Weisse Weinachten

I have tried writing this post a few times but there is just no way of starting to describe what a phenomenal holiday I just had with a group of fantastic people, in breathtaking surroundings and basically just a perfect time away. If I could describe exactly what happened and how much fun I had and what we got up to then I would be here for hours and you would probably give up reading after about 4 extreme length paragraphs gushing over everything. Basically I apologize of the extensive amount of positive adjectives but the past five days have been a total trip of a lifetime. It was one of those holidays where you just laugh and laugh and laugh. We spent time eating and drinking and chatting and playing in the snow. We went on the Sound of Music tour and sang along and skipped around the sights. Ate a ridiculous amount of food on Christmas day and drank the day away. Froze our toes off in the weather while we traipsed the Christmas Markets. Wandered the town of Salzburg and saw some beautiful sights and then kept warm in the Augustiner Beer Halls.

Without boring you to death about all the details I thought the best way to show you how much fun I had would be by showing you a few of the photos so here goes!

Me, Shea and Arron in our cabin on the train on the way from Munich to Salzburg. It was cheaper to fly in and out of Munich then get the train then fly direct. It was so packed when we first got on we had to sit on the floor in the hallway. When we finally got into this little compartment there were two young german boys playing their music out loud so we had a bit of entertainment at least. They also taught us how to say merry christmas in german.

When we arrived at the property they were kind enough to leave behind a case of beer, a case of white wine and a case of red white. But you know... of course we had stocked up on the way (just in case). This was the best way to cool the drinks. I might just add that we finished the free booze on the first night. All but one bottle of red wine.
After a few rounds of drinking jenga and other drinking games a viewing of the Sound of Music was compulsory viewing as we were off on the tour the next day. Me and Toni found a little attic space so after scoring a boost of the boys to get up there we got to chill out on mattresses in our own little possy. The photo is from up in our hidey hole.

And the sound of music tour begins!!!

Me in front of the Von Trapp Villa. This was actually the back of the house but the front of the house was actually a different house. Remember when they pulled up at the back of the house in boat and they all fell out? Learnt on this trip that poor Gretel couldn't swim and Maria was supposed to catch her but she fell out a different way so they had to cut the scene and get someone to save her!

Me in front of the gazebo where they sung "I am sixteen going on seventeen". Because of some stupid lady who danced around in it, fell over, then sued they no longer leave it open. I had my heart set on dancing around in there but had to settle for this photo instead! It also not in the same place as when they were filming because too many tourists flocked there and were singing around it!



Shea, Candra and I in the Mirabell Gardens where they filmed "Do Re Me". The first one is me and Shea doing ' So - a needle pulling thread', followed by Candra and Shea doing 'Te - I drink with jam and bread' and lastly ' Fa - A long long way to run'. This song got a few sings over the weekend with the version of beer sung by the boys several times. Also on a drunken night me and the rest of the girls demonstrated the end part when they jump up the stairs. Its on someones camera somewhere...and i hope done day it doesn't end up on youtube. Its basically a shambles anyway.

Christmas Morning Brekky! Prior to going to the house we had all had a chat about who would cook what and what exactly we would be eating. Sean had contacted the owner of the house and got him to recommend a local butcher and bakery that we could order our meat from. We had grabbed our groceries while we were out on the sound of music tour so we were set for a few days. I had volunteered to cook the champagne breakfast as I have no idea how to cook a roast and cutting up croissants, fruit and making scrambled eggs is about how culinary I get. Luckily Vanessa volunteered to help too and with a few extra helpers we put in a spread that I am pretty chuffed with thank you very much.



Santa time! We had organised a secret Santa between the 15 of us so everyone got to open a pressie on Christmas day. So after brekky we all sat on Santa's (Sean) lap (even the boys) to open our pressies. I scored a bottle of perfume and some nail polish which was a perfect gift and it was good to feel a little bit spoilt. Everyone seemed to like their gifts and after we had packed up all the wrapping paper we got around to trying to guess who our secret Santas were.

Frolicking in the snow! Best way to work up an appetite for Christmas lunch. Not only was it a white Christmas because there was snow already on the ground but earlier that morning it had snowed so we had lots of fresh powder to play with.

The first photo is of Jen, Charlotte, Shea and I in front of our house and by house I mean mansion. It had 13 bedrooms, zillion bathrooms, two kitchens, massive living room with a big fireplace to keep us warm and even its own bar (which we didn't raid too much thank god). Plus a bit field out the front for snow frolicking.

The next couple of photos is Toni gathering snow for our snowman building and Jen trying to roll a snowball for his head. Because of the powder none of it was sticking and so our snowman was a bit wonky and not very round.

