Willkommen to Switzerland!

Sorry this post has taken me so long, I do have classes you know ;)


Anyways! This past weekend, Rachel and I went to Interlaken, Switzerland! To be honest, at first I wasn't very excited about this trip. Since I don't ski, snowboard or generally enjoy any wintery/outdoorsy/snowy activities, I was worried I wasn't going to have enough to do.. but the price was right (only about 150 euros for transportation, the hostel AND breakfast every morning) so I did it anyway. 

Interlaken, Switzerland

We left around 11:30 PM on Thursday night for an overnight trek into the center of the Swiss Alps. I luckily slept for most of the ride, but I woke up around 7 AM as my bus was "little-engine-that-coulding" up the mountainside. We got to Interlaken around 8:30 AM and all rested until about 10:00 when we woke up for breakfast. After breakfast, Rachel and I wandered around the town, down to the center, to the spa to check out treatment prices and we saw people landing from their paragliding adventures. 


We both decided that since everyone and their mother were skiing and snowboarding, we needed to do something extravagant and exhilarating- so we rushed back into town to sign up for paragliding. Luckily, there was a trip about to leave in 15 mins, so we paid right away and waited in the lobby for the instructors to show up. We got suited up in the most ridiculous outfits: these hugeee, bulky red parachute pants that had a gazillion buckles and straps and these big, dirty, hiking boots that made me look like the abominable snowman. We took a 20 minute bus ride up the mountain with our instructors and they told us about living in Switzerland (oddly enough, nothing really about the safety of paragliding.. which I graciously took as it being a very safe activity!). 

look how high I am!

When we got up to the mountain, we made a short walk to this cliff-like hill (literally, so steep it seemed like an immediate drop-off). Our instructors got the parachutes ready while we took ridiculous pictures of each other and I attempted to calm my pre-jump jitters. Finally, it was time to go. Tom, my instructor/guide strapped me to the parachute and told me to focus on the edge of the cliff and just run like I was going to run straight off of it. He counted down from three and I literally was high off of my adrenaline so I just ran. Before I knew it, my feet weren't running on the ground at all and I was airborne. The views were absolutely spectacular!

The view from my point-of-view. That's Rachel below me!

We stayed in the air for about fifteen minutes, since it was just Rachel and I jumping that afternoon. The sun came out for us so we had clear views of all of Interlaken. My instructor seemed to have some thrill-seeking tendencies because he kept catching the wind just in time to spin us. It was a little scary at first, but the I started to love it!


We had a quick landing and I was so happy I had the opportunity to go paragliding! It was so gorgeous and breathtaking and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is considering it!


That night, Rachel and I walked around with two girls we were randomly rooming with from West Virginia, Lauren and Tiffany. We ended up finding a kebab place downtown and got a really cheap, but really delicious dinner there. Then we went home, relaxed a bit and went with our WONDERFUL bus2alps tour guide, Shelby, down to the hostel bar/club. I thought it was going to be this small, sketchy bar in the basement of the hostel but it was completely hopping. I found out that it's the only real "club" in all of Interlaken so all the younger kids and all the people on ski-vacations end up in Balmer's basement on weekend nights. I stayed for a while, socializing with the tour guides and random people we were meeting but turned in kinda early (I guess flying thousands of feet above mountains is a little tiring). 

One of the views from my hike!

The next day, we woke up and decided to hike up one of the mountains we saw while paragliding (mostly because this was a free activity and because it was such a sunny day out!) The hike was pretty intense but it was such a satisfying climb! Every view I saw, I stopped and gawked at the scenery. EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL and the air was crisp and clean! Even the local river is clean enough to drink from. Interlaken was such a nice break from all the city-living I've been doing, it was nice and it made me feel better (and healthier, so much physical activity!).


After the hike, I went downtown to do some Swiss shopping. I bought some gifts :) and I bought myself an authentic Swiss watch like my grandfather wanted me to. The watch is stunning. It's small, gold, and simple with little diamonds at each number marking. They had to take out FIVE links since my wrist is so small, but it was definitely worth it, the best purchase I've made so far!


That night we went back to the hostel bar with a bunch of PC guys that came from Barcelona to go skiing. I stayed out a bit later, but still ended up going to sleep early since I was tired from all the fresh air! We left around 2 PM on Sunday and I slept most of the way back to Florence! Definitely a wonderful, relaxing weekend. 


Also, everyone check your mail :) You should all be getting something special soon!