Telemarking is sweet, damn hard but sweet. When you get good at it, you will be able to look back at everyone else on alpines and say, 'You know, I used to be like you, until I stopped sucking.' If you wanna do it, you need tele bindings, tele boots (so comfy, alpine boots suck compared to these, seriously), and a soft flex ski. There are tele specific skis, but basically they are just soft flex skis. You can get a cheaper option by getting a secondhand pair of alpines that have gone spongy, and use them. You might want to upgrade later, but meium flex in alpine equals super stiff in tele, because of the way you transfer power onto them.
Normally I dont like getting lessons, but I would have to say, get someone to show you what to do. First time I tele'd, I went out on my own, and got nowhere. Trying to do the lunge turns is a whole heap harder than it looks. Oh, and make sure you have knee medical insurance, cos it can fuck you up if you're not careful.
And remember, 'free the heel, free the mind'