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Published: January 13th 2008
Begin the end
The view from like a tenth of the way up the hill...This site is just so cool...
I just spent like an hour looking around some truly inspiring blogs, I would tell you all to go look at my favourites but then you would never come back to my little un-inspiring blog now would you? 😉
But seriously, massive snaps to the guy who started this Ali, just some dude who took of traveling and wanted a site where all his family could read about his travels - so cool how some things just start from not much at all.
Like my tutor last semester was wanking on one day about the beginnings of the internet, when it was only code geeks who could get around. Anyway, these two code geeks would keep a list of every site that they found online, and when their bosses or their friends would want to find something that they themselves were not geeky enough to find, they would come to these two guys for the info. The two guys thought that everyone else was a bit backward, a bit yokel, a bit yahoo... and thus the first online search site was born - Yahoo...
Might be bullshit, but probably not... though
my tutor did have a habit of talking crap. And he watched House and Cold Case over Heroes when they were all on Wednesday nights... back when Heroes was just AWESOME!!! Who does that? Freak... AND he only gave me a 6... Double freak...
Annnyway, this blog is about New Year's Eve 2008. I would like to take the time now to hope that you all had a fabulous night, and that you had a more eventful New Year's Day then I managed to.
So... new year's ever over in Germany is referred to as Silvester, as it is St Silvester's day. They're big with the saints over here. Chrisitine was saying that when Doris (her mum) was a kid, rather than celebrate your birthday on... your birthday, you would celebrate on your saint's day. To which I was like 'what if you're name in tenille? or LaToya? or Sky?' Hmmm, that's possibly why it doesn't happen so much, damn rap music 😉
Anyway, on Silvester in Oberstaufen, everyone buys up big on fireworks and sets up in a cool spot at midnight and let's 'er rip! Warren and Chrisitine decided that the best place to be
Warren and the sunset
at our first champagne break at midnight would be on the hill overlooking Staufner Park... but wa left the house at around 2pm... what would we do until then??
First stop was Norma (another Aldi ripoff) where we just made it in before closing - so sweet, and we bought sect (champagne) and discount cigarettes. Over here Aldi type stores even have their own cheapo brand of ciggies - awesome. we bought the Marlboro ripoff Malvins. Very nice!
We wandered through town with our two bottle of sect and our two sleds... to Christine's brother Alexander's apartment that he shares with he girlfriend Steffi. We went to praise the Christmas Tree and drink schnapps... Alexander was playing funky music, where this german band had just put their own spin on classic songs - it was cool. Susan's drink metre - 1 herbal schnapps, 1 glass of sect.
After we left Steffi and Alexander's we walked to the bus stop and caught a bus to Steibis ski fields! Well, near Steibis ski fields anyway... We walked to the firleds where there were heaps of families hanging out at the base restaurant, walking to their cars - it was a hive of activity.
Christine and the sect
Over here not all champagne is champagne... only THE champagne (ie - from the region) is, all else is sect... And then we started climbing. We walked past the sled field where there were heaps of dogs, and kids, and people just having a great time, and we continued up to the ski pist. Basically; the plan was just to walk up to the very top, walking along the side of the pist. Personally, I find this a little difficult... the pist is always quite smooth, and therefore easy to fall over on. But it's fun aswell.
We walked up and up and up. Each time we would stop Christine would say 'we are nearly there' to which I would reply 'I soooo don't believe you' and I didn't, not after she said we were nearly finished on our walk with Doris and Hugo when we still had like 3 kilometres to walk in foot high snow 😉 and then Warren would say 'yeah, I think we're about a quarter of the way up'.
On our second stop, when we were in sight of the lower hut, we stopped to enjoy the beginnings of the last sunset of 2007 - and it was a beauty! We sat on the sleds, popped a bottle of champagne and swigged away,
Me,
and the sun setiing on 2007 while looking out over the valley below - magic!
It was at this point that I put in my earphones and continued walking up and up (I suck at talking when walking... especially uphill, I see walking as a solo sport - and in the cold, I was trying to concentrate on my breathing so I didn't have an asthma attack) so there I was, heading up a hill, swigging from a sect bottle, listening to my top twenty tracks of 2007 - Rilo Kiley, Blue Eyed Son, Mirah, Butterfly Boucher... it was truly stellar, and I wish you all could have been there! I did make a video for you all, but it is stuck back on my dead laptop... eventually I will edit this blog and attach it.
Anyway, eventually, in the distance, I saw a hut, but I told myself that that wouldn't be THE hut we were headed to, but Warren said it was... suddenly, with my tunes and my happy thoughts of home, I started to lag behind even more... snapping photos of the setting sun... I didn't want the feeling to end I guess.
But, we reached the top, and took
Cheers
Thought I would share a Susan's eye view... some more photos in the dark (some turned out okay) and then we went into the hut, sat down, and started drinking. Of course they were playing the very best of German ski field music... dance-covers of 80's cock-rock songs, Wolfgang Petrie... they had it all... well, they had just those two - but it was enough.
At about ten, we left the hut, and headed back to our sleds... a feeling of terror growing in the pit of my stomach... Stuey and I were both concerned, as the plan was to tandem sled the whole way down the mountain with only one light, and only one person (Christine) who had done much sledding... I wouldn't have been so concerned if I hadn't seen for myself the massive drops off the ski pist.. and if I hadn't just sat and had like 5 rounds of beer with these people... and when I say beer in Germany, I'm not talking about a pot, or even a pint - I'm talking a halbe - a half litre of the stuff... So when we got the the pist, I just said over and over again 'I wanna go with Christine'. Any excuse
The last gasp
mind you, this was at like 4 in the afternoon they threw at me; 'we're too heavy for the other sled' stuey would say... 'I think it should be boy girl, boy girl'... 'I hate you and I hope your sled runs off the mountain'... I would just chant my mantra 'I wanna go with Christine'... surprisingly, it worked, and I was soon clinging to Christine for dear life, feeling snow whip in my face, pushing my left foot into the snow when she said left, and my right foot in when she yelled right....
