The Beauty of Alps

Often, in our hectic lives that are filled with exciting events, we don’t realize how much enjoyment those distinctive experiences have given us until the years have passed. As we grow older and accumulate more knowledge through various encounters, like a book what becomes thicker through author’s ever on evolving expressions, we will suddenly recognize, that the reasons why we enjoyed those delightful events in the past have changed considerably. Just as above, my life has been made up from array of incredible happenings, I just didn’t realize how much I’ve had really enjoyed them until years had slipped by. For me one of those events was spending a whole summer in Austria, in a picturesque, small town, called Semmering. The trip was for me a once in a lifetime chance to get out there, in the world, behind the boundaries of my own little country.
Austria is one of those cute middle European states, that look like a painting what has escaped from the art gallery. The land has an unbelievably scenic countryside with picture perfect cottages, like young mushrooms that have just popped out of the ground after crispy, rainy morning. It is embraced by curving Alps, their never ending tree-covered slopes and valleys embroidered with towns that just don’t have a centuries old histories but also an astonishing architecture.
I worked as an intern in a modern style hotel that was situated in a very tiny town, named Semmering. The way the town was scattered over the hill-sides and hollows it would have been more appropriate to call it a village. A village that had got lost in the lush vegetation of the mountain banks and if you didn’t mind a bit foot work, you could climb up the hill and view a horizon with the sun flickering off the snow tops.
The hotel was built right into the windward side of the mountain. In fact, if you would have wanted to step off your balcony you would have had to learn to fly like our little feathered friends. The building was respectively divided into two sections. One part was for the tourists and the other one for its employees that had every luxury what home away from home could offer. The staff had their own living quarters, even if they chose to not stay local overnight. They could use all the amenities of the hotel for free , like pools, saunas, solariums for sunbaths and other recreational facilities. The biggest pluses, in my case, were the free trips around Austria that were meant for guests, but you were allowed to join if you had a day off. The three month I spent there, I had to work half of my schedule in the service area and the other half in the production area. The hotel had a superb customer service, everyone was treated with high regard, it didn’t matter if you were an inner customer or outer customer. You could pretty much not be able to differentiate between the guests and employees, everyone was important, and they would make sure you would know that. I guess, part of this conduct came from the natural amiable behavior that the Austrian people seemed to possess. The respect toward each other and toward the common man, It didn’t seem to matter if you were the one who served others or the one who was served to.
After all these years, looking back to my amazing experience in the midst of European mountain peaks , I would have to say that, what made it so enjoyable memory was not the beauty of the Alps but the “beauty” of the people.

Häly Laasme