Rivers and Mountains

It was cold and crisp outside the hotel. Slush and ice made our small trip to the door precarious. A tall woman met us.

She was the organizer of the trip and the main topic of conversation, which was not usually a good omen. She had very dark skin, which looked more like leather. Her hair was as brittle as stalactites after many years of cold winds throwing it about. Our small group was downcast as across the road there was a five star hotel that looked warm and beckoned us to its large open doors. Whereas in front of us was a small modern ski school that dug into the traditional buildings around it.It barely looked as if it could hold more than 10 people.

Ziggy's face was like a contrary image, she was all smiles. My first day however, contradicted my every thought, the skiing was like a dream and even though the instructors could not even speak more than two words of English we learnt a lot. There was a point, though, at which are instructor was so enraged as to find someone had got lost that he skied down the mountain telling us to wait at the top. It was about 4 hours later that Ziggy appeared at our rescue.Apparently the instructor had entered the building shouting of his resignation and expostulating loudly. It was around this time that I found I enjoyed Austria very much, from its serrated mountains to its creamy streams.

Which slinked in between forests and large rocks as though terrified of the large mass of rock that loomed behind. I liked the way the landscape differed from a very callous cold climate high in the mountains were the sun reflects of the snow to trap you with that terrible ailment most commonly known as Snow Blindness.To the not so cold quiet valleys were people built their homes in settlements speckled over the mountainside. Trees shaded these steep slopes with dark patches and avalanche barriers scored the sides to make them look like huge ladders. The mountains in question were so imposing as to let me realize how small I was compared to the world and it was quite daunting when I saw something that large facing me. The one problem with Austrians is that they are not shy with foreigners as soon as they are slightly inebriated.

I discovered this when came upon a couple sitting in my room listening to my CD player.I had never met the odd couple but they seemed to think that going uninvited into someone's room was a good way of socializing and offering copious amounts of alcohol was a good icebreaker. They sat on my bed as though they had known me for years, and to my surprise greeted me with apparent familiarity. They seemed very nice but I still thought it rather surprising to find them there treating my room as there own, they were lying on my bed brushing their hair. I thought I might as well just wait until they would go, but it appeared they had no intent on leaving, they either sat or danced so I decided to leave them.I left my room to find my friends yet they followed evidently keen to become associated with me.

I finally lost them when I ran into the gym nearby. They did not give up as I later spied them searching the outskirts of our little settlement. If someone says that a mountain is a safe place it is an utter misconception. The first few days into the week a young girl was skiing down the mountain when she took a mogul at the wrong angle, she was lofted into the air and seemed to dangle for about a second before landing badly on her left arm.

There was a resounding crack, she sat up then fainted. There was a large commotion as there would be.It was more dangerous than we thought however, for no helicopter could land this high up, as the slopes were too steep. So my fraught instructor had to call for a body bag with skis on the bottom that he could tie to his back and ski with. I had the wonderful, and quite funny, spectacle of my instructor skiing down the slope to a flatter area while we were on the chairlift upwards.

Later when I arrived back at the hotel I came to a seen that really made me laugh. The girl, whose name was Charlotte, was completely stuck in the bag, the zip had broken and the material was too tough to cut with ordinary scissors.That evening they finally pulled her out of the bag and she was swiftly taken to hospital. She had actually broken both the upper and lower bones in her arm, which was apparently quite serious; she seemed absolutely fine a few hours after though as she thought going to a club would help. That was not the only time I established Austrian mountains were dangerous, on the groups trip to Salzburg our coach driver seemed to be slightly intoxicated, you could not see this from the way he acted but the way he smelled and drove you would have guessed in a second.He swerved round corners I would have thought a mini could not get round, he drove as though the devil was after him.

I was sitting near the front and overheard some of what he was saying, as apparently he could speak English well. He had come from France when he was a young lad with his family; he had first discovered coaches when he was taken for a tour of the Alps, ever since he had been in love. He continually repeated that he had never driven anything but a coach, and that buses were whole different world. He was obviously mad.It seemed he lived in the bus, as there was a mattress in the luggage storage, which when questioned, was dismissed as 'not there'. The seat he sat on had worn down to the very frame it had been made on and seemed to fit to his body as though a fine craftsman had moulded it to his large exterior.

