ManWomanDogVan: October 2020

We have decided that if we find employment in or around Sankt Johann in Tirol, we would rent an apartment and stay for the winter season. Hamish has long been talking about doing a ski-season there (he is a very good and elegant skier, having started skiing around the age of 2.) Also, we expected Covid19 to play havoc with borders and opportunities during the coming months.

We were not looking for anything major, only for seasonal jobs, which are usually not hard to come by. So we both wrote a short CV and set off to talk to local shops/restaurants/hotels to see what our chances were. Not too good it seemed. People were not taking anybody on due to the uncertainty caused by Covid19. On top of that it also became apparent that renting a place with a dog (especially with a large dog) is not easy. After 10 days or so, the weather also started to change, prompting us to cut our losses and set off again before it turned really cold and wet, going back to our earlier idea of spending winter in Southern Spain/Portugal.

We did not get very far. After a few hours of driving, we were taking a break in Switzerland, when we got a call from one of the ski resorts offering Hamish a job! We spent all of 5 minutes considering what to do next before turning around and driving all the way back to Tirol again.

The job is in Fieberbrunn (Fever-well) which is the biggest town (over 4000 people – so not really that big) in the Pillerseetal valley in Tirol, Austria. According to a legend, the town received its name when a Tyrolean Countess was healed from fever after drinking from the town-well. We did not drink from the well, we went to the local bar instead, which also turned out to be a lucky choice. The bartender put us in touch with a local landlord and voila, 2 days later we were installed in a small apartment in Sankt Ulrich am Pillersee, just up the road from Fieberbrunn.

We spent the following days/weeks sorting out the necessary admin, emptying and storing our van for the winter, buying a little old car to get around in and in general getting to know the local area, walking in the hills (a lot) and making our home for the coming months. We also went to a massive ski/snowboard sales event in Innsbruck, to get some ski-gear as we had none.

As luck would have it, we got to know the local hotelier as well, who offered me a job. Hallelujah!

All in all, pretty good going!