Ciao Italia: Is this real life? - Interlaken, Switzerland

"Is this real life?" seems to have become my new catch phrase. Everything I'm doing is just unbelievable to me. I mean I went paragliding. In Switzerland....! This is all so crazy! I'm loving every moment of my life right now.

Interlaken is a small town in Switzerland that is high above sea level but looks like it isn't because it is surrounded by the Swiss Alps. On each side of the town are two beautiful lakes that are connected by a river. It is by far the best place I have gone so far. My friend CJ pretty much summed it up when she said "Are you kidding me?! How is it that every corner you turn the view is breath taking? How is that possible?" My describing it won't do it justice, and I don't want the pictures to be small so I'm going to add them at the end. The pictures really don't do the scenery much justice either, but it's the best I can do.

Swans like the swim in the lakes in Interlaken and they are like pigeons in Chicago... they just come right up to you! It was amazing! This one swam was right by me and we made eye contact. I swear we had a starring contest. He won.

Originally, to get a "thrill" in Interlaken, my friends and I were going to go canyon jumping. There are only two places in the world where this is possible, New Zealand and Interlaken... So we jumped at the opportunity (punny). Sadly, the weather (which was BEAUTIFUL) was too warm. The warm weather was causing the large icles to melt and fall in the canyon, and they could hit jumpers, so canyon jumping was cancelled. We still wanted to do something amazing though so we "settled" for paragliding over Switzerland. It was so breathtaking/amazing/surreal/any other word that works here. I'm still freaking out about it and its been over 24 hours. My guide, his name was Micki, was hilarious. You're up in the air for about 20 minutes and I thought it would be awkward to be strapped to a stranger for that long but we had an amazing conversation. He told me about paragliding alone for the first time, explained that we were over 2 miles above the ground and going faster than 30 mph, he joked (or at least I hope it was a joke) about praying for the wind to go to the right or else we were going to hit the side of the mountain... I was only slightly amused by this joke. No worries though, obviously we got the wind or I would be stuck in a mountain right now with all the mountain goats, deer, and rabbits (the main animals in their mountains. No bears or moose... I had to ask him).

ADPi <3 AGD

Dragon Slide

CJ, Ellen, Kristi, Sara, Kendall, Peyton, and I decided it would be fun on Saturday to do a day trip to Zurich. Although Zurich was great and we had a blast, I had fallen so in love with Interlaken that it just wasn't amazing. We climbed the top of the church tower and saw some great views, stopped in a beautifully decorated chocolate shop (of course... swiss chocolate is to die for.), and shopped on their version of Michigan Avenue; Bahnhofstrasse... not as catchy. It was fun, there was a 4 story toy store had these collectible stuffed animals, they even had a squirrel!! But it was a tiny one for 150 Franks (which is roughly $155). So, sorry AGD, but that squirrel I had to pass on buying. There was also a slide in the store! At first we weren't going to go on it, because only little kids were. But eventually, we all caved, because it looked like so much fun! So everyone slid down it... it was in the shape of a dragon. So basically you get eaten by a dragon, and come out of his "tail". My inner-child loved it.

A sign in our restaurant in Zurich... umm excuse me?

We had lunch at this crazy expensive German restaurant (everything is Switzerland is expensive because they pay better. Minimum wage is 18 Franks ($20) an hour). I tried an onion soup, which was actually good. (I'm getting very good at trying new food.) Afterwards we didn't have much time before our bus left to head back to Interlaken so we all just got a beer (cause that's legal here and it makes me happy) and relaxed until it was time to head back. Even the bus rides were amazing. You're riding through the mountains so it's just spectacular views all the time!

Next weekend is the weekend before midterms. It is still undetermined if I'm going to stay in Florence or head to Rome but either way it should be a fun weekend in Italy! I'm excited to get midterms over with and start spring break with my sister! Since I'm only seeing her for a week I should actually like her the entire time she's here :)