Sorry again for the absence! I am still alive and breathing with a few more stamps in my
passport and a few less euros in my pocket. I only have 4 ½ weeks left in my European tour! Oh my goodness! So many places to see and so little
time! Time flies when you’re
having fun…but time isn’t the only thing flying around here! I am too!!!
It has been almost a month since I visited Interlaken,
Switzerland so I’ll fill you in.
It is still one of my favorite places thus far I have seen. The trip all together ended up
taking a big hit to my budget, but worth every penny…or I guess Frank. We flew out early, early Friday morning
flying from Rome to Geneva, Switzerland.
From there we had to purchase a 140 frank round trip ticket to
Interlaken. I can’t complain. The train ride still ranks itself high
as one of my favorite experiences here.
Passing through cow pastures lined with snow-capped mountains wadding in
bright blue, glassy lakes is not a sight for sore eyes. When I got off the train I realized I
had almost taken 150 pictures. A
bit excessive probably. This is
turning out to be a very well documented trip to say the least!
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| So proud we found our right train! |
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| Real life. |
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| Planes, trains, and automobiles but we made it! |
Interlaken.
Home of tacky tourism and all things Swiss. Cheese, chocolate, yodelers, hot chocolate, goats, fondue,
and sausage. They have it
all! The town is a bit cheesy
because they try to amp it up for the tourist, but who am I kidding? I walked around the entire weekend with
my camera around my neck and my unmistakable southern American draw, so you
just learn to own being a tourist.
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| We were taking a group picture and these asian women really wanted to be in it too. So we embraced it of course. |
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| The hills are alive!!! |
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| We got to go to a chocolate show and see how they make all the fun chocolate shapes. And the free chocolate wasn't a bad touch either. |
We found our hostel in due time and all 18 of us divided
amongst our perspective rooms. Our
hostel was called Balmers.
Apparently it ranks in the top hostels in all our Europe. Why you ask? Well, because Balmers came equipped with what I would like
to think a teen club on a cruise ship would be like. Highlight of the trip to say the least…eh well it made for
great people watching. Bums from
all around the world gather to soak up the fresh air and a brew…in a dark,
loud, small, light flashing seizure waiting to happen room. Hilariously awkward and bizarre. But hey, when else in life will you
ever get to fall asleep to terrible European techno base, bumpin’ to the beat
of ‘Bringin Sexy Back’ snuggled in a bed that may or may not have been washed
from the night before with a random kid from Denver snoring in the bed beside
you. Never. (I hope.) YOLO my friends.
If all your friends were jumping off a mountain…would
you? ABSOLUTELY and I did!
Y’all. I
am about to let you in on a secret.
You CAN fly like an eagle.
It is very possible. Go
hang gliding. Oh my stars, birds
have the best life ever. So some
of us decided we would spend some of our spending money on the best souvenir
you could ever buy. Saturday
morning we woke up early, suited up, and hang glided over the Swiss Alps. I repeat… Hang-Gliding-Swiss-Alps.
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| Taa-Daa!!! |
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| The man. The myth. The Aussi Legend. Bernie. My main man. |
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| This was when i was receiving 20 seconds of instruction for how to jump off a mountain correctly. Efficiency. |
I met Bernie about 10 minutes before he tied me to his back
and I ran off a mountain with him.
Bernie was a great little Aussi with a rockin’ stash, but I literally
thought I was going to send my final moments with this man. His only instructions at the top of the
mountain were,
Bernie- “Just don’t stop running.”
Me- “…or what happens…”
Bernie- “…or we crash.”
Cool I thought.
I guess if I have to die young, dying in the Alps won’t be so bad. Running, running, running,
running…still running but my feet are not touching anything…I AM IN THE
AIR!!!!!
I can’t put into words the emotions and feeling going
through my head at that very moment.
I have never felt so small.
I have never felt so calm.
And I have never fully understood the magnitude of our creation until
this moment. Wow. God did not have to create
mountains. Have you ever thought
that we could very easily been given a world flat as paper and just dirt. We don’t deserve to live in such beauty
and I don’t think we appreciate the powerfulness of it. How cool is it that although
undeserving, we can walk amongst the jaw dropping, eye opening, breath catching
creation. Nature is just
neat.
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| If I had a frank for how many times I said, "Oh my goodness, this is incredible", I could have paid for my flight! |
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| Coming in for landing! Hard to miss those long legs! |
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| Hard core. |
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| I could not stop laughing and smiling! Incredible! |
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| WE DID IT!!! |
Going with big groups, every one tends to do their own
things. It’s fun that way. I preferred to just lay on my back and
look up. I didn’t do it alone. Of course I bought some authentic Swiss
chocolate. Girl’s best
friend. The night ended perfectly. Mollie and I needed to get away from
the hostel so we grabbed our journals and books and turned left out of the
hostel and just kept walking. The
only thing we knew was we wanted hot chocolate, and we wanted to watch the sun
set behind the Alps. Done and
done. It’s good to have a friend
who you can just sit with.
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| We even had time to teach Danielle how to ride a bike...sort of. |
Sunday morning we carbed up for our long travel day back to
the palace. Balmer’s served two
pieces of bread every morning with a slice of cheese and hot water. It was free so you can’t complain. We smelled nicely of hostel, hang
gliding, grass, train, airplane, and taxi by the time we graced the palace with
our presence. We were glad to be
back…just in time to unpack and pack for a week in Florence. We finally got to bed around
2:00am and woke up at 5:00am to get on the bus all day heading north. Florence. Florence my friends is just superb. I’ll keep yah hanging until next time!
Ciao!
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