Me and the Swiss Alps

My goodness has this past week been ridiculously busy!  All of my classes are finally starting to give out projects and papers so I've had to buckle down this week.  But LAAASSTTT weekend has become number 1 on my favorite destinations list, and it will be the most memorable trip of my life.


To start off, Thursday night my roommate Kirsten and I left at 6pm and took a 10 hour bus ride straight to our hotel.  It was incredibly tiring and long, but obviously worth it.  Good thing I bought my new furry Italian leather boots because it was chilllyyyy!! Of course it was though we were arriving at the SWISS ALPS!!


We then get into the notorious Funny Farm hotel were we came to discover that Kirsten and I were one of the very few to get our OWN hotel room where we were free to be our selves and not have to worry about our belongingings being stolen, etc etc. So we were told by our guide that we needed to be down in the lobby again by 8 if we wanted to sign up for any activities for the weekend.

So we were off the our room... Which might I add is in the top floor with a balcony and our OWN bathroom!!! That was such a plus.


2 hours later we woke up to watch the sunrise over the alps. HOLY CRAP!!! Not only do we have a balcony, but our room has the sickest view ever!!! We were surrounded by mountains. It was such a treat for me especially because one of the most enjoyable and majestic sights for me to see and encounter are mountainous regions in general but to be staring at the Swiss Alps without even having to leave our hotel room was nothing that I could have dreamed of.

7:30 am view on Friday...STUNNING.

Couldn't even believe what I was seeing.

That's our balcony up top!

Haha...So random 

Here's my own version of a panoramic view for the next few pics.  It's the view from our balcony.

Breakfast Room.  Provided us with bread, jelly, and coffee and tea. otherwise known as...GOURMET.....

A bar part of our lobby

Front Desk

Where the magic happens... 

Stairs up to our room

Where we all migrated to hang out hahaha

As we get to the lobby around 8 we grab a crap ton of pamphlets to get an idea of what kinds of activities we could do out here. There's so many to choose from!!!

So. We narrowed it down to a few possibilities:

Night sledding...
Hiking...
Gondola rides...
Canyon jumping.

Hell yea!

As deliriously tired as we were, we got our free breakfast provided at the hotel - which consisted of coffee, tea, bread and jelly - and it was surprisingly delicious; probably because we were beyond tired.  Then we went back upstairs and napped some more til about 12:30 or so. We wake up yet again to a glorious view, and we were off to explore the town!


The closest destination that I can compare Interlaken to would be Ely, MN.  I know not many of you know where or what that even is, but it is the same as Interlaken: A small, quaint town filled with the sweetest, most helpful people and is surrounded by the Alps. So, naturally, walking everywhere is no hassle within these close proximities, not to mention that we would prefer to do so! We stopped at a grocery store  and bought ourselves some trail mix and apples and bananas and decided to hike along the Aare River until we reached Lake Thun. With the temperature being close to 45 degrees and the sun boisterously shining and snow still shunning on the ground, it definitely was incredibly beautiful. The river was a rich sea blue and safe to drink! We tasted the water and it was alpine-fresh. Haha.

The facades of all the hotels and building were super cute!!

Oh yea. Such a cool pic

The mountains in the distance <3

Francs are fun!!!

 A lot of stops to look at the map.  European cities can be confusing to navigate yourself around!

A McFlurry was 6,50 euro.  So, just about 9 USD.  

This one's dedicated to you, Dad!

I wanna live there!!

Aaaaaand this one, Dad :)

Our 15 euro snow shoes for the weekend....THANK you Jesus for these, our toes would've fallen off!

Artsy pic.

And so begins our hike! About an hour long to and from Lake Thun.

A random spiral staircase up to the highway above us! 

Illinois highways are so boring compared to this!

We had to walk ACROSS the rapids to continue our hike.........

....JUST KIDDING!!!! haha that would have been cool though. We just thought it was pretty.

Cute little boat houses we stumbled across

Once we got to Lake Thun it had the greatest views. With it just being Kirsten and I the entire hike, it was even more secluded and easier for us to do our own thing. We climbed on uneven rocks to the farthest point of land and took in the fresh air, the beeeaaauuutiiifuuul alps surrounding Lake Thun which ultimately was surrounding us was great.


And while visiting this area, Kirsten and I had 2 friends with us all along! These 2 swans seemed to follow us everywhere we would go!


On our way back from the hike we stopped at one of the bridges and carved our names into the wood. We both are secretly hoping to one day visit back here again because we both haven't seen anything like Interlaken in our lives yet. So we felt it was necessary :)

Lake Thun!

A 360 degree view of Lake Thun and the surrounding Alps

Great Shot of Kirsten and the view!