After a bit of snowman building we got a bit distracted by the appearance of a bottle of Baileys. So we sat on shopping bags in the snow (too keep our bums dry) and had Baileys on ice. Which was basically a handful of snow in our Baileys. Ingenious.

The final photo is what was our attempt at a snowman (Frosty got aborted pretty quickly after the appearance of booze). Basically that hunk of snow was used for place to put our drinks and a place to put our cameras for self timed shots. There were intentions of finishing him off but we never got around to it.

About ten minutes after this photo was taken we got bombarded with snowballs by the boys. They had planned an attack and locked us out of the house and came charging around the corner letting them fly. The snowball fight lasted a few minutes and even though there were 10 girls and 5 boys I am sorry to say we got absolutely annihilated.

Christmas Lunch! The Menu for Christmas lunch was: Three hams, two roast porks, two roast turkeys with stuffing, roast chicken, roasted veggies (pumpkin, parsnip, capsicums, carrots, potatoes, garlic, onions etc), cauliflower with cheese sauce, potato bake, brocolli, vegetarian lasagne (there is always one), cob loaf with cheesy dip, gravey and a patridge in a pear tree. It was all declicious!! And while it wasn't QUITE the same as home it was still a pretty mean lunch (sorry mum!).


As well as organising a secret santa we had decided to play the present game with two pound pressies. The idea behind it is that you put a pressie in the middle then draw a number out of the hat and take turn chosing pressies in that order. If you don't want to chose a pressie out of the middle you can chose to steal someones present. Then when it gets to their turn again they can steal it back or chose someone elses etc etc. Its a pretty cool game especially where there are a few really good ones and a few really bad ones. Two of the boys hadn't organised pressies so they just wrapped up some stuff they found lying around the house. The one that was a keeper - really wasn't it one of the girls t-shirts she had got for christmas off her mum haha. I first chose a really good hot chocolate and mug set but it got stolen so I ended up with a Christmas candle which was still nice. Just not as yummy.

Shea and Arron with their Pavlova. It seemed appropriate that an Aussie and Kiwi dessert made an appearance at our Austrian Christmas but when Arron volunteered to make the pavolova I'm not sure he really knew what he was taking on. He had never actually remembered eating one before let alone making one. Shea had never made one before but knew the basics so after texting her sister for the recipe they set to work. They didn't have their usual ingredients and had to work out exactly what the German packaging said. They also didn't have a big mixing machine so they spent 1 hour and 45 minutes beating the egg whites with a hand beater. After heaps of work they ended up making the most perfect pavolova I've ever had. The it was fluffy and light and delicious and it didn't collapse at all. They were pretty proud of themselves and I reckon they should be!

Christmas Markets in Salzburg. It was so cold that day that we were freezing as we walked around but it was so worth it. They were so pretty. I wish I had a zillion Euro's to deck out a christmas tree with the stuff they had there because it was gorgeous. To warm up we had a hot chocolate with Baileys. Also spotted a cute little sausage dog which brightened my day! Didn't buy anything but gifts for others but could have easily gone crazy!


Me and the girls warming up by the fire after a day at the Christmas Markets. The rest of the crew had gone snowboarding in the German Alps about 20 minutes away. They returned home not long after these photos were taken drunk and noisy and our silence was ruined. Got to say it was good while it lasted but it was funny hearing all their stories!



On our second last day in Salzburg we had to check out of our amazing house and head into a hostel in town. After dumping our bags we went for a wander around Salzburg. The sun had come out but there was still snow on the ground so the sights were beautiful. It is such an incredible city and one I highly recommend visiting.


To pass our last afternoon we visited the Augustiner beer halls. Augustiner is one of the beer halls that go to Oktoberfest so it was well worth checking out. We had lost a few travellers along the way to other destinations and heading home so we were down a few numbers. Toni's cousin and his mates were in Salzburg for the night so they soon joined us an a few bevvies and we were soon a big crew again.

These photos do not describe half the fun I had and there are a thousand more stories I can add but I think many of them are ' you have to be there' kind of things. In fact most of you will think I am crazy if I tell you about the million renditions of the 12 days of Christmas we did. The endless drinking games we played/learnt as well as all other shenanigans we got up to including a stint on the dance floor.

It was one of those trips that I will remember for a lifetime and when I am old and grey will tell anyone who will listen about that trip when I was 23 that I took to Austria with 14 of my friends. It is unlikely that kind of trip will happen again soon because next year we are losing a few members of our crew and a few of us may have visits from family or go home to visit family. Still! Maybe its one of those things that could never be repeated. Either way like I said - complete trip of a lifetime!