Thursday, March 12, 2009

Slides and Crashes

So we all came back in one piece from Åre Björnen. Skiing down the somewhat intermediate slopes (after we got the hang of it at the easier paths) was really adrenalinifying okay! Many of the others kept going "damn fun!".

Anyhow, there were a couple of life-endangering moments that happened to Young, and Bryan especially. Taking the T-lift up that almost 45deg slope UP to make our way home on the second day was heart-stopping, and I didn't even dare to risk looking up at where I was heading, but kept looking down at my skiis to make sure they didn't cross if not... that's it. You wouldn't want to start imagining how it'd be like sliding down that crazy advance slope, backward. So, Samantha and I took it up together, while Young and Kevin were together behind us. I think I was too caught up in my own fears to realise (until later on) that Young fell off his lift and was practically dragged up by it! With Kevin laughing non-stop beside him.

"Fortunate" thing #1: he was dragged up by it, safely.

Okay I go back to the first day. Bryan was attempting the "forest slope", and he was doing well until he ended it off with a hard crash against a huge tree! Michelle was looking from afar (she was beside me and PL), and she said she could hear the crash from where we were standing. His knee suffered the impact, and he had no choice but to be counted off from our second-day ski.

He got back to the slopes on the 3rd day, on which Michelle Clara and I became slackers and didn't ski that much already. Mich's left leg was in quite a bad state (pain and/or inclining towards numbness), so I decided to accompany her. And so the three of us basically soaked in the Åre air (more like, wind), talked about everything, looked at the lil Swedish kids hovering around the area where we were seating, and enjoyed our ice-creams :D Yea I know I shouldn't be eating them so I shared half of it with Mich okay! The sandwich choc ice-cream was not bad (:

Okay I digress. At the end of the day we heard from Cliff that Bryan was going up another T-lift, and he wasn't able to leave the lift when the stop came cause his coat was caught to it! And the rest could only, dumbfoundedly, see him get dragged up, face down, until Cliff tried to rescue him.

"Fortunate thing" #2: In the end it was these two Swed guys plus someone who stopped the lift from below that got him out. If this didn't happen, he'd have been dragged up past that stop (which was almost near the peak), across the valley, and back down. He was thoroughly overwhelmed by the whole thing, definitely.

Alright, now for the pictures.

Day 51;
Brought half of the loaf to Åre in case the hunger pangs crawl in at anytime over there.

Plus this half dozen of kanebulle;
The other half (as well as the prev bread) went to Mich.
With jam!
Day 52;
Dinner on the train (all of us brought the fried rice), of which we somehow missed and thus had to rearrange for another to take us to Stockholm C. Thankfully there were two Swedish with us (Cliff & Marcus) so things went about more smoothly (:
Day 53;
ÅRE!
We had to walk a distance from the train station, plus take the bus, to get to our apartment.
Shared the master bedroom with PL.
Cliff & Bryan's room.
My room window.
The second-floor bathroom.
The balcony.
These hanged just above the stairway.
These were to our right when we first stepped into our house.
The first-floor bathroom;
Our fav, as you can see why (:
The sauna in our apartment.
Kevin & Young's nest.
Indoor temp;
More accurately, My Room temp.
See the kids at the slopes? They were almost like mini experts, and all we could do were to just stand by and watch them ski and jump (literally!) off the humps along their way. Seems like skiing is very much ingrained into the Swedish culture, and you see that the most part of the place was filled with families. The parents, who must have been skiing since they were young as well, were uber skilled, and they'd take their kid down the omg-are-you-sure-we-can-actually-go-down-this slope. I personally saw the lil noises made by the kids as they expressed their fear, but the next thing their parent, who stood just behind them, did was to move forward, and down that slope together.
I just laid the bedsheet we (conveniently) koped from the train across my bed, and the comforter kept me really warm those three nights, even with just my fbts on.
Northern lights?
Anyhow, we were still thrilled at the sight of such a green band;
Cliff was saying it's the glow from the moon (cannot be, right?), while someone else reckoned that it was some signalling light.
Love this shot! (:
Day 54;
Breakfast - banana in yogurt.
Day 55;
Dinner - the meals then became a 10-persons affair when the four others came a morning after us.
The smoke alarm didn't go off this time, fortunately.
It went off while we were in Kiruna (when the chicken wings were just gotten out of the oven), and the day before in this Åre apartment.
Steamed egg, courtesy of Young.
The chocs that were supposedly well-known in Åre.
Some of them felt that it didn't taste spectacular, though I still enjoyed 'em!
Melt-in-your-mouth, hello.
The stuff I placed on the shelf above my bed;
The "middle column" ones were what went to cover my legs and butt throughout the ski trip.
Day 56;
Railing home.

Dinner on board which we prepared that morning. It got quite dry by the time we all ate it, so I later poured over some potato salad and mimosa toppings (some fruit salad which Cliff recommended).

It was quite a pleasant feeling to receive an email (not the first though; far from it) from my Dad when I returned, updating me on life back at home as well as in Singapore, and some world affairs. The feeling's rather inexplicable knowing that they were out in the sunny lil island of Singapore Sentosa, while I just came back from my ski trip. Okay you might not comprehend what I'm saying over here; that's why the 'inexplicable'. Anyhow, it was good to hear that they had an enjoyable afternoon together over there.

Sent him eleven internet smses yesterday afternoon, and I hope he's received them!

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