Just chillin haha

Our friends that followed us!

Such models!!!

Kirsten and I

Haha!

Obviously necessary to bring on our hike.  And plus it's Swiss chocolate. Double win!

I'm gonna start doing a lot more of shoe pictures....to symbolize how many places I will have visited after my trip is over.

Kirsten carving in our names under one of the bridges on our hike!

One day i'll be back to see this again :)

As the sun was setting we walked a different route home and ended up finding this huge semi-deteriorated stone building and we came to find that it was an ancient castle built in the 1200's!! And there were no signs of any sort that told us we couldn't go in so... Obviously we did. We walked up into the main entrance and saw wooden steps spiraling up to the top, so naturally...we climbed them. It was so cool!!! We get to the top and there was this huge look out point!! It was awesome that it was once surrounded by water, and there used to be a legit mote surrounding the castle. Such savvy explorers we were!!

This used to be the bridge over the mote to enter the castle!!  So cool. 

At the top! 

Haha 

ON TOP OF THE WORLD!!! ...not really though 

Dinner on Friday night was EPIC for us. We went to this place called Balmer's and THEY SERVED BURGERS. We were freaking out because we hadn't had a burger in what seemed like decades. It was damn good too!! It had Swiss cheese on it and the fries were delicious too!! It couldn't have gotten any better. The hallelujah choruses were singin it was great.

YUM. Such a happy moment while biting into this 

Come Saturday, I woke up a little jittery.  Today was the day where we would be canyon jumping.  YEP.  The Swiss Alps and in Queenstown, New Zealand are the only two places in the world capable of hosting this activity.  So originally we thought it owuld be a complete no brainer for us, and that is to experience something that we probably would never be able to do again!  


But waking up that morning made me think otherwise.  But when the bus came to pick us up, there was no turning back.

This was the contract we had to sign. HILARIOUS. 

This is the platform for bungee jumping 

THIS is the drop. 90 meters.  The ledge on the top-right corner is where you jump. 

 View from the ground.  The ledge is on the top left of the first mountain on the left.

 Our group!  We were all taking pictures of the contract we were gonna sign.  A nice laugh before we had to FREEFALL off a canyon.

 Our two other guides....of course I can't remember their names though. 

 Getting hooked up....TERRIFYING.

.....Me and the drop

I was SOOOO FLUSTERED.  At this point there literally was NO turning back.

My limbs were moving and time slowly kept passing and he kept asking me how I was feeling and I had no idea how to answer.  Initially, you know it will feel like there will be nothing between you and the ground.

 Think about Giant Drop at six flags.  Now subtract the harness, your seatbelt, and the entire ride itself and imagine yourself falling...THAT'S the feeling I had.  The sole purpose of the rope for me in the first 4 seconds was just something that I could hold on to.  My mind couldn't believe that it was actually gonna catch me after a certain point.

I couldn't even screea after a certain point.  I was frozen

 Everyone laughs at me!! But I just say, had the opportunity to practice what you would look like while free-falling through the air?? Cuz I sure haven't!!!!! Haha

Aaand FINALLY the rope catches!!!!! RELIEF!!!

Although I was freakin' out, it was THE BEST FEELING IN THE WORLD to be swinging back and forth within the canyon after that drop.  Such a liberating and exhilarating feeling I had.  My blood was pumpin FAST after the jump.  It is indescribable, but it was great.

Here are some views from inside the canyon after we've all jumped. STUNNING.

So high up! 

The angle where people freefall from.  Still crazy to think that I jumped this.  Mindblowing. 

All of us still in shock haha 

Overjoyed!!! 

Back on solid ground! Though....I would have gone again if I could :) 

 All trying to jump!  Worked out terribly haha

Our third guide, Mark!  He was such a little ladies man :) 

So right when we get dropped off at our hotel, we found out that there was chocolate tasting that was about to start....uhhhh...DUHHHH I'm gonna do that!!!  It was held at a famous chocolatier shop for it's incredible Swiss chocolate called Shuh.  For 15 euro we got to try the chocolates and then were able to pick something from the shop to take home with us.

She was making it right in front of us! Now i know how to spoil all of you with my chocolatier-ing skills :) 

Hehehehe so true!

So that pretty much sums up our trip.  Hands down I will have considered this experience to be one of the top 5 moments of my life.  There is no other place in the world where I have felt so much at home, so much adrenaline, and so much happiness all at one time, other than being with my family of course :)  So, I guess in order for me to get it all, mom, pops, and emily, WE'RE GOIN TO INTERLAKEN!!!! When? No idea, but no matter who what where when and how I get there, I'll be back.