Switzerland

I thought hard about where to start...

This is the story of when Deanna and I went to Switzerland. 

[If this ends up way too long or detailed, please comment and let me know what you think. I'll adapt my blogging etiquette.]

Who: Deanna and myself
Where: Zurich and Interlaken, Switzerland
When: April 7-10, 2009
Main activities: Skiing, cliff diving, very weird Swiss party

The journey of how we got there is a story in it's self. I'll just start in Zurich...

Zurich

The train system there is nuts. D knows a little German but it was still hard to get around. We Couch Surfed (basically a community of people around the world that let other people crash on their couch. Cheapest way to stay anywhere. Sorry dad.) and stayed with two Argentinean guys that for some reason got the vibe that D and I weren't friends. 

[Probably because we were exhausted from drinking the airline out of wine] 

a house in Zurich

We both agreed that Zurich was very clean, had generally beautiful people, and everyone was nice to us. It wasn't our destination though and only stayed for one night.

... but we got drinks in the train station though, of course.

Interlaken

We took the morning train to Interlaken and checked in at the Balmers Herberge Hotel. It was off season so the hotel was semi-vacant besides the staff and a few fellow travelers. They accidently let one of us stay for free and, of course, as broke 19 year-old girls, we didn't tell them :/ but our room had a balcony with a glorious view of the Swiss Alps. Literally took our breath away to see after such a long trip. So naturally, that night we just reminisced and enjoyed the view.

View from our porch

Swiss Alps

We took the bus to the Jungfrau Ski Region which has three mountains. We skiied (actually she snowboarded, I just like skiing better) the top mountain [Kleine Scheidegg] because the day we went just happened to be the 12th annual Snowpen Air Concert. Both of us combined gave 0 shits about seeing Joe Crocker on our only day to ski. 

The concert echoed through the mountain all day and cleared the slopes for us to own.

 Just D and me with a mountain to ski :)

Joe Cocker concert? lmao no, never.

Our own personal Swis Alp? Yes, all day.

Needless to say the skiing was incredible. We stopped to reminisce near a little cottage in the middle of a long run and listened to Joe Cocker echo through the Alps.

 Since there were no other people on the slopes to follow, and we were a little reminiscent, we accidently slid all the way down to a different mountain. At the time we freaked out. We thought we were in another town [which is half true, I guess] but being the resourceful young ladies we pride our selves to be, we just hopped another train to get back to where we started.

On the train from Grindelwald

[Ok maybe there were two other people, but I bet they were just on their way to the Joe Cocker concert.]

Interlaken day #2

We only had time/money to ski for one day, but we stayed for three nights. The next day was wonderfully eventful too. We rented bikes and rode around Interlaken, which is located between two beautiful lakes (see below) and had lunch at Hooters... seriously. But I don't remember why. 

-Deanna? Why in the world did we go to Hooters!? 

dontknowwhatthislakeiscalled, Interlaken

Interlaken, Switzerland

Hooters. Wasn't lying. Same wings.

I can't give a lot of detail about the specifics of this part because I didn't keep the company's card or anything [but I probably just Googled it] and found a place that would help me jump off a cliff. I've always wanted to bungee jump but the best I find was 'cliff diving'. 

The difference:

Bungee jumping you are tied at the feet and dive off a bridge. 

Cliff diving I was harnessed at my waist and jumped off, like in a bad dream when you free-fall. 

-Why they are inverted like that, I have no idea-

I jumped into a crevice in a mountain and swung on the end of a cord 300 ft below. 

This guy (<-- link!) is actually doing the same thing I did, same place!

Dee wouldn't do it with me but she came along for support, and to photo document. 

- Thanks Dee :) 

Ready...

Set...

DID IT !!! 

Bucket list, check.

Sad story:
Some other girl took a video of my jump. I gave her my email and made her promise to send it to me. But she didn't. Bitch :'(

That night we wanted to party but it was off season like I said, so the only people in town were staff or locals. The locals in Interlaken are a strange bunch of people. I remember a wild wear-everything-you-own theme party, a basement, some weird Swiss drug that we didn't touch, and free tank tops! 

woo!

Bye bye Balmer dog

The next day, we said good bye to the Balmers Resort and took a train back to Zurich and stayed with those Argentinean guys again, flew out in the morning. 

from here, we flew to Prague

Stay Tuned.

Thanks for reading :) 

feel free to comment! 

(not you mom, anyone else)

Also to come:

-Tour de Italy: Rome, Venice, Florence

-Barcelona

-Amsterdam 

-Valencia

-Las Fallas

-Javea

-Albufera

-Madrid

-New York

-San Francisco 

-Atlanta

-Dallas

-Ft. Worth

-KC

-College visits: MU, KU, Bama, UNCW, A&M

-other US road trips