Best place on earth

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seriously. best place on earth. ok i'm lying a little bit on this journal b/c i'm not actually in switzerland anymore. but i wanted to put another country on here. so anyway, last thursday night we got all our crap together and took the bus to termini from school. i had to wear my coat b/c i didnt have room to pack it adn we got on such a crowded bus and i was sweating so bad and we werent very happy. but we got to termini early and got some delicious mcdonalds. the train station wasnt as scary as imagined. pretty easy to figure out except that the sleeper car we were on was pretty miseable. the setup is one little cube with 6 people and there is enough room for them to all sit comfortably or you can put the beds down and sleep. i was in no mood to sleep at like 8pm. but the german man and his daughter were. so they put down the beds and we had no choice but to lie on our backs in no room to move, sitting on our luggage and stare into the dark. i had a hard time sleeping, but i finally got to sleep a little bit, but then i woke up when we were stopped in a hanger with a bunch of trains and we stayed there FOREVER and i was so upset that i was having to spend even more time in this train. turns out we were in milan. milan can suck it. i was so angry partly because i was tired and uncomfortable, and also becasuse milan sucks. ok so anyway about 6 or 7 am we got up and the conductor gave us some breakfast that was really pretty good and we just watched the scenery of hte alps until we got to Spiez. yeah so switzerland is the most picturesque place you can imagine. it looks exactly like you'd imagine it wuold be. huge mountains, pastures with cows and sheep and dard wooden houses with red geraniums in the windows, lots of waterfalls and snow up top. its pretty cool. the ride from Spiez to Interlaken was soo much better than the sleeper car. we rode along the lake that was so glassy and clear and beautiful. we got to interlaken and walked to Balmer's. and everyone there is so freakin friendly and helpful and amazing. such a difference from rome. and we checked into the hostel and we mentioned that we were interested in going paragliding, so the guy checked the computer and said we could go in an hour. ... ok. so we stuck our stuff into a locker and got in a van and drove up a mountain and then jumped off of it. so paragliding is not scary at all. we were going tandem with a real paraglider person so all we had to do is get strapped onto the thing adn run off a mountain. keri went first and they told us to start running off the hill, which is so steep i thought i would just fall flat on my face if i tried, but then keri started running and she was in the air so quickly it didnt matter. i thought she was going to crash into the trees, but nope. so then i went after her and when we started running down the hill i took about three steps and we were in the air. it was so easy and v. v. cool.. my digital camera had broken early that morning so i didnt get to take any video of it, but i got some film pictures that havent been developed yet. but i got some good ones of the mountains and of interlaken and stuff. we were in the air for about 10 min. and the guy did some spins and stuff that made me sick but it was still fun. so then the landing was pretty easy too. he said to just stand up, and the other girls had no problem but i fell on my ass. its ok though. it was just the three of us and another lady from canada who was traveling europe, and that afternoon she was going canyoning. that looked like so much fun, but it was so cold to be jumping in freezing alpine water. maybe in the summer. the people i talked to who did it said its a lot of fun. so that was our paragliding adventure. totally worth it and i would do it every day if i could. got back to balmer's and crashed for a little bit. then we walked around town and down this little lane to a castle. omg the weather was so awsome while we were there. i was so worried that it would be rainy or overcast. it was the most perfect weather the whole time we were there. it was cool in the daytime, and a little cold at night, but perfect autumn weather, clear skies, the trees were turning colors and the mountains were covered in snow. ah. so we went down this little road and saw some sheep. petted them for a while. i've never seen sheep in real life that i can remember. they're pretty cool. so then we kept going down the river and some swans hung out with us for a little bit. then we got to the castle, which is just a little castle but it has a tree growing on the top of it that's been there forever. then that night we went to this restaurant that sarah found in her travel book. brasserie 17 or something. anyway the point was that they had ribs. oh god, red meat. and lots of it. and not freaking expensive. so sarah and i got "USA Ribs" and the Rugenbrau beer they make in interlaken. both were exquisite. oh god it was good. and keri got this plate of spaetzle and venison. it was freakin delicious also. so we felt good and we ate some of our swiss chocolate from taht afternoon adn talked to some scottish guys at balmers and went to bed. long day. but yeah balmers is so nice and so safe. actually all of the places we were in in switzerland were really safe. we had gotten so paranoid about stuff in rome we forgot that there are nice people out there somewhere. but it made me a little homesick for the south where people are nice. plus this is a place mostly for backpackers who want to do extreme sports, so they were all really nice people who'd been to cool places. they all said that interlaken was the best place they'd been to in europe. so i'm really glad keri got us to go, or i'd probably would have nevere even heard of it. we stayed in an 8 girl dorm room, and we stayed 4 nights b/c they had a deal where you get the 4th night free. no one really stays that long. usually just one night and so we had different people in the room every night. some were pretty cool. others just ok. but the setup was nice and we were comfortable the whole time. they kick you out at 10:30 and dont open up the room until 4. but that was alright. b/c we could just keep our stuff we needed in the lockers during the day. ok so on saturday we decided to go to lauterbrunnen and gimmewald where there's a bunch of waterfalls, and that's where keri's sister went paragldiding when she was here a few years ago. so we took another gorgeous train ride to lauterbrunn, and the town is so cute and a very stereotypical swiss alp town. there are waterfalls everywhere. seriously. so we're trying to find the road that leads down into the valley and we asked this couple and they were going the same way, so we kept running into them all day, and they were staying in interlaken too, so we ran into them again, and just yestrday they came to see rome, so we hung out with them again! they're from california and have been all over europe. thats the thing about interlaken that was awesome. people speak english!!! oh god its so convenient. and everything works and is on time. ah. so anyway we're walking down the