Over the weekend, I went on the school trip to Interlaken, Switzerland. We left Thursday afternoon and got back Sunday evening. Unfortunately when you go with the school, you take a bus. Our bus ride there took almost 10 hours and then it was about 9 hours to get back here. Oh well- we found ways to keep entertained and were able to see parts of the world we'd miss if we were flying over.
Alright, so we arrived in Interlaken and immediately passed out. We stayed at Backpackers Villa Sonnenhof, which was a really nice hostel that was decked out in IKEA goods. Sleep was necessary because we were waking up on Friday to paraglide! The idea of paragliding never even crossed my mind before doing some research on Interlaken. This city is full of extreme sports and they cater well to us students (5% off for being from GU!) Anyways, we woke up on Friday, printed out our ticket, got picked up by the Paragliding company, and off we went! Nicole, Birttany, Emily, Erika, and I were ready for our 9:45 departure. We first had to pick up our appropriate shoes and (bright red) pants before driving up the mountain. Once we got to the top we put on some more gear and hiked out to the place where we would be taking off from. We literally had to run down a steep hill as the parachute picked us up. My guide and I started running at the same time as Erika and her guide, so we had to stop, which made out take off a little more difficult because the parachute got a bit tangled, but we were just fine. Flying over the mountains and seeing the two lakes on either side of the city was incredible and probably the most surreal experience ever! It was incredible and I've never done anything like it. We got to do some tricks in the air and I declined the offer to steer because I couldn't feel my fingers and I had a death grip on the handle. Dominik got us to the ground safely where we were greeted by AJ, Joe, and Mary!
After paragliding, we went changed, explored the downtown, and then Brittany and I decided to take a bus to see one of the lakes. This trip was a fail since he sold her a roundtrip ticket that gave us 5 minutes to see the lake through some trees and home. We weren't near any water access, so we had to get back on the bus so we wouldn't have a ticket that wasn't valid. Oh well. I was exhausted and took a nap before Mary got back from her canyon jumping experience. Once she got back, we explored a different part of town and found an awesome view from the balcony of a nearby hotel. It was incredible to see the sunset over the mountains! We made it back to the hotel just in time to put on about 239438 more layers for night sledding. I have to admit I was NOT looking forward to doing this. I thought we'd have no control over our sleds and sent down the mountains by ourself. Luckily this was not the case. After we waited in the cold for a half hour, the gondola took us up to the top of the mountain with our sleds. We were given a short safety talk and demonstration and we were relieved to find out that we'd be going down as a big group. Everyone had glow sticks on their backs so you wouldn't crash into anyone because the track was completely dark besides the light from the stars! It was incredible when you were on your own for a bit because it was you, the Alps, the stars, and your little plastic sled. Once we got to the bottom, it was time for a group fondue dinner! We had salad with dressing other than olive oil and balsamic vinegar, a hash brown and chicken plate, and cheese fondue! YUM. We were all pretty hungry after that because they weren't the most generous portions and we were all hoping for some chocolate fondue. After dinner, showers and sleep were the only thing on our minds!
On Saturday, we went to Bern, which is the capital of Switzerland and the 4th most populated city in the country. It was way more metropolitan that I anticipated, but it was fun and interesting to see a completely new side of Switzerland away from the mountains. We got a nice walking tour of the city, Indian food for lunch, spent too much on mediocre Starbucks drinks and a mug, and then explored the city. Five of us walked around with a professor hoping to find some Swiss chocolate- too bad the one we found was way overpriced, but the teacher was nice enough to buy us some chocolate covered hazelnuts. After that, Mary and I walked around the market looking at all the specialty items and foods they were selling. It all smelled and looked so good! After Bern, we met up with Sarah who had paraglided earlier that day and we explored yet another part of the town. We bought Swiss Army knives for ourselves, friends, and families, and the man who owned the store was so nice that he gave us little Swiss bells. We had a 2.5 hour dinner with salad, soo much cheese fondue, and outstanding chocolate fondue with a bunch of different fruits to dip in it. After dinner, we played some Bananagrams and called it a night- it was another exhausting weekend! We also had to get some sleep so we could walk up to see the sunrise the next morning!
We woke up at 7 am, layered up, and walked toward the lake. Sunrise was scheduled for 7:55, but it was bit too foggy to see it, but it was neat to see the whole sky get brighter and brighter as we were there taking pictures and skipping rocks. It was one of most gorgeous places I have ever been in my life!
The 9 hour bus ride back was made better by watching Ice Age. It was pretty great that 50+ 20ish year olds were loving watching that movie! Well back in Florence all week and weekend!
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