01-03-2009 (Week 7) - Andorra

This weekend was only a one day ski trip. However, it was a one day trip to another country. Who drives to one country just for one night and then makes the drive back the next day??? People who live close to borders, duh.

For those of you who don't know (and I didn't know until I moved to Toulouse), Andorra is a very small country between France and Spain. Here, it's most well known for its tax-free status. People here at work with me travel there to buy cigarettes (like 2 euro cheaper a pack), mountain dew, and liquor. It's like visiting a state with no sales tax, except bigger discounts cuz the tax over here is 20%.

Friday night I went to ultimate practice. Ultimate is turning out to be super awesome. Good group of people where I really get to practice my French. And they are very understanding. Saturday I slept in a little bit and then went to work (boring). After that the real trip began. Jeff, Aaron, Brian, and I made the 2 hour treck out to Andorra. We we're going to meet up with Doherty, Schlotterbeck, and Slattery. We booked a room outside the town they were staying but decided mid route just to crash with them. They had a bunch of extra beds and we'd save money right? WRONG! Even though we cancelled our hotel and they told us they wouldn't charge us, they still did, and I've called and emailed numerous times and basically their excuse is that the employee who told us that was an idiot. So we paid for two places in one night. mais, c'est la vie, n'est-ce pas?

Saturday night was possibly the biggest filled shannanigan night of my entire stay in Europe thus far. I couldn't even begin to describe it. Luckily for my faithful viewers, I got most of it on tape. I will say that profanity was used. I've done my best to keep it to a minimum, but I must warn you none-the-less. I must also warn you that this footage is embarassing not only to me, but to several others as well. However, what kind of blogger would I be if I left out the good stuff?

Sunday we finally hit the slopes. We hit our first lift at about noon. And the resort was HUGE. I've been to Colorado several times to ski, so I have something to compare it to. This was definitely a big resort. Multiple mountains and something like 60 lifts. I skied instead of snowboarding this time and it was definitely the right choice. After my first run down I was back in the swing of things...I skied all day with Slattery and Schlotterbeck. Slattery is a good snowboarded and Schlotty is new skier, but did very well for himself considering some of the runs we took him on.

Unfortunately I was too scared to bring my video camera along. I didn't want it to get crushed or wet...so there's no skiing footage except some via Slattery's camera. The skiing was very cool and I'd like to go back one more time before the slopes close...we'll see.

After a full day of skiing, there wasn't even enough time for me to go shopping, so we drove back Sunday night...where Jeff had the biggest craving I've ever seen for McDonalds...

Pictures