Well, what a trip... Just a quick warning - I had to choose from over 1000
photographs, so there is a lot of media content on this page. Everything started
on April Fools Day 2005. We got into the cars and drove to Italy... easier said
than done. The thing you need to realize, that there were 20 of us... 6 of those
were children... and suddenly simple getting into the car became more
complicated.
I had the pleasure of traveling in the "Żabski Mazda Magic
Bus", with the Żaba, Krysia, Pola, Tymek and Gośka.
"Żabski Mazda Magic Bus"
we 'quickly' got in and drove away towards the sunset
The road to Santa Caterina is long and winding. Easy to fall
asleep behind the wheel...unless someone keeps you awake with an interesting
conversation ....
... there is also the "Socks Method" of keeping the
driver awake.
"Hey, I'm awake !!! Keep your socks away..."
At some stage the magic bus seemed to have run out of magic...
but with 4 'real man' having a look at it, it did not
have any chance of resistance and we were quickly on our way again
while the real men were trying to fix the Magic Bus, Dominator
(the next Herminator), took the steering in his own hands.
Sleeping kids are good kids.
when you cannot find your block of apartments, you need to ask
someone for directions...Pisten Bully driver is bound to know...
As usual we stopped at Livigno to pick up some duty-free
alcohol.
Some more pictures are temporarily here.
[the story will continue...]
Goska performing a heel-side turn on a snowboard
I'm doing a bit of skiing for a change.
The trip log:
 | 2005-04-10 16:43 The trip is over. It was simply great. |
| 2005-04-08 20:26 Hey there. We just had a crazy idea to hike up tomorrow
morning at 6 am. would probably do it tonight, but we did not bring any
burning torches [just a note to myself - always bring torches to skiing
trips] |
| 2005-04-07 21:38 Today started well, with an excellent breakfast - we had
French Toasts. Lots of them. Bloody great way to start a day. Goska challenged
me to a skiing competition. The rules of the duel were quite easy - each of
us was leading one run, and the other person had to follow. We tossed a coin
to see who is going to be the first leader. I had he luck of the draw. So
led a nice little warm up run. Goska was leading the second run and decided
to go off-piste. Quite a nice run, but we encountered quite a few rocks on
the way and damaged (rental) skis. The next run was mine. So we went for a
non-stop blast down the slope. As a leader I hardly made it to the bottom,
but was quite stoked to see Goska follow me all the way. The next run, Goska
went for the speed. Man, did I shit my pants or what ? Fortunately she had
some survival instinct and slowed down a bit, cause it was quite
hair-raising ride. Since both of us managed to keep up with each other
through out the day, the duel ended in a draw. Probably to be continued.... |
| 2005-04-06 19:35 Hey there. Goska just told me to write something, so here
it goes. So we are in Santa Caterina and it is just plain fabulous. Can't
really say that there is much snow and most runs are closed... but one good
one is open. The black Deborah Companoni run just kicks ass. It is super
prepared everyday and has a couple of good steep sections where carving is
great fun. This is our 4th day of fun on the snow. The past 3 days were
really great - was out on my snowboard while the rest were on skis. Some
great carves were laid on the 2nd and 3rd day - probably some of the best in
my life. Goska (on skis) was patient enough to wait for me (....a much
slower snowboarder) and fun was had by all. [I'm writing this under
influence, so it need not make sense]. On the 2nd day the Dream Team was set
up - Goska and Monia on skis and I on the snowboard. Boy, did we rip the
slopes. We just kept on going and winding up each other. It was almost mad.
We were running the black slopes like mad. Intense riding. Today I went out
on skis (the 2nd time this season) and it was bloody great. Today I had the
most fun on skis in the last couple of years - a biiiiiggg thanks to Goska,
Żaba, Tomek and Flisu - the Crazy 5 team. Took some pictures today, so
they probably will land up in the photo section as soon as we come back. It
is such an intense feeling - ripping the slopes in a group of people,
specially when they represent roughly the same level of skiing - "Let's
blast down the slopes as fast as we can !!!". More will come soon.....
and now Gośka is going to write something. :)
>> Write ...need to concentrate first. So ... what a fabulous time
... not waiting for anything ... not having any oczekiwań - expectations -
as says Bart, just sitting
in the sun, drinking Italian "Bombardini", asking ourselves what kinds of
pleasure can we find here. Just let yourself be. That's it for a
moment.
BTW. Just came up with a new drink today - CHINO & GINNO. And it's
great !. Chino is an Italian drink - sort of a dried plum juice. Turned out
it goes great with Gin... and when you put a dash of lemon in it, it is
bloody fantastic ! So we will have many more tonight
BTW2 "Bombardini" is an Italian drink. Quite easy to make and
lots of fun afterwards - all you need to have is whiskey and Irish Cream/Egg
Liqour. Just mix whiskey with Irish Cream/Egg Liqour and heat it up a bit,
then add whipped cream and drink. [The owner of this web site does not take
any responsibility for actions taken under influence of Bombardini]
|
| 2005-03-31 9:32 The weather looks good - I bought out a months
subscription to snow-forecast.com - and it's got a decent 6 day forecast for
most ski resorts. Santa Caterina is here - http://www.snow-forecast.com/resorts/Santa-Caterina.0to6mid.shtml
. Just use login: canmanski, pass: canmanski. Lots of last minute chopping
and changing, but it looks like we are going tomorrow. Cool. |
| 2005-03-17 8:29 Hey, there's a new trip brewing... this one to Santa
Caterina in Italy. We had an organizational meeting last night and a whole
bunch of stuff was discussed. The most important decisions are:
 | Monia is preparing her world famous smalec |
| Gośka is going to make lamb curry (oh, yes !) |
| The odd 7 or so kids coming are not going to get in the way of
our parties :) |
We also discussed accommodation, travel arrangements, insurance, stuff to
bring etc... but that's usual anyway.
Some pictures from the meeting are here
Here is the countdown, just to get the spirit going again !
|
