St. Moritz

My cousin Stephanie had contacted me to let me know she was going to be in St. Moritz with a group of skiers. I immediately told her I’d be joining her, I was so excited to snowboard in the Alps. Seriously, if you’re going to live in Europe for a year, how do you not ski the Alps at least once? This was an idea lost on my Barcelona friends.

So I caught a flight to Dusseldorf then on to Zurich. I forgot how big men could be while I was in Spain, and was quickly reminded of it in Germany. They were huge and they all looked like they could be a relative. Everyone spoke English and they were all in a hurry. On the plane from Dusseldorf to Zurich I was staring out the window, when I heard and very sweet and very yodely YaHOOoo! It was the attendant trying to catch my attention. It took me all of my might not to just start giggling. Did she really just Yahoo me? Do they really say that?

I arrived in Switzerland and was met with customs who asked where I was coming from. I said Barcelona, but my flight came through Dusseldorf. He searched my passport and said, neither country has stamped your passport. I shrugged and said, but you can, I like the stamps. He then said “it is not an option, countries are supposed to stamp the passport so we know where you are coming from, if they don’t the system doesn’t work, this is unacceptable”, and I knew I had arrived in Switzerland.

Ok, so this is totally my bad, but I didn’t realize that the Swiss don’t accept the Euro, they’re on Francs. So the 15 minute ride from the airport to the train station cost me $47 euro. The driver tried to keep the change from y $50. Um, no. Sorry, $47 euro for 15 minutes, you don’t get a tip, he reluctantly gave me back a $5 Franc. Um, what the hell is this coin? It wasn’t till I got to the hotel that I found out the Franc is worth 40% less than the Euro, so the ride should have just cost me way less. Bastard.

But I got to the train station at 7:30 for the last train that left at 7:37. Got my ticket and on the train in the nick of time. Arrived in St. Moritz at 11pm and found Stephanie.

It was so good to see her, and I met my new friend Dorey who was sharing a room with Stephanie. The next day we woke to go snowboarding. Stephanie said she wanted to snowboard (I think she may have been doing it just for me) while Dorey continued to ski. We figured Dorey ditched us after awhile, so we headed to the kids slope to practice a bit. Once we got kicked out of there, we headed to have a beer. We decided to go for the large one, when we finished the waitress asked if we needed more, we said no we have to snowboard and should have our wits about us. To which she said, if you’re new to snowboarding you need one more half beer, it is just the right amount to keep your wits but give you courage. So we had a half beer. Who are we to argue with the experts?

Don’t even get me started with the T-bar lift. I never got the hang of that thing, and at one point they had to shut it down as I was being dragged up the hill by my legs with it. Oh, and it turns out Dorey didn’t ditch us, we ditched her. She was a little perturbed when we found her at the hotel, but a Minnesota perturbed so not that bad. (Sorry Dorey)

The next day we decided to wander around town. We stopped at the ski shop to pick up something and found our friends John and Argentina boy. These kids were hysterical, the typical stoner ski bums, but they giggled at everything we said, so we liked them. We decided to have a drink of water and Stephanie went to the dispenser, it was kind of difficult, but she finally got one out and poured herself a glass. Then she noticed that they had extras and said it would be easier just to use those, and passed them out to Dorey and I. When we finished an older ski guy came up and took the cups from us. He promptely put them into the dispenser Stephanie had got hers from. There was a moments pause before we all just turned around and walked out, we weren’t even capable of saying a decent thank you or goodbye. Dorey, couldn’t make it up the stairs she was laughing so hard. Steph, you just drank out of the trash!
The town was fabulous, everyone spoke English, it was like being in one of those little towns that the model train maker make. Of course everything was overpriced, it’s Switzerland, and the most ritzy ski town in Switzerland, but still cheaper than Aspen.

One of the ladies in the group broke her pelvic bone the first day, so we visited her in the hospital. Ok, if you’re ever going to break something skiing do it in St. Moritz, the place was like a high end spa. And the cost was $6000.00 francs (about $5,500) for a four day hospital stay, for cash that’s a pretty good deal.

The Alps were pretty intimidating and on the last day I finally gave up snowboarding. The day started out perfect, but after about 6 runs, the clouds came in and you couldn’t see the snow from the sky and couldn’t tell there was a hill till you were already going down it. I gave up and hit the Heineken tent, I had nothing to prove. Steph and Dorey continued on. Steph got stuck in a ravine and had to climb up an ice wall. Thankfully a man stopped to help pull her up. But of course Steph, the nicest person in the world and from MN, hanging from an ice cliff said, “oh no, that’s ok I don’t want to bother you.” Thankfully he insisted. I hit her when I heard that one. There is a point where manners are not longer relative.

We went out one night. I got hit on by a young German who when he heard my age said very creepily, “oh, 39, so you know what you want”. Um, yeah that’s not you. At least the 28 year olds in Spain that hit on me don’t voice that opinion.
All in All St. Moritz is definitely an experience I’m glad I could share with James Bond, I wish I was more athletic, but I’m not, so I can say I did it and be happy.