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Family ski holiday in Austria: Ups & Downs

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It has been our tradition to go skiing with my family for 5y now. Last year we were in Kirchberg (see here the blog on my winter ascent) and this year not far away from Wildschoenau. The chalet wasn’t as luxurious (no wifi, not very clean etc), but on the flip side there were other houses in our village ‘almdorf’ allowing Alex to meet new friends such as Linus from Aschaffenburg and the snow-white family dog Lillyfe. With the kids busy, we enjoyed talking to the parents Tanja & Rene – perfect. 

Message to Almdorf Wildschoenau: Hey guys … the wifi & heating (to dry clothes!?!) need fixing. Ahh yes, and take a look under the beds. Needs some cleaning too. And a toaster per house would be great too. Otherwise, we enjoyed our stay. 

Here a great clip of the trip … thanks go to my sister for this one!
[wpvideo fUwjMUFM]

Weather wise we were not very fortunate. after a full week of sunshine in 2017, we only had one really brilliant day though generally good snow conditions and beautiful white coated forests everywhere around us.

 

Ski arena Wildschoenau: the ski area couldn’t quite compare to kirchberg/kitzbuehel. In particular it lacks good blue runs for the parents we felt. Also apres ski was pretty muted, as the area is mainly frequented by families that don’t go much more crazy than a few drinks at the end of the day.

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Project igloo – well, an open air one anyway: alex loves playing in the snow. With plenty of snow around he suggested we build an igloo. Well, we tried but just didn’t have the skills to fit a roof. Still, great effort and fun building it together. The ferraro rocher that alex has hidden somewhere inside is still there – bon appetit to whoever finds it!

 

Progress report – Mum taking second place in her first race: Alex went to ski school as usual. He is still struggling with  parallel skiing at times, but fearless and enjoying every moment. Mum also went on a course again in her second year and ski’s really well by now. Her efforts were awarded with a stunning 2nd place finish (out of 9) in Thursdays slalom race. We had bets running where she’d come out. Frances was spot on while we others all expected a worse outcome (Bodo #4, Ronny #6, Alex #8). The ceremony happened at Hotel Harfenwirt and rounded off our evening out. Fun. 

 

Carneval @ home: this years winter holiday coincided with the carneval week. We had brought costumes and celebrated in the chalet. Alex went as dragon, sister as indian, dad as captain, mum as something and i as some hula hula girl from Hawaii (though with a strong ladyboy touch judging by the pictures / feedback … well, i am just back from Thailand after all). Alex’ friend linus and his parents joined us for the evening. to our surprise, all of us being really tired from sport & fresh air all day, we chatted to almost 10pm and laughed a lot. Great evening. 

 

German  carneval & its origins – see here for a really good source

I guess a good way of understnading the origins are to look into the three typical terms for carneval – carneval itself, fastnacht & fasching (depending on the region). Historically it was a celebration ahead of a ‘fasting’ period beginning ash Wednesday and lasting about 6w to Easter Sunday.

The word Fasching dates back to the 13th century and is derived from the Germanic word vaschanc or vaschang, in modern German: Fastenschank = the last serving of alcoholic beverages before Lent. In olden times the 40-day Lenten period of fasting was strictly observed. People refrained from drinking alcohol or eating meat, milk products and eggs. The English word “fast” (to refrain from eating) is related to German fasten.

Karneval, on the other hand, is a newer, much more recent (17th century), Latin-based word borrowed from French and Italian. The true origin of the word is uncertain, but it probably comes from Latin carne levare (“away with meat”) > carnelevale > Karneval or Carnival. In earlier times, the German word was even written with a C rather than today’s K-spelling. (Some German carnival associations still use the Carneval spelling in their names.)

The third common term for carnival in German, Fastnacht, refers to the Swabian-Alemannic carnival, which differs in some ways from Fasching and Karneval, and is found in Baden-Württemberg, Franconia (northern Bavaria), Hesse and much of Switzerland. Although this word looks like it comes from the German for the “eve of Lent,” in fact it is based on the Old German word fasen (“to be foolish, silly, wild”). Thus the word, sometimes spelled Fasnacht (without the t) actually means something like “night of being wild and foolish.” You can learn more about Fastnacht below.

Slap in the face (with a hammer): Not all was fun for me last week. I had to deal with some surprisingly rude treatment from someone who I value very much and thought vice versa. How wrong I was. I skip the myriad of details here. Such things happen in life – both on the giving & receiving end – and one gets over it.  But then it always hurts when someone essentially slaps you in the face unexpectedly and with brute force. Especially if it is someone that you helped a great deal in life. Sometimes these things are interpersonal, cultural, to protect the other person, influenced by third parties, out of fear, because of difficult family situations, due to lack of maturity or sometimes because it’s just hard to speak the truth … god only knows (but he kept it to himself for now). Cut. Next take. Get ready to shoot. Sound rolling. Camera rolling. Action!

It’s funny how sometimes the people you’d take a bullet for are the ones behind the trigger.

Finishing off in Munich – as usual: It’s never good to finish on a bad note after a challenging week. Nor should I. Good news is that there are so many good people in life, first and foremost my sister. As we have done in so many years, once again we enjoyed a good time in Munich. Alex had right a go at the Schweinehaxe in the Hofbraeuhaus … impressive how much he liked to nibble on this big piece of pork. German after all.

Family isn’t always blood. It’s the people in your life who want you in theirs; the ones who accept who you are. The ones who would do anything to see you smile & who love you no matter what.

 

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