sliding off my chair...lift

i called my parents yesterday to thank them for being so damn cool to teach me the ins and outs of downhill skiing when i was a kid. how cheap and easy it would have been for them to teach us to "hike" or "watch tv." instead they threw in loads of time and coin, and now i am capable of not killing myself on most alpine runs. this came in handy last week as we found ourselves high in the Italian alps near a lovely ski resort called Madesimo.

we drove up 12 km of switchbacks, parked the car on an icy lot, went into a tunnel, and took a funicular (a train that goes straight up the side, or in this case inside, of a mountain) and found ourselves at the bottom of a chairlift! up, up, up, to a cable car, up, up, up. and we skiied all day long.

after lunch i said something in spantaliangish to a nice looking italian man like, "molto mille bueno montanas pretty, eh?"

"yeah, it's really beautiful."

doh...he speak-a the englaysh. i'm retarded.

we got to chatting about skiing and he said we must, must, must, must make the 1 hour drive over to Engadin, St. Moritz in Switzerland to rub shoulders with the richest people on Earth and ski some of the best terrain in the world.

thank you mr. italian man. thank you.

our day at St. Moritz was the best skiing i have ever done in my life. granted, i sucked and found myself sliding headfirst down the side of the alps at one point, but even upside down the view was spectacular. it was sunny with perfect snow. there are thousands of acres of runs. trophy wives sporting fur-lined collars and gucci glasses swooshed by us at every turn, probably heading down to meet their sugar daddies at the "reservations only" lodges to share some Cristal and steak for lunch. the parking lot was crammed with land rovers and mercedes. every once in awhile we would hear the sound of a helicopter shuttling some billionaire backcountry skier off deeper into the mountains.

it was surreal. a beautiful day with the beautiful people.

we skied into the ski-up bar and dan went to grab us a round of drinks. as we sat in the sun, enjoying the views and marveling our good fortune, trying to blend in, i said, "look at us, we're enjoying a real pint of beer, in a real glass, in real Switzerland, at one of the best ski resorts, with the richest vacationers on earth."

erin aptly pointed out, "yeah, but we're the only people who brought our sandwiches stuffed in our coats."

touche.

back over the border for us. but what a great sojourn it was to the other side.