Skiing @ Serena

A long weekend laid ahead of us and we were not sure if we had all our plans ready to kill time. It was a religiously packed weekend with good friday , holi , Easter etc ... . Though we didnt celebrate the traditional way either by eating cakes or by applying colours on each other's faces , we had our bit of fun and adventure, we went to Ski at Serena.

Intially we had plans of going to another Ski resort at Vihti . However , we could not catch the proper bus at the appropriate time and had to make it to serena to enjoy Skiing , We later relaized that it was probably good that we didnt go all the way to Vihti :) . I had grand plans about skiing. I thought i can make all those S curves and C curves and do down hill , cross country etc. But when i wore the Ski boots for the first time , i relaized how tough it is going to be. Luckily , we thought it would be better to hire an instructor as neither of us (Vishy , ram and myself ) had skied before. Our instructor started smoothly by teaching us the first moves and slowly we started moving on the snow. She taught us how to put the breaks , how to accelerate and how to shift weight on the legs so that we can make the turns. It was a nice learning experience as it showed me sking is not as romantic as they show in the movies.

After the first 30 mins it was time for us to do a down hill and we took the lift to go up. I had my second fall here ( the first was when i put the skiis on) as i was unable to keep up the pace with the moving lift and started skiing back wards. Just imagine, i was in no control what so ever and skiis were taking me down hill. I suddenly realized that i was leaning back wards and that has shifted the whole weight towards the slope, I immediately bent forward and though i didnt stop completely , i fell on the snow and stopped. This was one of the many to come.

Our instructor took me up hill and started teaching us how to maintain balance without to poles ( the ones you hold in hand when skiing). It was a nice thing to learn as it gave me an insight into what actually makes skiing a not so easy job - the balance. My instructors point was that people from other countries (like India) do not have slippery surfaces to walk on which gives them the habit habit of walking straight ,with a completely erect body. However people like the Finns have to deal with these slippery surfaces every day and these make them naturally good at skiing. I saw kids and toddlers hardly 5 -6 yrs old doing down the hill perfectly , where as we were striggling to take the left turns , put the breaks and etc .... After another 45 mins of slow practice, I grew confident and made my first complete down hill . Though , it didnt go in the expected direction , it was a big improvement from where I started. Soon the instructor left us to ski on our own and we had quite a bit of fun for another hour and took the bus to Espoo , from where we would catch the train to Helsinki. I was amazed to see the beautiful country side with small and nice houses and frozen lakes. There was one lake which was completely frozen and is probably suitable for walking.

However , it is not well untill it ends well and it wasnt supposed to be the case. In a hurry to catch the tram i started running with these formal shoes, lost balance and fell on the road. I have small bruises on my ankels and left palm. Though minor , they are inaddition to the already sore ankles and shoulders. On the whole it was a very nice experience as it was my first ski ride inaddition to visting a beautiful country side. Looking fwd for a repeat , of course without the bruises :).