Ski
Trip 2002
School ski-trip Diary
Introduction/Day
1
On
Saturday the 16th of March 2002, at 3 O'clock in the morning you
would have found 43 people half-asleep dragging luggage around
the Villiers car park. We eventually ended up in the dining room
for a role call and we were then given topflight free-bees and
small laminated cards with the numbers of the Alpen Hotel, Erhwald,
Mr. Sutton and Mr. McCrohan. We were also each given a number;
mine was 35, which was our bank account and place alphabetically
in the group.
Shortly after 3 we hugged anxious parents goodbye, felt excitement
mixed with extreme tiredness, and boarded the Coach. It was a
long cool affair, with green triangular lights partially illuminating
purple-white seats. As we drove off I remember struggling to wave
goodbye to Mum and feeling thrilled to be on our long awaited
journey to the Austrian Alps and Skiing. Most of us were too hyper
to sleep so we talked, listened to stereos, put on hats of varying
sizes and stupidity and took our first pictures of the tour. The
trip to Dublin Airport was to last three and a half hours and
by the end it was light and we were cramped from sitting too long.
The large buildings, towers and car park of the Airport greeted
us as we stumbled of the coach and opened up the luggage lockers.
We set about grabbing huge suitcases that definitely did not weigh
15 kg and prayed that the people in Dublin couldn't count. I made
my way as part of a long snake of trolleys feeling more awake
every minute and looking forward to the plane trip. We checked
in and I thanked God that the check-in women hadn't noticed that
my two bags combined weighed 27 kg. We had a wait of two hours
before boarding the plane at gate A13 so we had a bite to eat,
hung around and found Turner, Anna Sheane and Emma who were supposed
to meet us in the Airport. We then boarded Flight FR7038 to Salzburg.
The plane was quite crowded but I was really excited as I sat
down in seat 4F next to Niki Sterritt and Phillip Stokes. We looked
our last at Ireland through the tiny windows and settled back
for the two and a half-hour flight. I always had loved planes
taking off and relished the racing down the runway and the noise
of the engines speeding us into the air. For lunch on the plane
we had a small breakfast-lunch of a couple of sausages some bacon
and other stuff in neat little plastic tray things. Failing to
steal Stokes' sausages, I consoled myself by talking to Niki a
bit about plane crashes and watching her reactions. Ryanair had
thankfully changed their policies on the use of battery powered
items and I was able to listen to some more music once we were
safely into the air and the Seatbelt sign had been turned off.
We passed over Birmingham, then south over London, across the
Channel to Belgium, through German airspace to finally land in
Salzburg, Austria, safely.
Then there was the getting off, working out how to use the weird
push down things on the trolleys, grabbing our luggage off the
conveyor belt and taking turns to sit on the trolley while your
friend pushed you (In My case Jumbo) and tried to knock other
people and their bags off their trolleys. It was great Craic.
We were met by a wonderful clear sunny sky when we went outside
along with our tour guide and topflight liaison guy, Brian. I
looked around at all the signs in German and took in the fact
that we were suddenly in a different country. We got on the bus
and began the final stretch of the journey to Ehrwald. As we looked
out of the window we absorbed our first sights of a whole different
country. Austria we soon saw had a totally different landscape,
with Ireland's green, lush fields being replaced by shorter cut,
darker green stretches and abundant coniferous forest, with views
of huge mountains peaked with snow in the distance.
