INTERLAKEN, SWITZERLAND-
Our flight left for Switzerland on Friday at 6:00 a.m. Although it was a cheaper flight it still meant that we would not get any sleep the night before. I walked to the bus station at 3:30 a.m. The other girls joined me a few stops after I got on. It takes about 45 minutes to get to Heathrow by bus, so we wanted to make sure we got there on time and not take the chance of missing our flight.
I was amazed to see how many people got on the bus that were dressed up already for work. I can only hope that when I get a job I won't have to get on a bus at 4 a.m. ready to start my day.
We landed in Zurich, Switzerland around 7:45 a.m. and then had to take a train from Zurich to Interlaken.
We finally got to Interlaken at 10 a.m. The town was so cute and everywhere you looked you could see the beautiful mountains. We couldn't check in to our hostel until noon so we decided to do some exploring and get a bite to eat.
As soon as we got back to our hostel called "The Happy Inn Lodge" we all took a long nap that was much needed!
That night after we got dinner we went to local grocery store and bought TONS and TONS of chocolate! Let me just say that Swiss chocolate is amazing and honestly just melts in your mouth!!
The next morning two of the girls left to go canyoning, which is where you jump and zip line through the glaciers while the rest of us were going to go SKYDIVING!! Everything was set to get picked up at 12 p.m. and jump out of a helicopter part. The company was called Skydive Interlaken. For the most part I was excited and just anxious to get picked up! The weather was perfect, not to cold or hot, and partly cloudy. Around 11:45 a.m. my cell phone rang and it was Skydive Interlaken, I just assumed that they were letting us know that they were on there way. But this was not the case. She had informed me that unfortunately due to it being too windy outside that it would not be safe to jump out of a helicopter and asked if we would be free on Sunday the day we left. Our flight didn't leave on Sunday until 8 p.m. so I told her that it could maybe work to jump on Sunday but asked what the chances were that the weather would better and if she was certain or not we would be able to. And she replied by saying well.... we're optimistic but I am not certain." (But on the bright side we would get the money back that we had to pay to make a reservation, which we booked a month before). Not exactly what I wanted to hear...
Keep in mind that the whole reason why we came to Interlaken in the first place was to go skydiving, and at this point I was so nervous that it wasn't going to happen. Immediately after the phone call I went downstairs to talk to a lady at the front desk. She called another company "Skydive Switzerland to see if they were still up and running. The company told her that if we want we can jump out of an airplane instead and that they could pick us up in 15 minutes!
We were all so excited and said that would be wonderful!! So, after a bit of a stressful morning it was actually happening... we were going to go SKYDIVING!!
When we got to the place we had a 10 minute safety lesson what to do and what not to do when falling out of an airplane. I'm not joking when I say 10 minutes, you would think that jumping out of an airplane it would require an in-depth safety lesson that would be much longer.
I didn't start to get nervous until the guy I was jumping with came to help me put on my harness. And then soon after that the moment finally came and I was walking to the plane.
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As the plane was started to move the door was still wide open and in my mind I kept wondering when they were going to shut it... seconds later after they shut the door we were in the air. There was no turing back now.
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When we reached about 6,000 feet the guy I was jumping with asked if I was nervous. And I truthfully responded no I am just really excited! He then opened the door and yelled... "now are you nervous!!" It was funny, but at the same time it made me terrified because I still wasn't strapped to him. It wasn't until we reached 13,000 feet when he started hooking my harness to his. And then moments later the door opened and we literally did a front flip as he pushed the both of us out of the plane. For a long time I couldn't process the fact that we were literally free falling at 120 miles per hour! It was absolutely MIND BLOWING!!!
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My favorite part was when we did spins it was so much fun even though my ears kept popping the whole time. After 45 seconds he pulled the parachute and we jolted back up in the air!
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It took about 5 minutes as we drifted back down to land. It was by far one of the most exciting, and best things I have ever done in my entire life and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again!
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That night we went out for a bit with two people that we had met at our hostel in Croatia. They coincidentally had booked the same hostel the same weekend we were in Switzerland!! I couldn't believe it when we saw them!
The next day was really windy so I was so happy we got to skydive the day before. We wanted to take a tour up the mountains to see the beautiful view but it was closed due to wind. Instead, we took a walk around the city and randomly decided to rent a scooter and two ATV's and drive to some waterfalls! It was so much fun! Even though I was really nervous, for thing because I didn't want to crash and It had been awhile since I used a scooter before, not to mention it being awhile since I have been able to drive in general! But I got the hang of it and soon my nerves went away and I was able to enjoy the experience of riding a scooter through the mountains in Switzerland. It was surreal!
Overall, I had the most amazing weekend! It was the perfect trip to end all my traveling adventures through out Europe!
Anyway, I come home in five days. I can't believe it! That means I'll get to see you all very soon!
-Britt
SHOUT OUT: I want to say hi to the three wonderful and adorable boys that I babysit! Jake, Zach, and Nick! See you this summer! :)
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