Interlaken!

We arrived in Interlaken at 2pm and checked into our hostel. The hostel we stayed in, Backpackers Villa, was probably our favorite hostel because of the cooler temperatures, amazing breakfast, and lockers in the room. Upon arriving we noticed all of the brochures and the two T.V. screens advertising the options for outdoor adventures. The possibilities were endless! Since we only had the rest of the day there and the next whole day we wanted to sign up for some activities right away. The helpful receptionist at our hostel was able to book canyoning for Melissa and Angela and they would be picked up at 3:30. Unfortunately Christian had a bad experience one time and did not end up coming with us.

The van picked us up and we headed up the road to get suited up. Before we knew it we were in full wetsuits with socks and shoes, life jackets, and helmets. The van drove us up the hill in our gear and once we parked we had a 15 minute walk to the starting point. We didn't really know what to expect but we were excited! Canyoning consisted of sliding down rocks, repelling, zip lining, jumping off rocks, and floating downstream feet first. We had a blast and our only regret was not doing the more challenging canyoning excursion.

That night we went to get some fondue at the restaurant down the street from our hostel and it was really good but very expensive! We had intended on sharing one order of fondue but there was a little confusion and we got charged for three. We learn quickly and we will never do that again! After dinner we walked over to a hostel known as Balmers. They were having a beach bash but we were too tired to stay because of our long day of traveling and canyoning. We were also booked to go skydiving and we were planning on being picked up at 8:30am the next day.

When we woke up the next morning we looked outside and came to the sad realization that rain and clouds would not make for a pleasant skydive. We had to cancel and rebooked for the following morning. Later that day we went to the train station and tried to find a train to Nice that would leave sometime after our skydiving would be over. We could find nothing and once again we realized that we were not going to be able to skydive. We were all pretty bummed about it but a little McDonalds put a smile on our face and we decided to try to book something fun for that afternoon. We went and talked to Caterine our favorite receptionist and we decided that the closest we could get to skydiving would be paragliding or hang gliding. She called around and was able to get us in at 4:30 in the afternoon.

Once again the van came to pick us up and take us over to get the hiking boots we needed which they told us were for ankle support. We put on our boots and they took us up to a ridge in the mountains where we would be taking off. Our pilots gave us the rundown of how it would work. We put on our harness and when they told us to go we ran down the hill and as the wind caught the chute we were lifted off of the ground and flying through the air! The view was magnificent and we had about 15 minutes in the air. We even got to steer for a bit! Towards the end of flight our pilots tried to make our stomachs turn by doing some fast turns and flips and we all enjoyed that. We were all very happy that we got to do something fun before our time in Interlaken was up. That night we went to dinner and headed back to our hostel to get packed up for another early train to Nice.

We miss you all!

Christian, Angela and Melissa