ciao for now: land o' switz

Interlaken, Switzerland.

The place where fears and bucket lists go to die. If you're an adrenalin junkie Interlaken was made for you. Canyon jumping, skydiving, bungee jumping, paragliding, and skiing some of the largest mountains in the world; this place is your wonderland. But, if you're afraid of heights whatsoever...good luck!

Okay, let me start from the beginning...

The bus.

"Please arrive to the Santa Maria Novella train station around 18:30 on Thursday and expect to arrive in Interlaken at 2:30 (am...) on Friday." I had been preparing myself for those 8 hours since we signed up for the trip, but little did I know that our bus would leave 3 hours late, we would stop for an hour to let people eat (at 11:30 at night...why?), and then the cherry on top...we would be pulling into the Alps just as a blizzard was beginning, leaving our tired bus driver to brave the tiny, cliff side roads with minimal vision. 12 hours later, though, we pulled into Funny Farm, at 5:30 am. We got a hefty 4 hours of sleep, just enough to give me the energy to sign up for canyon jumping, but little enough for me not to realize what that would entail. Hard to complain when we woke up to this view, though.

The scenes.

No words can do these pictures justice, so enjoy!

The view from our hotel room

Lake Beirnz

More views of Lake Beirnz

The beautiful Alps

View from the top

The chocolate.

For the pure reason of being a choc-aholic, I could never move to Switzerland. Ever. I would blow up faster than a Coke filled with mentos. But, with my motto for the weekend being YOLO, I decided why not try every kind? White, dark, filled with caramel, truffled, filled with shots of brandy and champagne, hazelnut, praline, nothing was off limits. I even decided that "a hot chocolate a day will keep the doctor away" was the perfect way to fight my cold.

Night sledding.

Our makeshift snow outfits...

Contrary to popular belief, night sledding is probably one of the more dangerous activities available to do in Switzerland. After taking a gondola 5000 feet up the mountain we are given tiny glow sticks to light our way and told we will see the bottom in around 45 minutes. Equipped with makeshift snow pants, boots, and a tiny wooden sled, we are on our way!! This is what I would call real life Mario Kart, except instead of losing lives due to slipping on bananas, one wrong turn and you are falling down the side of a mountain. But, I had to stick to my motto...YOLO and also had to survive long enough to eat the fondue dinner that was waiting for me at the bottom.

Canyon "swinging"...yeah right. More like canyon "jumping to my death hoping that the harness works".

After jumping out of a plane, you gain this sense of confidence that you are invincible and nothing will ever be scary again. WRONG. Canyon jumping/swinging/falling (whatever you like to call it) easily takes the cake for scariest thing I have ever done. There's something about plunging to the depths of a snowy canyon with nothing but a tiny cable holding you from falling, that makes jumping out of plane a walk around the block. It's safe to say I'm keeping my feet on the ground for a while after this one..