Day 9 & 10 - Alpine adventures

Day 9 was my last day at work. In the morning we had practice sessions, in the afternoon a mixed-team competition. There was also a speed skating competition, and funnily enough an Austrian girl, whom I had a short chat with in the bus the day before, won the bronze medal along with her team in short track speed skating!
Day 10 was the day of the closing ceremony. A couple of day before, an email was sent out to all volunteers, saying that they still need 90 people to guide the athletes from medals plaza (venue of the closing ceremony) to congress innsbruck, where there'd be a party. Of course I took the chance and asked if I may join. I then received an email saying where we'll meet for a short briefing at 7pm.
As I didn't have anything else to do until 7 pm, I decided to watch the ice hockey finals. So I went to the stadium, but couldn't get in :( Only people with special hockey finals accreditation cards or entrance tickets could get in. Too bad... it's not like I was working for two weeks for free in that ice stadium. But okay >.o Instead I decided to go on the Nordkette (mountain range in the north of Innsbruck). The sports presenter from figure skating, Christian, joined me and we met at congress innsbruck to take the train/cable cars up the mountains. It was somewhat cloudy and cold, and a couple of days ago it snowed a lot in Innsbruck. So you can imagine what it looked like up there :D Just outside the station building is a little platform.

You can see it in this picture. The snow on the platform was okay, you could still walk normally, but as soon as you went up the mountain, there was a shitload of snow. One step, and my foot was covered in snow up to my knees. xD Amazing! It was difficult to walk, especially as my shoes (as I found out...) aren't exactly good for alpine terrain. ;) There was a sign just a few meters from the door that was covered in snow. We knocked on the sign so the snow fell off, and read that it was apparently really dangerous to trespas it as there was a high risk of avalanches or whatever. Quite frightening, but I wanted to go on top of the mountain anyway! First we went to a little... I don't even know what it is. It's like another platform, but it wasn't open for tourists. We got on it anyway, took pictures, and saw that just next to it an avalanche had gone down because there was a difference in snow level of around... 2-3 meters I'd guess? It had gone down either naturally, or due to a controlled explosion. They do that - you can hear it in town in the morning ^^ Innsbruck is exciting like that. Anyway, you could also see breaks in the snow where the avalanche already had gone down. :) Pretty neat stuff! We then left that platform and started walking up to the summit. The height difference between the station and the summit probably wasn't more than 50 meters, but it was still cool because of all the snow. The snowlayer was untouched, it looked pretty natural. There are three different trains/cable cars. One to get you from the city centre up to the "Hungerburg", then one from Hungerburg to Seegrube (where most people seem to get off), and the final cable car from Seegrube almost up to the summit of Hafelekar. We were pretty much alone up there. Two people went up with us, but they didn't walk up to the summit. They just took photos and went down the mountain again.
As I said, my shoes aren't made for mountain tours, so I had problems when it got icy and slippery. The snow was alright for my shoes, at least. The closer we got to the summit, the stronger the wind got. I could see large clouds coming from the other side of the range, approaching Innsbruck, so I wasn't sure whether we should go to the summit or not - after all, I have no experience in this and I've never been in such terrain before, but I wanted to walk up to the summit anyway. It took me a while, Christian was making fun of me <.< ... but in the end we got there xD

Those aren't my picture, of course. Everything was covered in snow, including the wires of the cross. Perhaps I'll post my pictures later.
When walking back to the station, Christian made even more fun of me :D But at least I wasn't wet as I wearing ski-pants, whereas he wore jeans ;P Haha.
Back in Innsbruck, I went to Maria-Theresien-Straße to meet up with the other volunteers working at the closing ceremony. In the morning I was sent a text saying that they need me two hours earlier as I'll be a flag bearer. :) Cool, right?
There were two stages. A stage in the front, and one in the middle of medals plaza. Us flag bearers had to stand around the middle stage, facing the audience around us, not the stage itself. So there was one side who could see the front stage, two sides who could partially see it if they turn their head, and then there was my side, that was facing the olympic fire. >.> The front stage was behind me, so I couldn't see it! :( Whatever... I was holding the flag of Morocco. After the closing ceremony, us flag bearers walked to congress innsbruck along with the athletes, and that was probably one of the coolest things I have done in Innsbruck. xD It was so much fun! We were waving our flags, there was great music, the athletes were walking with us. Neat stuff. :)
And today is my last day in Innsbruck. I received a little medal and two certificates. :) I don't know what I'll do today, but I'm sure I'll find something to keep me busy, I have enough ideas! Stay tuned!