Skiën of niet skiën?
Friday marks the start of the spring break and it seems like the whole world is going skiing. And I can divide that world into two camps: team ski and team it has to be. Almost every mother I see on the schoolyard whispers conspiratorially to me that they are ‘doing it for the family’, but that they are especially looking forward to those three weeks this summer, where they can lie horizontally on a bed and sip a frozen margarita. Today, let's hear from the anti-ski brigade. Tomorrow, it's team ski's turn.
1. Those THINGS
A ski holiday is not just a matter of throwing a bikini and three kaftans into a suitcase and seeing what happens. No, it requires thorough preparation. Helmets (now mandatory), ski suits (very handy if your kids grow like weeds), shoes, gloves, socks, and thermal underwear. Before you leave, you are already 1500 euros lighter and you haven't even seen a snowflake yet.
2. The MONEY
Yes, now that we're on the subject, a ski holiday is expensive. Everything has to go on that slope, including food. Drinks, snacks; just open your wallet. On top of that, there's your ski lessons and your ski pass, so start saving.
3. The hassle
I have shouted at my beloved before: ‘We're paying MONEY for this, you know.’ Because you would actually expect to get paid for trying to climb an ice floe in clunky shoes at -10 degrees.
4. Active
Team against loves lazy, nothing-to-do vacations. A dip: sure, but mostly just hours of reading and lounging. With a ski holiday, action and activity are what it's all about, and you have to be in the mood for that.
5. Stylewise not a highlight
A ski holiday does little for your fashion luck. Have you ever seen someone look good in a ski suit? And you get so ugly brown too.
6. Peeing is so inconvenient
Imagine a small toilet in an Austrian stube. You clomp over there in those huge shoes. Then you peel off all those layers, your suspenders almost hanging in the pot, you suddenly get six hot flashes because you're of course way too warmly dressed all of a sudden (because inside it's suddenly 23 degrees again) and then your kids have to go too. And you have to help them, in that tiny warm toilet.
To all from team anti: hang in there, sniff a little at that ski intern, pour glühwein into your thermos and channel yourself somewhere in St. Barths.
