Our Prixmas snowy budget microadventure

It's become a tradition for me and August to head off somewhere in search of ‘real snow’ just before #Christmas.  We've been lucky this year and for the grand duration of one day England had been adorned by a thick coating of the white stuff. And then it was gone! I wasn't even around to enjoy it that weekend. 

Two years previous we had headed for the Polish alternative to Lapland as it had been referred to by a close friend of mine, Zakopana in the Polish #Tatras. The year after we'd crossed the border into the #Slovakian #Tatras. We had such an amazing time on both of those trips and our snow related needs had definitely been met with much, much more to boot. 

This year we had the added logistical challenge of August being in the second year of school, and although I was aware that other parents had taken their little ones out of school and although I could put up a fairly good case for him missing a day or two, I wanted to do what I can to not potentially lead to a situation whereby an embargo would be placed on being able to take kids out at all and so wanted to keep any time out of school time to a minimum. 

But you know me, this presents an interesting #challenge. Where could we go that would be guaranteed #snowfall between the parameters of 3.30pm on a Friday and Monday morning? The answer is very few places, with perhaps the exception of some of the Danish cities to include Billund and Aahrus. Whilst I adore #Denmark, and have enjoyed many pleasurable trips there, the snowfall records didn't reassure me that much, costs of accommodation were generally high, and if there wasn't the snow, I wasn't convinced that August was enough into Lego that there would be alternative activities to keep us occupied. So where else that would minimise time out of school? The next level of possibilities rested on #Switzerland; Geneva to be precise. But again costs of accommodation are astronomical. 

There was a way to bring the price down which would involve staying over the border (which from GVA airport was only a stone’s throw as it happens) in France at a Formule 1 hotel (yayyy, love love love a spiky Formule 1) for £60 for two nights, but then the reports of the cost of the taxis from the airport or alternatively car hire would defeat the object of the super cheap break. 

This is a Brucie bonus as far as I was concerned and costs needed to be kept rock bottom. The flight with easyJet to #Geneva out of Luton was very reasonable when I started looking; at about 29 pounds for the two of us, but then the additional cost added on. I wasn't ready to admit defeat, but nearly did, when I spotted flights at the super cheap price of 19 pounds per person with #Ryanair from Stansted into #Klagenfurt in #Austria . This looks like a particularly interesting option on account of its proximity to both the #Slovenian and #Italian border; no doubt it would be a geographically stunning region. 

Searching the usual channels of #Booking.com initially followed by #Airbnb I was delighted to find a studio apartment that seemed to be fairly close to Klagenfurt  although not in the city centre itself. I toyed with the idea of renting a car but again car rental in Austria was quite expensive and seems to be counterproductive given the short trip duration. Some conversations with our friendly host of the accommodation, which thanks again to my ex employer and their generous leaving gift cost us the princely sum of seven pounds for the two nights,  concluded his solutions to our dilemma which was to very kindly pick up from the airport, give us a guided tour to help us orientate ourselves in the city, before dropping us to his suburban studio and then whizzing off to Graz for his work’s Christmas do. Huge appreciation to Bernhardt for doing that. 

The accommodation was superb and we had everything we needed for a cosy and comfortable stay. It wasn't in #Klagenfurt  itself and on initial arrival felt a little isolated, but again Bernhardt’s friendly demeanour meant that we were furnished with the bus timetable which indicated a frequency of buses past the end of the road into the town at approximately 10 minute intervals even on the weekend. So by public transport we would go. 

There was a dusting of snow on the ground and remnants of heavier snowfall, but I hadn't anticipated that we would be performing snow angels at low altitudes. We would have to scale a mountain for that one. But again the trip had arrived with very little time for trip preparation or research (i’m definitely a seat of the pants sorta ‘gal) and so the first afternoon we opted to head on the bus back into Klagenfurt and enjoyed the compact, bijoux and very authentically beautiful Christmas market. The town of Klagenfurt is just lovely. It is a small town, compact but architecturally stunning with many restaurants, bars and eateries as well as shopping opportunities and a mall, but I wouldn't say that there is enough perhaps in winter time to occupy you for more than a few days. 

Summertime is a different story because it is Lakeside (hence ‘am Worthensee) and you can see that there is a highly outdoor lifestyle with many water sports and land-based activities that can be enjoyed. For the afternoon though it was really nice to soak in the Christmas spirit and build our anticipation for the festive season. There was a small fair that August had a ride on and I enjoyed some hot cider and local delicacies for our dinner. 

