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Published: December 10th 2008
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Alright, this one was incredible. The pics tell the story better than me. So lets just start with how cheap this trip was.
Train ticket to Trento: 5 euro
Bus ticket to Giustino/Madonna di Campiglio: 4 euro
= 9 euro to get to the slopes
Hotel: 30 euro a night x 4 = 120 euro
Lift passes: 25 euro a day x 4 =100 euro
Skis: 25 euro a day x 4 =100 euro
Food and fun x 4 = 60 euro
So, for the entire trip, I spent 400 euro, or 500 bucks, for 4 days of skiing. Anyone from next semester that reads this, PLEASE, go skiing. It's the cheapest trip you can get and is easily the most fun!
Moving on. So the day before this trip, I didn't even know what hotel I was going to stay in, much less if I was even going. The idea of this trip started at a little party at my house in a conversation that I wasn't even sure Pascal, my German friend, would remember. The day before we left, he found a hotel in Giustino called Hotel Bepy (which is short for Giuseppe). I called
them up and the first time I talked to the guy, he told me that they could have us, then 10 minutes later I called and the lady told me that they were closed for a day then hung up on me... TII, so I just had the secretary from my school call so we could be really clear. She reserved the hotel and we were set.
A little side note: my buddies and I were watching Blood Diamond a few weeks ago, and in one part of the movie, Leonardo DeCaprio is being asked some question about why blood diamonds can be sold when people are dying to get them, and he responds "TIA: This is Africa". Well in Italy, seldom do things go exactly as you'd logically think, so we've started saying "TII: This is Italy" whenever we don't understand why things work the way they do. As I'm sure you can imagine, thisnhappens all the time.
There was a train leaving from Verona the next day every half our for Trento, so Pascal and I just kinda decided an hour before that we were going for sure. I packed up my stuff and headed for
the train station. I was a little worried about leaving my bike there for 4 nights, but luckily, nobody stole it. Getting into Trento, we looked for ski rental shops, but unlike Denver, they really only rent skis at the mountain. At first I was a little upset about this, but it later turned out to be good because renting skis literally took 5 minutes, when in Colorado it can take like an hour.
Before we got to the hotel, we stopped at a little supermarket so we could grab some food and feed my obsession with German beer...I will miss it soooo much. So when we got into Giustino, which is where Hotel Bepy was, we were greeted by a woman who kind of reminded me of my Aunt Darlene. She was very energetic and upitty, and she treated us like we were family (which was surprising considering she hung up on me the day before). When we got to the cozy room, which was just the attic of the hotel, I cracked open a brewski and after watching an episode of Walker: Texas Ranger in Italian, we shortly after fell asleep.
The next morning, a bus
came and picked us up to get to Madonna di Campiglio which took about 30 minutes. After grabbing our skis, we were on the slopes by about 9 am. Now this was one of the first days the mountain was open, so a black run that we later found out was awesome was closed. On top of this, it was snowing like crazy which was cool for me, but Pascal didn't have any ski goggles, so he just had to follow me. It kinda reminded me of a few years ago when we were at A-Basin in Colorado because I literally couldn't even see the run markers. Half the time we skied that day, we were in a cloud, but it didn't matter too much to me because I was skiing in the alps. The runs actually started getting a bit boring by the end of the day because they were, for the most part, just reds and blues, which is our equivalent of blues and greens. The next day we decided we'd stay in Pinzolo, which was the mountain closer to our hotel.
Immediately the next morning, we were on the slopes. It was about 9 am again
that we got up on the mountain and we were the first ones on the slopes (which was great because we didn't have any little kids to avoid and we could just fly). Pinzolo was just incredible. The powder was fresh and all the runs were groomed. It wasn't as big as Madonna di Campiglio, but it sure was more fun! Only complaint that we had was that there wasn't a stunt park, but I guess the kept us from getting injured. Anyways, check the video I took of this place because I'm pretty proud of it.
That night we went to Campiglio to meet with some of our British friends. All I have to say is NEVER, and I mean NEVER, mix Jager, beer, wine, and Johnnie Walker, in any quantity, over the course of a night. It will punish you the next day. So we tried to go to a club but it was 50 euro to get in. Unless it was like free drinks, we weren't willing to go in, so we just kind of hung out, and then pascal and I had to pay 20 euro each to get a cab back to our hotel.
Yikes. It was worth it though, because otherwise we probably would have just watched Walker: Texas Ranger or Dances With Wolves, like we did the next day, in Italian. Crazy.
So as I said, the next day was fun, but my headache that lasted literally until I went to bed really hurt. I think it started from the drinks, but later I discovered that I have a knot in the back of my neck about the size of a golf ball which I think pinched a nerve or something and then gave me a headache. The British girls gave me a killer neck massage and after that night I felt a lot better. Lucky me!
The last day we skied at Madonna di Campiglio and I was pleasantly surprised. I think the weather being so bad the first day really hurt my thoughts on the mountain, because the last day I was really impressed. They had some GREAT black runs that you could just fly down if there weren't a bunch of kids in the way. It was a bit icy, but not so much that it was impossible to ski. There was actually one run that I
just got some crazy air on with all sorts of little bumps. It was one of those times when you hit a few little bumps and then misjudge a big one. I was falling for about 10 feet, but luckily I didn't bite it.
The trip ended with us taking a bus back and polishing off the last of my German beer as we enjoyed the view. It was an incredible trip, and if you are ever in Europe in the winter, make sure you go!
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