sleigh with heated wine for the parents followed by a gourmet 5 star meal. Santa arrived in full force with dad and Stacey bringing a ton of presents from the US (much of which we ordered) and Amazon.de delivering a number of gifts direct to the hotel. Luckily we were able to pack it all back in the car to drive all the toys and memories back to Kosovo.
Although it was only a week it was a perfect family vacation with all the warmth and love a holiday is supposed to have. The kids couldn't have been happier and it was restful enough that Pranvera was able to forget a bit about the intensive start-up for her project and I took a deep breath after crashing on a 2 week intensive market study for the USAID Mission in Uganda. A great ending to a year of transition and transformation.
