The perilous weekend in Interlaken.

So all week I've been trying to think of something interesting to blog about, and I never came up with that perfect topic to talk about. So I will begin this year on blogging on explaining my near-death experiences this summer. It all started when we decided to go to Switzerland for the weekend (we were already in Italy so it was just a train ride away) and stay in Interlaken. I'm not sure if you have heard of Interlaken, but there really isn't much there. The weekend we were there they had a 3 day outdoor concert with American bands but it was VERY expensive. Other than that...there is extreme sports. Yes, it is a city completely devoted to being...extreme. The first day there we got up at 9am to go skydiving. I'm petrified of heights so it was probably the boldest decision I had made in a long time, but it was cool. I'd recommend it. I would not recommend strapping yourself to a guy who doesn't speak English well and all he knows are perverted jokes and the phrase "Ok now jump." The next day was canyoning. For lack of a real definition canyoning is where you climb up a canyon and then come back down in creative ways, like rock repelling and water fall diving. One of these dives required you to jump face first off a higher rock into a pool of water where 2 waterfalls fed into. I was not a good jumper and missed the target jump point and hit a shallow point where my face collided with a rock. My jaw got really messed up and inflated over the next 3 days. It became a rumor almost. I met a girl staying in my hostel room and she told me some story about "a girl at canyoning who had to be air flown to a hospital because she was so mangled" when I told her it was me...and none of that happened...she was a bit disappointed. All night I heard stories like that. Even my skydive tandem guy came by too see if it was true. In the end I had only broken 3 teeth and my jaw was fine...just swollen.
So the next day...in attempts to not get hurt we rented "funny cars" which only go about 30mph. It was all in kilometers over there so I'm gues-timating. Well my car was following the other car trying to find some lake that was supposed to be pretty. This proved to be a bad decision because the driver of the funny car ahead of me was directionally challenged and took us onto a highway where cars were passing up going about 70-80mph. It was like taking a Go-kart on I-10. And there was no where to turn around so we had to literally drive down this highway about 5 miles, to get off and get on to go the other way. Through dark tunnels and going half the speed of the people around us. Once we got off the highway...we returned the cars and vowed to never drive in that country again.

In the end it was a really amazing weekend, and I'd recommend visiting Interlaken (as long as your into extreme sports, expensive food, and AMAZING chocolate). Just be cautious and remember, once you leave America they no longer worry about safety disclaimers.




I promise the next blog will be better.