It was freaking awesome... Indescribably cool...
I'm just gonna leave some room here, please imagine a brilliant paragraph about how very cool and very ... just ace sledding at night is.
See... I told you - people should write songs about that sort of thing.
We reached the bottom of the pist, and headed down onto the sled field.. where it got bumpy - and fecking fun! In the distance we saw the cab arrive that Christine had called before we left the top of the run. And we collected up our sleds and ran to meet it. We were all still covered in
The hut is in sight...
woohoo!!! our (blurry) destination, and drinking home for the next few hours snow, and I could not wipe the smile off of my face. Soon we arrived at the Glashaus on the park and headed inside for a drink and for a dance.
Before I knew it (can you tell that I may have been a little tiny bit drunk by now?) Warren was grabbing me, telling me to bring my beer coz we were walking up the hill for midnight. We trudged through the park, kicking snow and swigging beers, and then we walked up the snowy path up the hill to a hut. We stumbled through the worn track over the barbed wire fence and through the snow and then rested our second bottle of sect in the snow to chill as we found a good spot.
There was a family up there who had just gone crazay with the fireworks shopping... The parents had been in Australia for the bicentennial, they were really nice, but it did totally freak me out that there were little kids playing with lighters and using them to launch rockets not four metres from where I was.
Before I knew it (I see a theme happening here...) the countdown was on...
Looking out
to 2008... will it be AS wankery? only time will tell... eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two...
and 2007 was out-a-there! Hello 2008! First task... do not fall down hill. I remember stumbling at one point, and saw my life flash before my eyes... well, I saw myself making an ass out of myself anyway - best not to let that happen... We popped the sect and hit the bubbles, my first drink of 2008 was a small sip, but the bubbles rushed up my throat and burned at the back of my nose, forcing me to cough alcohol onto the snow, like an amateur. It was great!
Fireworks blew up all over the valley below. Someone was firing from Steibis (where we had been before), the kids in front of us were going crazy with their supply, people had gathered in the centre of town and there were fireworks shooting high above the church... It was like nothing I had ever seen. I was so in awe... so drunk, yet so in awe - I have never had a better new year's.
And then it was on with the merry randomness... Suddenly everyone was hugging, Vera and her fiance and her sister were suddenly right next
to me, had I been THAT drunk that I didn't even notice who I was standing next to? No... I blame the view... I was all wrapped up in the view... Many hugs and many swigs of sect later we headed back down the hill, back to the Glashaus.
But... on the way, we pulled past an apartment to wish Christine's old babysitter a happy new year. 'Oma' then invited us in for more sect, and I think we stayed for like an hour... maybe more... Stuart and I sat and ate christmas cookies and solved all the world's problems for the duration, while Warren sat at the other end of the room and inhaled a box of cheese stick thingys and chatted with Oma and her neighbours. It was random - the guy there was wearing lederhose - and totally awesome!
Eventually we climbed back down from the balcony into the snow and walked across the park back to the Glashaus.
I remember very little from this point. and what I do remember - ie definitely NOT having any Mojitos, is apparently a lie... I do remember grabbing Hannes the bar guy at one point and
Our friendly waiter
I was crunk by this stage... i just remember hassling him about some badge he was wearing, which was supposed to be a pig... I couldn't see it though. dragging him to the bar to show him what a Jager bomb was... and I remember chatting to a girl who knew who I was, and I just remember asking again and again 'what is your name?'...
And I remember B52s... and seeing Christine grab her coat at the same time as Stuey was receiving another round of the shots... I remember looking between the two events and running to grab Christine to get her to take me with her. Away from the alcohol!
And then I remember opening my eyes, recognising that I was in bed, mustering enough energy to lift my arm to my face to read the time (3 o'clock - and the sun suggested that it was definitely PM) and I closed my eyes again. I next opened them as the sun was setting over New Year's day - at around 5pm.
I stumbled down to say hi to everyone, and was slightly less mortified by my marathon sleep when I leearned that Stuey had not yet arisen - yeeha!
We ate soup with dumplings which was just the best ever!!! and then we all headed down to Stuey's room with a
heap of junk food to watch Lord of the Rings - the Return of the King - the extended version... So three hours later and the logical end point rolls by... another hour and the credits are finally rolling - it was awesome... I think I was still a little drunk though, but we had such a good time taking the piss out of how gay samwise and frodo were acting...
Okay... they're not gay! They're hobbits!
So, I'm Susan Shaw, and that is my story for new years.
No blogs for another week as I am heading to london tomorrow (I have been in france for a week now) and I left my card reader (like an idiot) in germany, so whilst I will attempt to write a couple of blogs, I wont puplish them till I have some photos to go along with them.
In case something should happen, maybe I never said this, but I love all of you. - and no, I don't think anything will happen, I just want someone to tell me what movie that is from. and meg - you have a nice day!
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Meg
non-member comment
Wolfgang Petrie Rocks!
Who couldn't have an awesome new year's eve with Wolfgang Petrie playing!!!!! Sounds like you had a blast Sus! You have a nice day!