Hiking

This weekend I went to Switzerland! I am in love. It was the most peaceful and beautiful place ever, and I have been to Montana and I live near Seattle (both amazingly beautiful) but Switzerland takes it all. First though, a few house keeping info. My throat infection came back and I had to go back to the doctor, get blood work done and get put back on antibiotics. Apparently I caught like the strongest strain of infection possible. Also, never WebMD your symptoms when your symptoms come back because you will either be told you’re dying or you have some weird incurable disease. Just never a good plan. I am now cured and 160 euros in the hole, but I’m going to file an insurance claim and get reimbursed.

And back to Switzerland! If the trip could have had a theme it would be the trip of perfect timing. It also took on a planes, trains and automobiles feel. On Friday morning (6 am) me and three of my friends took the bus to Madrid to catch our Swiss Air flight to Zurich. Our plane was late getting to the gate so it got delayed about half an hour but security was the easiest thing possible and so we ended up just hanging out for three hours or so. If I could recommend a great airline, I would recommend Swiss Air. For a flight that was barely 2 hours, we got a personal pie tart thing, a drink, and a piece of chocolate for free. I’d call that a great airline. Finally, we walked mildly briskly from the plane to the train that we would take to Interlaken. We just hopped on and didn’t pay attention to where we were so we ended up sitting in first class for like half an hour. Finally someone came through to check tickets and we got kicked back to second class where we ended up sitting on the stairs. The train had a layover in Bern where we had to change trains, but it was overall the easiest thing ever. When the train dropped us in Interlaken West, we walked to our hostel (an easy 5 minute walk) and hung out in our room. We had a room to ourselves that had two bunk beds and a sink, which worked out perfect. It was a little spendy, but welcome to Switzerland, home of everything pricy.

When we woke up Saturday, Ben went hiking in the mountains and Sarah, Luanne and I went PARAGLIDING! We met up with the group, got great hiking boots, and then took a van to a spot in the mountains to jump from. I, of course, trip but the air caught me and away we went to fly over the city of Interlaken. The city was originally just one big lake, but the water from the mountains brought down soil and mud and such to build up into a place people could settle. Now there are two lakes (West and East) and a beautiful town in the middle. The guides we paraglided with took pictures of us in the air too which came out amazing!

Their pictures:

Interlaken in the fall is amazing and colorful. In Seattle, you pretty much get green and only green with regards to the trees. In Interlaken, there are amazing colors and all the trees were changing, it was magical. During paragliding, I was allowed to take my camera since it had a wrist strap (which was tight around my wrist because that baby was not getting dropped) so I ended up taking some awesome photos:

After paragliding, we walked around the town and saw some adorable shops. We eventually just walked around and took a ton of photos and just had a good and relaxing time. We stopped at a grocery store and bough chocolate for everyone we wanted to buy chocolate for. Sarah had research that showed which brands were the best and we went off of that. It was really fun but difficult to decide which ones to buy and who to buy it for.

We then decided to go watch the sunset over the West Lake. It was absolutely perfect. There was this campground right next to one of the bus stops, and we went to their beach and watched the sun set over the Alps! We took a ton of photos until these evil geese came up to us. They basically chased us off the rocks we were sitting on. It was ridiculous, but eventually they decided to go away and we resumed taking pictures until we had to catch the bus.

Finally, we ended the night with a girls night, since Ben was watching the Barcelona/Madrid game at a bar. We bought frozen pizzas and soda, and talked about boys and ex-boyfriends and current boyfriends. Basically we talked about everything that could potentially make Ben feel awkward. It was amazing. One of the most fun nights yet. Ben eventually made it home and we swapped stories since he hiked the mountains all day and then we all crashed extremely early. Apparently paragliding and walking around all day (or hiking in Ben’s case) is exhausting work! Next stop: Lucerne!

We went on a hike today. There is this statue on the other side of town in like a tiny mountain that I can see from my room that is pretty famous. It is a giant statue of Jesus Christ! We had nothing to do today really, so we decided to do the hike that we have been talking about since day 1. I don’t usually agree to do that kind of thing since everyone knows I’m clumsy and I have asthma, but I just keep telling myself “Yolo its Spain”.

When I went to Greece, I couldn’t walk to the top of Mount Olympus because my asthma was too bad. I got to the first check point and had to call it quits while the rest of the group went to the top. It is one of the things I regret most about that trip. Ever since then, I have sworn that I will not let my asthma stop me from doing something like that ever again. I now carry an inhaler around, if not 3, in my purse or bag, because I don’t want to experience that regret again. Now, sometimes I am just a little slower than everyone else, but I can always make it to the top. My friend Sarah always stayed with me and was so nice about it. I felt bad since I knew she could have gone SO much faster, but she was so nice.

At the top of the mountain, we took pictures with Jesus and then had a picnic that our host families packed for us. It was a ton of fun! I am so glad I went. On the way back down however (which was SO much faster), we were going to see this little church there, and I was walking along the side of the road and ended up falling off of it. I rolled my ankle and have road rash on my thigh. Oh the joys of being clumsy. My injuries don’t hurt that badly and I took Advil, but I feel so ridiculous. Of all the people on that trip, OF COURSE it would be me to fall and get injured. I just hope it doesn’t hurt to badly later tonight when I go to the festival “Noche Blanca”! Well, lets be honest, I’m still going to go, I just might limp a little. That’s the reason you pack boots. More support for clumsy people like me 🙂 Just imagine what my life would be like if I give in to the fashion of Spain and start wearing heels everywhere! I would come home in a cast.