The rest of the coach was little more than dire. Some of the seats had been replaced with wooden benches and most of the windows were barely shards. The bus seemed to drive on his will as it appeared to be physically impossible for it to run on anything else.The engine whined loudly on even a slight incline, so the noise when we dove up any type of large hill was atrocious and filled our heads so we could do little else but sit for distraction was impossible. Salzburg was the highlight of an abysmal day spent mostly on a bus that could have been blown over in a minor gust. The cathedral was beautiful, stone carved into rivulets, which curled into pools around the huge wooden doors that opened the holy building to an eager public, who milled around like children to a magician.

The spires lanced into the sky with a tremendous power that seemed to attract people to look upwards. There were windows on some of the spires that glanced sunlight downwards, which formed dancing shadows on the ground. The spectacle of such a large building was awe-inspiring, it was not the height but the width that seemed to make people stare, it looked as if to span the width of the city, when the bells tolled it was like a choir, as there were 16 bells in the cathedral that all peeled in perfect simplicity.In contrast to the cathedral there were the shop owners who happened to find it in themselves to 'help' me buy some useless piece of matter by shouting at me and following me down the high street, which was highly embarrassing. This was made more embarrassing by the way my friends thought it best to let me be cornered by these manic creatures in some small colonnade.

Finally I escaped to a worst fate, the coach and driver. The last few days held the most fun for me and two other boys called Hugh and Ben.The end of the week was a time of slight depression as everyone had thoroughly enjoyed it bar a few terrible moments. The climax of our week was spent in the five star hotel. Ben came into my room with Hugh and struck me with the idea of exploring the building opposite, I thought this was a good plan as I was intensely bored owing to the fact that skiing was of as there was too much fog up the mountain. We crossed the street and the cold tore at my hat urged on by the wind.

The road was slim and winded round the buildings and houses.It was crested with snow and decorated with ice that made the journey across the gap much longer than it should have been. The doorman did not seem to notice as three boys entered the hotel; as soon as we were in the main hall we new this was quite a place to be in. The staircase seemed to lead to heaven, numerous doors led to numerous rooms of leisure. We took the first door that came in our contact. It opened onto a narrow corridor that led like an endless snake deep into the building.

We decided to follow it and were surprised to see on every wall pictures of famous people who had stayed at the hotel, look upwards. There were windows on some of the spires that glanced sunlight downwards, which formed dancing shadows on the ground. The spectacle of such a large building was awe-inspiring, it was not the height but the width that seemed to make people stare, it looked as if to span the width of the city, when the bells tolled it was like a choir, as there were 16 bells in the cathedral that all peeled in perfect simplicity.In contrast to the cathedral there were the shop owners who happened to find it in themselves to 'help' me buy some useless piece of matter by shouting at me and following me down the high street, which was highly embarrassing. This was made more embarrassing by the way my friends thought it best to let me be cornered by these manic creatures in some small colonnade.

Finally I escaped to a worst fate, the coach and driver. The last few days held the most fun for me and two other boys called Hugh and Ben.The end of the week was a time of slight depression as everyone had thoroughly enjoyed it bar a few terrible moments. The climax of our week was spent in the five star hotel. Ben came into my room with Hugh and struck me with the idea of exploring the building opposite, I thought this was a good plan as I was intensely bored owing to the fact that skiing was of as there was too much fog up the mountain. We crossed the street and the cold tore at my hat urged on by the wind.

The road was slim and winded round the buildings and houses.It was crested with snow and decorated with ice that made the journey across the gap much longer than it should have been. The doorman did not seem to notice as three boys entered the hotel; as soon as we were in the main hall we new this was quite a place to be in. The staircase seemed to lead to heaven, numerous doors led to numerous rooms of leisure. We took the first door that came in our contact. It opened onto a narrow corridor that led like an endless snake deep into the building.