This is the MOST beautiful place I have EVER been in my entire life. Mallory and I decided that even a postcard doesn't do this place justice. It is absolutely breathtaking. It's a smaller town right, surrounded by the Swiss Alps. There are 2 huge lakes, where the water is a greenish, bluish color that is similar to the Caribbean. This is because of the minerals from the glaciers. It is the cutest little town too!
When we got in last night, we walked from the train station to our hostel, Balmers. We got all checked in and went to our 8-person room. While we were sitting in our room getting unpacked, no one was in there, but after a few minutes this man...probably in his late 60s-70s, walks in only a towel. hahaha oh goodness. So we introduced ourselves and found out he was from Israel and didn't speak much english. He just kept saying "is this ok?" "is this ok?"...of course it was..we knew going into it that it was a mixed room....we thought it would be more college aged students, but it was all good. So while we were unpacking, facing our beds...behind us I see (out of the corner of my eye) the man drop his towel and start to get changed into his clothes right in the room while we were still there! I didn't even want to look at Mallory because I knew we would probably start laughing. I just sat there thinking to myself...is this really happening?....Yes. Yes it was. haha so yea...a little different experience in this hostel than the last. Anyways, so we went downstairs to this open, grassy area...where we ate burgers and drank from Swiss beer. The view we had was of the mountains...amazing. Colorado has nothing on this place...at all. After we ate, we went and got ready to go out. The showers were quite interesting. To get them on, you had to press a button and then constantly press the button because it would turn off about every 2 minutes....so that was great. We remembered that we didn't have a blow dryer after we got out of the shower and got one from the front desk. About a minute of using it, it died and I couldn't get it to work again. Luckily, we asked a girl in the bathroom and she was kind enough to let us use hers. We decided to walk around to see what kinds of places were around our hostel, but we really didn't find anything. So, we just went back to Balmers and went to their bar, The Metro Bar. It was pretty fun...Mallory and I just hung around and drank some beer. We met a nice guy that was here from Newport Beach, CA by himself, so he hung around with us...then a (Roxy..you will enjoy this..) creeper guido hung around and was basically a tool. But anyways, I was at the bar ordering a drink and Mallory taps me on the shoulder and says, ¨this girl is from Nebraska¨....i turned around and she goes, ¨your mom is Sandy¨...and I was said...what? how do you know that? and then I realized it was Krista (not sure about the spelling)...Gebe and Meg`s niece!....Small world isn`t it!!! We are both staying at the same hostel, so I saw all of them today as well. Today was absolutely amazing and soooo much fun!!! We got up, and brushed our teeth looking at the Swiss Alps, right outside our bathroom window. After we ate breakfast, we got picked up by a white van thing and headed to a booth thing in Interlaken where we changed into boots. After that, we rode the van up the mountain...all the way up! We got out of the van and got ready to go Paragliding!!!! If you look at the picture..there is a Paraglider(not us..but the same thing). We got all suited up and buckled in with our helmets, jackets, and this seat type thing. The guide got all strapped in too...right behind me. I was so nervous! We stood at the top of this super steep hill on the side of the mountain with a parachute laying on the ground behind us. Then, we ran down the mountain and as the parachute started to rise, it got harder to run and I ended up being forced to run a bit sideways. That only happened for a short amount of time and then the parachute lifted us off the ground. It was insane...there I was...just floating over Interlaken with the most magnificent scenery surrounding me. When we first took off, I could feel and see my feet shaking! My adreneline was pumping and I of course I took tons of pictures. It was really cool because I basically just sat in this seat thing and enjoyed everything that surrounded me. Mallory went off right before me, so some of the time I could see her and she could see me. We did our best to take picture of eachother. She said that at one point, the wind took her and her feet almost touched the trees. The paragliding was awesome, because we went so high...we could see everything! Right before we landed in this large grassy area right in the middle of Interlaken, my guide did what he calls a rollercoaster...where he spun us around and around and around...it was so much fun! The landing was easy and after 20 minutes in the air, I was back on the ground. After that, Mallory and I wanted to keep doing fun outdoorsy stuff, so we decided to go Canyoning. Basically, our guides, other people, Mallory and I drove up to the middle of the mountain, hiked about 5 minutes higher and then went to an area where there was ton of flowing water and rocks. It was so much fun! We got into life jackets, helmets and wet suits for it and started our 3 and a half hour journey down the mountain in the canyon. We walked in rushing water, all over rocks. At some points, we had to jump...from around 6-10 feet up, between rocks, into about 3 feet of water. Sounds dangerous, but they had us jump on our backs, which made it as safe as possible. It was scary jumping so close to rocks into such shallow water, but that was what made it fun! At one point, we had to repel down a huge side of a rock. Mallory was really good at it. I wasn`t so much, I guess because my legs needed to be wider. I made it though and it was a blast. At this one place, the jump was about 60 feet up and the water was probably about 6 feet deep. Sounds dangerous...again, but we had to tuck our legs in...which, again, made it safe :) At one of the jumps, we did a superman type jump and at a couple of them, Mallory did a front flip! There were parts of the Canyon that had huge waterfalls that they us swim behind and other parts where it was like a slide...where the water pushed us down stream on rocks. The water was sort of cold, but it was still a blast! Our guides were really good and funny. They definitely made it fun. They had a professional photographer taking pictures throughout most of it...so Mallory and I bought a dvd thing to show everyone. We can even print them off or put them on our computers, so we were pretty excited about that. After we got done, they gave us a ticket for a free beer at the bar and then they gave us a ride back to our hostel. We walked around town a little bit and to the train station, where we got an earlier train to Venice. We originally were getting in at 9pm, but now we are getting in around 2, so that will be nice to have more time there. I don`t want to leave this place...it is by far my favorite place in the world! I would recommend it to everyone....especially people who love the outdoors. I have been on the internet for way too long and the keyboards here at super strange, which makes it hard to type... so if I remember anything else, I will write tomorrow, hopefully. Love and miss you all! Sarah