Innsbruck/St.Anton -Finally finding a job

After our stint in Switzerland it was finally time to find a job in Austria. We both love skiing so it was decided early on that a job in the mountains was a must if we where going to work during our trip. Before we left we had a ski village called St.Anton Am Arlberg chosen as the place we wanted to work. We chose this village because when looking into what the best ski areas where in Europe it was almost always mentioned. This was also part of the reason for getting a working visa in Austria. Before leaving and while traveling we had been looking for and applying to jobs with no success, making the upcoming job hunt very important.St.Anton is about an hour east of the Swiss boarder and about an hour west of Innsbruck by train. It is located in a region called Tyrol. Basically it is in the heart of the Alps. Innsbruck was to be the closest city with cheap accommodation so we decided to stay there while looking for work in St.Anton. We rolled in to Innsbruck Sunday so that we could get a good start on the job hunt Monday.The last time we stayed in Innsbruck was the week after Oktoberfest and the hostel we stayed in was horrible, but it was the only one with online booking. We really did not want to stay in that hostel again so instead of booking ahead we arrived at the tourist information to see if they could help us out. They gave us some options of places to stay and even called one to check the availability for us. It was avaliable, so we walked to the bed & breakfast/hostel. It was actually in an area of town we did not even know existed. As it turned out it was a great location in the heart of the old city just one street over from the Golden Roof. Check in was in a bakery/coffee shop at the bottom of the place. The owner checked us in to a great room and we knew right away this would be a much better place to stay than the other hostel in town. That evening we went down to the Internet café and printed off a bunch of résumés and cover letters in preparation for our job search.The next day we took the hour train ride to St.Anton and followed up on a tip that a good spot to see job postings was at the internet café in town. As it turned out there where 27 pages worth of jobs available, with each page having about 5 jobs on it! Very positive information, at this point we knew we would for sure be able to get find some sort of employment. Another tip we where given at the café was that calling people was the key to “applying” for jobs, email as we had already realized does not get you anywhere. So we emailed some people on the list, but did not stay in town for that long. It was decided that night that we should look into getting a cell phone or handy as they call it in German. The next day getting a handy was task number one. So we checked out a few shops in Innsbruck and the phones and plans where actually quite affordable. Not nearly the hassle and cost like in Canada. So we bought a slightly used phone with a pay as you go plan for about 100 Euros. We where actually very surprised by the service plan. It costs 5 cents a minute to call Canada and 7 cents to call Austrian numbers.
With our new phone we started going trough the list of jobs and called a bunch of people. Some jobs where already taken, some required German, but in the end we arranged a few meetings with people the next day.
The next day at the meetings no one cared to see our resumes and it was all a fairly informal process. As it turned at one of the meetings we got offered a job. The problem was we where being offered one job, so basically we had to decided which one of us would take it. It sounded like a pretty good job making drinks and doing some other kitchen help from 5pm-12am 6 days a week at a local upscale restaurant. Accommodation and dinner would be included, so we both wanted the job. We told the man we would let him know which one of us would take the job and that we defiantly would take it. So we left the meeting and decided that the only way to choose which one of us would get the job is by a coin toss. Joel won the toss, so his job search was then done. Scott now needed to find one. So he made some more calls. While waiting at the train station a person Scott called was able to meet with him right then and he was right by the station so Scott went to go see the guy. This was for a kitchen help job as well, a little different than Joel’s job but roughly the same hours with accommodation and food included as well. Scott pretty much got offered the job on the spot and actually needed to start the upcoming Monday. So he took the job and realized his travel days where done until the end of the season. Needless to say we left St. Anton very happy, the job hunt and the biggest stress of the trip was finally done. To add to the excitement they where calling for one meter of snow over the next 3 days, a very good thing considering it was completely green and the season was to start in a weeks time.
Scott moved into his place on Sunday, November 23. Arl.Rock, a brand new recreation facility where he would be working was just being finished so he was needed first thing Monday morning to help out.

Waking up at 6am and walking through snow a foot high in running shoes made Scott quickly realize he was no longer on holidays. The shoveling for four hours without cloves, a hat or boots made him realize it is time to get a winter shipment from Canada.
Meanwhile Joel was in Innsbruck still in holiday mode. His job did not start until the 9th of December and he could not move into his place until then so he decided to do some more traveling. The rail pass we got was valid until December 10th so he decided to visit some of the places we either missed, or did not spend enough time in.

Bern

We arrived in Bern, the capital of Switzerland to some great weather. 

The hostel we booked was in the heart of the old city which is a UNESCO world heritage site. 

The location was great and we easily found the hostel. That afternoon we settled into our room and met our Aussie roommates. After dinner we hung out at the hostel and then decided to go see if we could catch an English movie. Lucky for us there where a number of theaters close to the hostel playing movies in english. The new bond movie had just come out so we decided to catch that flick. However, after buying the tickets we realized the showing was at 23:oo and not 10. The 24-hour times threw us off so the showing was a little later than we had hoped. We both enjoyed the movie, even if it was the most expensive movie ticket we bought in our lives at 17 francs (about 17 CAD) each.The next day we got up and decided to check out the main Cathedral. The tower gave us a great view of the city. After climbing the tower we checked out the park beside the church. 

It overlooked the river and was a very relaxing spot to hang out. From the park we walked over to the famous bear pits. They where alright but it did not seem like the most humane spot to house a bear. 

That night we once again enjoyed some fine Swiss fondue and rosti for dinner.
The next day we checked out the Einstein Museum. There was an exhibit on the history of Bern on one level and the rest of the museum was dedicated to Einstein and his life in Switzerland. It was a very interesting museum in a pretty cool building. That night we hung out at the hostel and ended up playing UNO with some Aussies we met.
The next day it was onto Zurich where we easily made our connection to Innsbruck.

Interlaken, Switzerland

From Lyon we where to take a train to Geneva where we would make a connection through Bern and then we would eventually make it to Interlaken. This seemed straightforward when got on the train that said it was going to Geneva. However, when we arrived in Annemasse, France, the last stop for the train without ever making it to Geneva we where not quite sure where we went wrong. So we got off the train a little stressed but after looking at a map and talking to information we found out Annemasse is essentially a twin city with Geneva. All we had to do was take a 10 minute train to Geneva and then a 15 minute street car to the main train station.

So we took the short train ride to Geneva and then found the street car we needed to take to the train station. While there we decided to grab a slice of pizza. After paying 10 Swiss francs (about 10 CAD) for this slice we realized we where now in Switzerland and it is not going to be cheap. The train ride from Geneva and the connection in Bern went fine and we arrived in Interlaken at a decent time. It was cold, dark and rainy when we got there, but we found the inn we booked fairly easily. It was a typical Swiss inn that was about 400 years old.

That night we looked for some food, but as it turned out the only place open was a Mexican/Indian food spot so we settled for some samosas and nachos.

Interlaken is a place best know for its extreme sports. The problem is, we where there in between the summer and winter seasons and it was cloudy most of the time so we had to refrain from the skydiving, bungee jumping or canyoning. Instead we took a little easier pace. After having some great Rosti (a fried potato dish with cheese and sausage or bacon) we slowly walked down the main street where we found a knife shop. Until now we really had not purchased any souvenirs, so Joel decided to get a Swiss Army Knife and Scott got a cool wallet.

Later that afternoon we took a hike by one of the lakes. 

That night we had a great cheese fondue in the restaurant at the bottom of our inn and took it easy watching CNN in our room. The next day we took a scenic train ride through the alps to Luzern.

From there we took the hour train ride to Bern where we had our next stay booked.