valley and you have no idea how amazing it is there. everywhere you turn is another perfect amazing view. everywhere. its unbelievable. so we're looking at mountains and waterfalls and houses and farms and sheep and goats and cows and we find the trummelbach falls or something. and this place is a cave with a huge waterfall running through it. it was awesome. if there's anywhere i wish shelle could have seen, it would be this place. so we wander back down from the cave falls and then we walk some more through the valley to the gondola up to Gimmelwald. and on the way we saw these apple trees with lots of apples on them. some japanese girls were trying to get some from one tree and we went to the next one and keri climbed up it to get tehm. the japanese girls ahd gotten a couple from their tree and came running over to give keri the stick they used. it was soo funny. but eventually she got a couple down adn soem for the other girls too who had to take a million pictures of it. it was hillarious. we sat and ate our apples and our lunch of nutella bread and met up with robyn and jonathan again (the couple from before). lots of fun. and sarah rolled down a huge hill and got really dirty. it was freaking hillarious. the gondola was pretty cool too. a little scary when it would sway and stuff but worth the view. so up on top of this mountain you can see everywhere, and its a good view of the really big mountains and as soon as we got off of the gondola there was a little park with the most awesome slide ever. and this town is another awesome swiss town with lots of animals and farms and good views. we saw a waterfall from up there htat was entirely a rainbow. the sun hit it just right. doestn even seem like that should be real. there shoudl have been unicorns and leprochauns running around. but we got back down the mountain and back to the train and back to our hostel in interlaken. i think it was that night we had our mexican food. sarah's been dying for some so we went to el azteca, but it was pretty expensive so i just got a little plate of some nachos or something. it was really good though. mmm i miss mexican food a lot. all the stuff we did is running together in my head. i think that night we had the bottle of wine we brought from rome (it was disappointing wine) and had the chocolate we bought that day. satisfyin. then we were going to go check out the metrobar downstairs, but then we ran into robyn and jonahtan and we all went to the funny farm hostel down the street and had some beers and hung out for a while. a good time was had. met some austrailian boys and sarah got stuck sittnig by a miserable american army guy. but we ditched him and us girls headed back to check out the metrobar, but it was little disappointing, and then a few minutes later, robyn jonathan and the austrailians came by too and we danced and we realized how tired we were and went to bed. the next day we rented bikes from teh hostel and rode around town. that was a lot of fun except they only have boy bikes and it was waay too big for me. my ass hurt for a few days. so we rode back down the lane where the castle and the sheep were, and we got some pears from the pear trees there. tried to help keri climb it but our endeavors were unsuccessful, so we just picked up the ones that werent covered in crap and took them down to the lake to wash them off and they did not taste good. actually they tasted good, but they suck all the moisture out of your mouth when you eat them. its bizzare. so we hung out with the sheep for a little bit while we ate our lunch and they got crazy aggressive trying to get our lunch and kept putting their heads through the fence. yikes. and at the lake a bunch of geese came over to eat our bread and one of them was really scary adn hissed at us. wtf? geese hiss? so scary. and then we went back through town to do a little shopping and got home and ate our fondue!! ahahha swiss fondue. delicious. we had to order it early that morning from the hostel because its freaking expensive around town. it was sooo good and cheesy. then we went down to the metrobar for happy hour and we met the australians again and we all went down to the club at funny farm and went dancing again. that was fun. the funny farm has this st. bernard that lives there and it is the biggest nicest dog i've ever seen in my life. i love that dog. so the next day we just took it easy and walked around the town. finished our shopping, went to the hooters there and we went back to the funny farm that night for drinks and pretty much spent the last part of the night with that huge st. bernard. i wanted to take that dog with us. i wish we had taken a picture of it. but we never took our cameras with us out at night. too bad. so we got up early in the morning and at a huge breakfast at the hostel and said our goodbyes to switzerland. i was seriously so sad to leave. i didnt want to go back to rome at all. i still wish i were there. but we got on the trains back home and i was so miserable from milan to rome. tuscany was pretty but there were a billion loud italian kids on there so i just listened to my ipod as loud as i could and stared out the window. and i didnt get to sit with keri and sarah so i was just in my own little seat. blah. by the time we got back to rome i was going insane. i was so upset on the busride and when we got off i practically ran home. it felt good to be back in our apartment though. i calmed down a little bit. i cant wait to get my pictures developed and i need to get a new camera. that sucks but i am soo glad i got to go to switzerland. it seriously is the best place on earth. go there. i want to go back in summer to do all the summer sports like rafting and canyoning and such. ah. but we're leaving for florence tomorrow morning. that will be ok. i spent so much money in switzerland i'm gonig to spend pretty much nothing there. all i really want to do is see the main places and see the david and venus and stuff. that will be ok. i dont know if i want to get back on a train again tomorrow morning. and this time i'm packing a quarter of what i took to switzerland. i overpacked by so much. now i know. dont do it. but yeah. switzerland was great. it was the best vacation ever. i dont see how anything on this trip could ever beat that weekend. yeah.

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Photos

The alps
This is about where we launched from the mountain. and there are cows everywhere.

Right before takeoff
Me and sarah with our aweome gear on.

In the air
One of keri's pics from the air.

Its me!
that's me flying over the alps.

Crash landing
we almost hit keri who was taking this picture. hence my frightened expression.

Crash landing part 2
on my ass

Approved
(that was sarah's paragliding guy behind us)

Ribs!
so good!

keri's spaetzle
that asian lady in the back sat down in the middle of the bar to watch rhythmic gymnastics.

sarah's ribs
down in one bite. not really though

Keri's apple
she worked for it.

lawn gnomes
the people in gimmelwald sure love their gnomes.

aweome slide
on the playground at the top of the world

Rainbow waterfall
inconceivable!

Scenic
too good to pass up