I'd never ever been on a ski or snow holiday before but like surfing, it was something that I'd ALWAYS wanted to do and knew that once I tried it, I'd be completely addicted to it! My girls, the lovely Louise and Dee (who made up 2 of the 4 of us who went surfing last summer!!) were going on a snowboarding trip back in February. I really wanted to go with them but didn't think I'd be able to afford it.
I am usually a very happy-go-lucky, positive kinda gal but even I have 'down' days!! Back in February, I had one of those days and after feeling sorry for myself for a bit, the first thing I did was call the girls to see if there was room for me on the trip. (This was Wednesday and they were flying out on the Sat!!). Once I mentioned it, both Lou and Dee basically told me I was coming on the trip with them!! I put a shout out to my mates for some ski gear, booked my flights and travel insurance and before I knew it, we were at Dublin airport on the Saturday morning!
We arrived at Grenoble airport and collected the little Fiat Punto we'd hired. The girls had their own snowboards, so to say that it was a bit cramped in the car is an understatement! But we over-lapping the apartment (that was very kindly given to us for the week) with 3 other guys for our first night. They left us note to say where they were and to come join them for food. We decided we'd leave the food and go straight to the bar and told them to join us their after their grub.
The bar, Bazoom, was very cool but was pretty empty. This didn't bother us girls though as no matter where we go, we tend to get a bit of a party mood going!! The three guys joined us afterwards and they were lovely. They were telling us that this was about as good as it gets in Bourg on a Saturday night and not to get our hopes up for mad 'apres-ski'. By then end of the night, we had the whole of Bazoom up dancing and ended up going to a nite-club until about 4am!! The lads couldn't believe it!!
They left early the next morning whilst we were all still slumbering! Then we hit the slopes at about 12pm!! Lou had snowboarded 3 times before (she says it's only twice because she likes being the best out of the 3 of us at this!!) and Dee had been up to Mount Leinster for a day when we had the "Big Freeze" and I'd never done it. We are ALL extremely competitive, to put it mildly! Lou had decided that we were not going to get lessons, she would teach us. When I asked her where the 'Beginners Slope' was, she just said, "Eh, there is none, the only way to learn Luc, is by going up the mountain and doing it bit by bit". I would say I'm quite fearless when it comes to sports, but seriously, I took one look up the mountain and was officially sh*tting it!!
In fairness to Lou, she was extremely patient with us both and did a great job! With alot of falling on our arses and finding our arms at angles which I never thought were possible, we got the hang of it after a while and I loved it as much as I thought I would. Les Arcs is the name of the resort and apparently it was the first place to introduce snowboarding into Europe (so I'm told, don't quote me on that!!). The scenery is just breath-taking. It was utterly divine. Going up in the ski-lifts, all I could see were mounds of hills and trees covered in what looked like untouched ice-cream. Looking back as we went up the mountain, the sun was blazing down on Bourg and the snow looked like a gazillion diamonds, glistening up at me. My heart melted then and I felt such intense happiness.
After a long day, we decided we'd treat ourselves to a pint back in Bazoom and were welcomed with open arms by our new friends we'd met the night before. We got talking to 3 young guys who were from London. They'd been in Bourg for 6 weeks and are staying there for the season (lucky bastardos!). They were aged from 18 to about 22 and were such pleasant, fun and respectful guys. We formed a bond that night and for the rest of the week, they became more like family. They took on the challenge of teaching us how to snowboard (Lou was off the hook!) and they were just unbelievable. One of them would always wait for one of us, make sure that we were ok and give us tips on what we were doing wrong or encourage us by telling us how great we were doing!
They brought us up the many different slopes that make up Les Arcs and showed us some of the most beautiful places. We were pretty much inseparable for the whole week. Joel, the youngest, adopted me as his mom, he called me Mom all the time and I actually answered to it!! They'd come over to us to have dinner with us and just hang out. From what they'd told me, it seemed that they came from a pretty rough area but these guys just couldn't do enough for us and were nothing but polite and courteous to us.
We had an absolute ball and we just didn't want it to end. We were kind of rushed on our last day because we wanted to get down the slopes one last time!! So, while we went off and did the shopping to replenish whatever we'd used, the boys cleaned our apartment from top to bottom. You'd want to have seen it, it was immaculate. We just can't thank Joel, Louis and Aaron enough. They made our holiday! Unfortunately, it had to come to an end and saying goodbye to our boys was awful. Sure I was in bits, the big eejit that I am!!
I can honestly say that a week away with the girls is the most perfect cure-all there is!!! We laughed non-stop, had our nights out and our nights in, talked about everything but most of all, had so much fun. So, to my girls, Dee and Lou, thanks so, so much. When we left Portugal, we all said "That was the best holiday ever!" and now we've had yet another "best holiday ever" :)
