Lessons in Foreign Lands: St. Anton Excursion

So on Wednesday (March 30) I had a class excursion to St. Anton. St. Anton is a huge tourist destination in the winter for the skiing and snowboarding, although, it is quite expensive.

So we hopped on a bus for over an hour, again great views, but they are hard to capture through a bus window.

We were taken to a little presentation about St. Anton and all it has to offer.

On a side note, the presentation was a PREZI! I was so excited. I instantly thought of Event Risk Management that I took with Dr. Hogg back at UCF and how he encouraged us to use prezi, the majority of the students had no idea what it was and I felt so ahead of the game for the first time since being in Innsbruck.

For those of you that don’t know about prezi, it is like the new and improved power point of our generation.

Anyway, after the presentation we took a walk through the little village, into the spa,

had a chance to glance at the hunting club type convention that was being held there, and then we walked over to the gondola.

This is not your normal gondola, this is a state of the art gondola. It pulls right up to you and simplifies the entire gondola process. It is completely necessary? Probably not but it is still cool to say I have been on it.

So I previously mentioned I have a slight fear of heights. The gondola ride was not my favorite. There were about 30 people sardine-d in there and I tried getting some pictures but it was a little difficult, again, through a window.

Once we got off we had lunch, the same from the other ski restaurant, cheese dumpling soup and ski wasser! Only difference? About five more Euro.

After lunch we took some pictures.

(Lisa, Me, Matt, Jenna, Ally, and Ola)

Then we headed further up the mountain, we took another, smaller gondola, and then another that could only hold six people at a time! I was a nervous wreck but I convinced myself I am only here once and to get my ass on that gondola.

(I am in there somewhere)

I made it to the top!

Next was Après-Ski! This literally means “After Ski”. It is one giant party, everyone that has spent the day on the mountain heads over there for dancing and alcohol, in full on ski gear.

We were taken to a back room in Mooser Wirt, the owner bought our first round and the gave us a tour of the place. They are currently building a hotel on property that looks like it will be amazing.

You pull into a car elevator, it takes you down to the parking garage and then you enter into the front desk, they even wash your car while you are there! The best part is you can ski right out of your room, not need to go to another part of the mountain.

The only down side is that is about 150 Euro per person per night.

He also showed us how they supply all of the alcohol in a short amount of time. This place is the only place to be between four and I believe he said eight, so they are slammed for four hours and that is it. They had to have an extremely efficient system to get lots of alcohol to lots of people, as quickly as possible.

So everything, and when I say everything, I mean everything, is on tap, every beer, wine, liquor, everything, is on tap. He took us down to show us where it all comes from.

After the tour we all were given free Mooser Wirt hats! Then we headed outside to see the madness that is Après-Ski!