That's what they claim at least! Interlaken, Svizzera boasts a variety of "extreme outdoor sports," which change depending on the season. The winter season (which begins in a few weeks) is known as a time for skiing, snowboarding, skydiving (from airplanes or helicopters), paragliding, hang-gliding, night sledding, and canyon jumping.
I enrolled in this weekend adventure with every intention of going skydiving. Ignoring the fact that I'm terrified of heights, I had convinced myself that I would have a fantastic time, and just absolutely love the experience. Bearing that in mind, I promised myself that I would face my fears, and make a memory of a lifetime.
We left Florence around 7pm on Thursday and arrived in Interlaken around 4am. It was a very long bus ride. I was rooming with five other girls from my program in Elon. We stayed at a hostel called Funny Farm. In actuality, the hostel shared its space with a hotel, so our accomodations were fairly nice. I got the bottom bunk; yay!
On Friday, I slept in, and went with our group to the capital of Switzerland, Bern. While in Bern, we went to a little restaurant that smelled absolutely rank, but had delicious rosti. Rosti, in my experience, is basically hash browns/sliced potatoes, covered in your toppings of choice. I may or may not have had a macaroni & cheese rosti for lunch that day. Don't judge.
We arrived back at the hostel and immediately sat down to a traditional Swiss dinner. We had selected our dinner earlier that day; we all picked the obviously delicious choice of cheese fondue. Guess what? That cheese fondue was absolutely, without a doubt, the most vile sort of cheese fondue ever to grace the world. Switzerland is known for its cheese fondue, so we assumed that we would love it. I'm realizing that I love cheddar cheese fondue from the Melting Pot and NOT mountain cheese fondue from the Funny Farm. It was quite the experience. I should mention that the tomato soup we were served before the fondue was the bomb.com. The meal wasn't a complete wash, but it defintely wasn't what I had been expecting!
We tried to go ice skating at the rink next door, but there was a hockey game going on! We went with the flow of things, and decided to attend the hockey game. I.love.hockey. Going out that night was fun, and I met many of the instructors for the "extreme sports" options of Interlaken. Interlaken is a very small town, and the vast majority of the individuals (at the Funny Farm's bar/club as well as those of the other hostel Balmers) were locals! I was sound asleep by 3am, but was woken up at 5am when two of my roommates came home. Some people don't seem to have volume control :)
We slept in a little later on Saturday, before heading to Grindenwald! Doesn't that name just make you think of Harry Potter? It was a quaint little town, and the train ride to get there was certainly worth its price. I absolutely loved that no matter which direction I was looking, I could see mountains. Beautiful. We walked around the town, stopped for some more rosti, and headed back to the hostel. I'm a loser, and spent a few hours working on my Italian language study guide, since I have that exam on Wednesday. (Wish me luck!)
As a group, we went into the "downtown" Interlaken area to see a chocolate demonstration. I was really excited to see them make chocolate, so I was slightly disappointed when I learned that we weren't going to see the process of making chocolate. The multitude of free samples certainly eased my pain. We tried a dark chocolate of 80% cocao, one of 65% cocao, learned how to tell the quality of chocolate (a snap in the chocolate means it is high quality!), sampled some milk chocolate, "white chocoalte" with nougat, Vodka Red Bull chocolate, and a few others. I stocked up on Swiss chocolate for my family, and as I was heading out the door, asked the man what this curious looking package contained. He picked it up, handed it to me, and told me that I could have one, but only if I ate it right away. How was I to argue with that!? I tried the delicious marshmallow coated in chocolate and was in heaven. Who cares that I didn't get to see the chocolatee-making process. Learning how to taste and sample chocolate... infinitely better. We decided to split up for dinner, and I somehow ended up at Hooters, dining on chicken strips (aka, the only food I would eat until I was 12 years old). Hooters in Switzerland was basically the same concept as it is in the U.S.
Sunday was another busy day. We went to the ice rink and were able to ice skate for a few hours. I haven't been ice skating in years, so that was interesting.
Then, it was time for my "extreme activity" of canyon jumping. Two of my friends went with me: Elsa and Jessica. We were all pretty excited, and surprisingly not nervous for the activity! I was pretty stoked that I was able to pay for the activity with my credit card AND use up all the CHF that I had left.
We got all "suited up" in the harness and were led to the platform. Jessica jumped first, then Elsa jumped, and before I knew it, it was my turn. My two friends had already gone, but the group of people waiting to go after me were very supportive, cheering for me, and chanting my name. 1, 2, 3, and I jumped off the platform! You free-fall for about five seconds, and then begin swinging through the canyon. It was an exhilarating experience, though I think I snapped my neck a bit. I feel like I have whiplash. Hopefully the pain will subside in a few days! The memory of how it felt to canyon jump/swing... will last forever! That was an incredibly cheesy statement, but still heartfelt.
I am
so absurdly happy that I decided to just go for it, and visit Switzerland. This was a destination that I had in mind before I studied abroad, and I can only imagine how much I would kick myself for not visiting while I had the chance. Without a doubt, this was one of my favorite weekends of the semester. Canyon jumping was
definitely the experience of a lifetime.
