'Ferien mit Stil'

This is the little slogan about our hotel. It means something like 'Holiday with peace' and that couldn't sum up Bad Gastein much better...

A little too much peace at times, for a growing girl. (I use 'growing' with bitterness. I sneakily weighed myself whilst cleaning the sauna rooms this morning and apparently have lost 3 kg but I somehow don't believe it...)

On Friday I wandered the streets in the vain hopes of finding some night-life. There was a man with a nipple-length grey beard in the petrol-station shop, and I think he was drinking a beer. The end.

I went 'hiking' again up to an area past Grüner Baum which is really beautiful but I'm thinking I'm starting to get used to it and don't notice it much anymore. I sat by a river for a while and waited for the scary horse driver to go past with his carriage, and thought about how wierd it is that absolutely no-one swims in rivers here. People go outside to experience the great outdoors, but they only ever do it in one way: with a backpack and nordic walking poles. (I've been calling them Alpine Sticks but that's not correct). They walk along the path and then they walk back. it makes sense since the rivers etc are not even really accesible. Most are fenced off. But I miss the kiwi attitude: there's no point if you don't get wet. And what's wrong with bare feet? Who says I can't wear jandals when I go hiking? And why do they need those poles to walk ANYWHERE. I even see little kids with them. They are exactly like ski-poles, with no skis in sight. They walk to town with them. They walk back. I never see anyone going on runs. Just walking...with poles.

Since then I've been helping out a lot here and doing some quite long days working. I don't mind because it's something to do, I guess. Today there was a big banquet thing here with a buffet which I got to man. Guess what I had to wear? My carefully chosen purple top and jeans? Noo. A blue and white checkered blouse and a floor-length white apron. Austrians are so hot!

I found it a bit wierd to be manning the buffet and serving everyone when I can't understand most of what they say. I do know that one lady got annoyed at me for giving her the saffron-prawn rissoto when she actually apparently wanted me to pick the prawns out and just give her those. How was I to know?
Most people here are super friendly tho. The ones who don't think I'm retarded instead of foreign that is..

Oh and I got to take nougat-knudeln for dessert which is my third kind of knudeln that I've tried in Bad Gastein. It's another dough-ball, this time filled with chocolate nougat. I officially am in love with Annamarie and I'm going to marry her when I grow up.

Have had a great time scrubbing toilets for guests (mm!) and learning how to make a European bad which can I tell you is INSANE.

It begins with the bottom sheet, which is never elasticated. Double beds have 2 single mattresses and two single duvets. Thats just the way it is. The bottom sheets have to be folded and pulled tight in all the corners which takes me about 10 minutes alone.

Then the pillow (which is at least twice as big as an NZ pillow) has to be stuffed into a case that is a) a foot longer than the pillow itself and b) narrower than the pillow. So this takes about 5 minutes stuffing it into the right position before beginning the intricate task of folding the extra foot of fabric out of the way, in a very specific manner. There can be no wrinkles from this extra foot showing.
After this you throw the pillow down on the mattress twice, hard. I'm not kidding - the head cleaner showed me. Then you pound it with your fists a little bit, followed by a hearty slapping. NO JOKE.
When it is appropriately tufted, you prop the pillow up on its SIDE on a 45 degree angle to the head of the bed. At this point it looks like a rectangular marshmallow. You pull the corners out so they are sharp. The next bit I like best:
With one swift karate chop, you slice your stiff hand down the exact centre of the upright pillow, to create a large dent. The pillow now looks like a fat white 'M' shape. At this point I smile at my pillow, and then the head-cleaner comes and does it again...

Next: the duvet. (There is no top sheet. Duvet is the only option in Europe. Which is why its so impossible to cool down at night). The duvet has to be fitted like the pillow, and then the whole thing is turned sideways and rolled into 3rds, then laid lengthways along the mattress like a slug.

If it looks like someone has snuck out the window down the wall and into their boyfriends car and left a human-like lump of bedding on their bed to fool their parents, then you have made the bed correctly.

Finish with a postcard and a nougat-filled chocolate patty on the sheet.

AMEN TO THAT