Broken, Bruised and Busted

There's nothing like dinner and a nap after a rough day of skiing, and Friday was one of those days. Now, you might be asking yourself, why were you skiing on Friday? Well, Liechtenstein was closed Friday. Yes, the entire country was closed for some religious holiday. And like most people nowadays, i have no idea what the holiday was and rather than go and celebrate at church, i went skiing.

So anyway's, with a mild hangover and not enough sleep i ventured to Gargellen Friday to ski with some colleagues. Most i hadn't skied with before but I'd heard that they were good...fast...reckless even. I can now report that this is indeed the truth. I consider myself a pretty good skier, but trying to keep up with these guys for 6 hrs was enough. And it didn't take more than a radler (beer and lemonade) at lunch to push my concentration over the edge resulting in my worst wreck yet. I somehow managed to come out of one of my ski's and slid down the edge....on my ass. The edge managed to cut through my pants, through the inner liner, through my long john's and into my arse. I wont subject you to a picture of my cut up ass, but i will show you the result to my ski pants. The tape is covering the blood....luckily this custom vent made my ass so cold that it didn't hurt. Well, not until later that day anyway, which brings us back to the beginning..there's nothing like dinner and a nap after a rough day of skiing. Which was exactly what i had planned for Friday evening until i was rudely awakened by a bomb going off. I logically assumed that the Liechtensteiners had taken their day off to organize and launch an invasion of Altstatten. I mean seriously,what the hell else could be making all this racket on a Friday night.

After hiding under my bed for an hour or so i crawled to the window when i started to hear another noise. Not the sound of an advancing army, at least not in the traditional sense. Rather i heard music, not just music but live music, and not just live music but live marching band music and it was right under my window. Realizing that i might have had it wrong about the invasion, i took of my flak jacket and helmet, fired off a few SMS's to some friends and headed out into the town to see what all the ruckus was about.

Turns out that this weekend marks the start of Karnival and Altstatten is apparently THE place to be for Karnival in this area. Not a bad struck of luck at all! For those of you who don't know, as i didn't before a Wikipedia search, Karnival is the two week celebration before lent. The US seems to be the only nation that doesnt really celebrate it as most European and even south American nations celebrate in one form or another. Basically its music, goofy costumes, drinking and...well more drinking.

I snapped a few shots, but night shots are pretty dificult and they didnt come out to well. But I'm heading back out with a few friends tonight and i'll try to get a few more. You may notice in some of the pics the word “Dekoriert”. I was told this means topless...as in waitress's. But after checking 5 different bars I'm not so sure, i think it just means very little clothing, but I'm not giving up yet. There's a few more bars i didn't check, and i will not rest until i confirm the actual meaning of Dekoriert. What can i say, I'm dedicated.

Karnival and skiing

Ouch..the tape covers the blood
One of the bands. they played "popular" music.
the kids had the best costumes.
Dekoriert eh? if you're lucky mike, this'll still be goin on when you're here.