As it was getting dark we took the bus back, stopping at the Penny supermarkt which was a short walk from where we were staying. Penny Markt, a place that gives this sad act unbelievable joy, as with many other overseas supermarkets! Anybody that's travelled in Europe, particularly Poland, Germany, Italy, Austria will be familiar with the Penny market which is an incredibly cost effective way to keep expenses to a minimum. We stocked our baskets with sweets and treats for the evening of films ahead back at base and what proved to be quite a delicious bottle of three euro red. 14 Euros for our weekend groceries, and on top of the cereal bars, pan au chocolat and other snacks I had packed from home in our hand luggage, kept our nutritional costs very low indeed. Although the nutritional value in Haribo Cherries is questionable perhaps, no it isn’t, it’s one of your five a day for sure. 

It was that evening; I discovered a shared delight with my six year old son in the Fast and the Furious. For very different reasons of course. We ploughed through about three of them.  We fell asleep both very content in our viewing pleasure.  We also used the evening, well I used the evening to do some research and ask around as to the closest and most easily accessible, without your own car, mountain slopes that could be enjoyed as novices. 

The solution was #Gerlitzen. To get there we needed to first get to the train station in Klagenfurt (2 Euros), then a train to Villach (12 Euros), a local train to the base of #Gerlitzen (free… I didn’t buy a ticket and no-one checked) which we could then get a cable car from. To my delight everything worked like clockwork on the way out at least. I knew that comparative to Poland and Slovakia the cost of the cable car would be much higher but also to my surprise the cable cars were rather more primitive, and with cost to get to the middle base at €40, we dangled precariously in our cable car pod (at best), me trying my absolute hardest to hold my s*** together for the little man who was becoming increasingly panicked. 

This was one high ass mountain and one incredibly steep and prolonged climb that took us through numerous cloud levels. When I could bear to look, the scenery was beyond spectacular however. I thought I was doing a fairly good job of holding it all together but listening back to the sound of my voice on one of the many videos that I took while in the cable car, I didn't sound that convincing. 

We both started to calm down and enjoy the ride. Thankfully the middle base arrived without disaster. We headed to the ski rental place and neither being skiers nor in the position to afford any form of Ski School, we sought out alternative transport options. It was only 10 euros to higher a proper Sledge for the entire day. Upon inquiring where we should take that Sledge, because the slopes around us appeared to be fairly busy, we were told that there was an area behind the restaurants that we could use. Heading to said area, which seemed to be uncomfortably close to the hustle and bustle, August scrambled up the hill, hopped on the Sledge and promptly hurtled down towards the glass windows of the restaurants at high speed. Clearly s******* himself and then bailing, the Sledge continued to hurtle. I wasn't sure whether to carry on filming the look of shock and horror on the people's faces in the restaurant or to rescue either the Sledge or my son. Not one of my finest maternal moments. 

Realising that that particular slope wasn't the intended one for us we discovered a far more user friendly area further to the back of the restaurant. We sledded, we climbed, we had snowball fights, we basked in the hot hot sunshine and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. August even made a lovely little friend called Maya with whom he enjoyed many sledging races, until we had to leave. 

A perfect day in the snow but missing the train home, or me having misread the schedule meant a rather lengthy wait. My attempts at hitchhiking back to Villach did not bear fruit and so we waited. My GSCE German recall which surprised me in commonplace situations earlier in the day,  that as a youth I had spent many seemingly unnecessary hours practicing of ‘Wo is der Bahnof’.... Finally, a need to use that phrase! Just didn’t adapt to actually recruiting help when needed. 

We finally headed back to base satisfied and exhausted. The next morning it was an early start as we headed back into #Klagenfurt to connect through what I must say is their superbly efficient and reasonably priced integrated transport system back to the airport. 

Again, we were able to achieve our travel goals, albeit not quite within the time constraints we were presented with, but to a really beautiful and unusual destination that can sometimes be understood to be expensive; but there are always ways to do it more cheaply and to make the dreams a reality. It's sad to say that the biggest component of travel cost for us at the minute seems to be airport parking back in the UK. However my latest discovery of parking on people's drive at a massively reduced cost may alleviate that particular challenge. Watch this space.