Yesterday was a strong contendor for being one of the best days of my life. It was amazing. It was a day filled with adventure, and a day that made me question myself. A professed beach girl living in Colorado, I may have discovered that there is a mountain girl inside after all. I have always enjoyed trail running, sledding, and hot tubs in the mountains, but recently I have come to really love them.

It all starts in a little town called Innsbruck, the alpine version of good, old Boulder, CO. It has mountains surrounding the town, only they are giant snow-capped Alps, a university, only next to a mideval town quare, and a gushing green river. Rachel and I had many fun times there, especially when we dicovered the best grocery store ever that provided us with tiny bottles of champagne enjoyed with yogurt next to the river, at dog school, climbing the surrounding peaks, eating late night pizza, and accidentally ordering massive desserts (again).

The glory of couchsurfing.com brought us together with a very nice couple, Rene and Steffie, who upon meeting us immediately invited us to join them to meet their parents at a ski resort near Jerzens, Austria for a day of snowshoeing and tobagganing. We accepted their gracious offer, and the fun began. We took a long, windy road up into the mountains, and started our day with a visit to a nice little cabin where we were immediately offered schnapse and chocolate, signaling a different kind of skiing atmosphere than I am used to. Our first part up the mountain was by gondola, to a cafe where we had tea and rum. I am pretty sure that drinking and skiing are considered a fine combination, as well as sunbathing between runs. We then sledded down some hiking trails at mock speeds to a delicious lunch with parents, followed by the real work.

We took a lovely wide path up the mountains, where we were rewarded with amazing views of massive, snowy mountaintops between trees every few minutes. I tried my hand at snowshoe running again, and I still think it is fun but challenging, especially when wearing boots, snowclothes, and a backpack. That, of course, made my day, but it got even better. When we finally reached the top, the views were awesome (of course), but we also discovered what could possibly be the coolest bar in the world. It is an umbrella bar, the highest in Europe, serving schnapse of course, featuring a roof made of snowboards and skis, killer views, and pumped up music. I tried a shot made from hot egg yolks with whipped cream, the perfect treat to prepare for sliding down a mountain at mock speeds.

When the lifts closed, we took our little wooden sleds, and braved the steep faces of snow (and sheer ice in this case). Even being a Colorado native growing up with sledding and sliding down Vail mountain could not have prepared me for this. We screamed the whole way down, especially when we could not figure out how to turn or stop. It was a blast though, and we are still alive, so it worked out well I would say. Like I said, best day ever.