Since I began skiing at age 5, the Swiss Alps have been a dream destination for me, so this trip to Interlaken, Switzerland meant a lot more to me than most of my friends. This ended up being one of the most incredible weekends of my life. I did two of the things I wanted to do before I die, two of the things on what would be my "bucket list." I have decided I want to actually make a bucket list, write everything down so that I have it in a form other than just ideas in my head. But skydiving and skiing the Swiss Alps were undoubtedly two items on the list.
Skydiving was, as I expected, unbelievable. While it cost a little more in Switzerland (okay, a LOT more), the views of the Alps were absolutely worth every penny. I love daredevil-type activities, so I was actually surprised at myself when my reaction to the door being opened at 13,000 feet was just to scream. Not even words, just screaming. Luckily it was loud enough that I don't think anyone really noticed that I was going ballistic. Watching my friend Matt suddenly disappear out of the plane into the sky was one of the most shocking things I have ever seen. I can't even describe the feeling of jumping out of that plane myself. Everyone asks what its like, and I'm never really sure how to answer the question. It is scary, exciting, shocking and relieving all at once.
At first you do get that falling feeling in your stomach, but after a few seconds that goes away, and you are just overwhelmed by the feeling of the air pushing against you, a force on your entire body like you've never felt before. I had to remind myself to breathe because you feel like you can't when all the air is being forced at you. The free-fall was about 45 seconds long, which honestly felt like an eternity. When Dave (the trained skydiver that I fell with) finally let the parachute out, there was another jump that felt like a roller coaster. Then we fell much slower, and he pulled the chute different directions to let me see all out across the landscape as well as give a few thrills with spins and dips. The pictures I took were indescribably beautiful. That is definitely a sport I could get addicted to.
The next day I got up early, though not early enough for my taste, and took a bus and three trains to Wegen, a one-street city midway up the mountain where we caught the gondola. Unfortunately when we reached the top we couldn't see anything. We couldn't see the snow ten feet in front of us, much less the mountains surrounding us. All the other skiers and snowboarders I was with were a little bit less hardcore, but instead of holding back all day I found a girl at about my level and skied with her all day. It worked out perfectly. Even though we couldn't see anything, couldn't read the minimal signs around the mountain and basically had no idea where we were going, we had a great time just wandering around the mountain, taking various lifts and finding ourselves on various trails.
It was so interesting to ski there because it was so different from skiing in the US, even skiing out west. It actually felt like skiing a bowl the entire time because there are much fewer trees and the runs aren't groomed or even really created, its more like they just put up chairlifts and you pick your way down. It was definitely an awesome experience, I only wish visibility would have been better. My legs were sore for days and I still have bruises on my knees from my one fall of the day, which was actually on the slippery walk back while I was carrying my skis (no falls on the mountain for me, thank you very much).
Later that night we went night sledding, which was actually really fun. Basically we sledded down an area of cat-tracks on the mountain, but cat-tracks are a lot faster and scarier on a sled than skis. I could never get going fast enough though; when I was finally at the front with the instructor, he said to me "look at you, always at the front, passing all the boys... I know your type." I'm not exactly sure what that meant, but it was a lot of fun, followed by a wonderfully cliche fondue dinner on the mountain. To sum up, Interlaken, Switzerland was one of the best trips I have taken in my life.
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