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Published: January 24th 2008
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Hostel
Our Hostel in Bern I had a great weekend!! You will never believe all the things that I did. (Incase you don’t read any further maybe I can entice you by telling you that I WENT SKYDIVING IN THE ALPS!!!!)
So on Friday we got out of school early around 12 pm and we rushed to get our bags from our place and went to the train station. We caught a 1pm train and headed to Bern (the capital of Switzerland). We arrived in Bern around 6pm and found our way to our hostel. When we checked in the man told us about a restaurant about 20 minutes away that made their own beer. So me and the 8 girls I was traveling with got ready and walked to the restaurant (after getting a little lost) we sat down and had a nice time at dinner. I ordered Bavarian sausages, pretzel, and mustard. I wanted to have an authentic Swiss German meal but once I saw the sausages (boiling in water and completely white) I was a little apprehensive. I had about half of the sausage and wasn’t too impressed but I was glad I tried it. After dinner we all headed
Dinner
The Bevarian Sausages I had for Dinner back to the hostel and just hung out and talked. The next morning we got up early and went into the town of Bern. It was rainy but that didn’t stop us from walking around because Bern has one of the largest outdoor mall strips in Europe and it is all covered so you can walk and look at the shops without getting wet. We walked the streets all day and went into a beautiful cathedral, saw the clock tower and stopped by Albert Einstein’s apartment. Unfortunately it was closed but we got to take pictures outside and all in all Bern was a blast.
We left Bern around 4 and headed to Interlaken where we spent Saturday night and Sunday morning/afternoon. Once we arrived in Interlaken we made our way to Balmer’s Hostel which is the oldest hostel in Switzerland and one of the most well known youth hostels in Europe. When we got there we had dinner at the restraint there and then we went downstairs where they had a local club/bar beneath the hostel. We had a great night and woke up the next morning had breakfast and I tried to convince my friend
Locker
I shoved myself in the locker we used to hold our backpacking packs Monica to go skydiving with me. She was hesitant at first but then she decided to join so the two of us signed up for a trip,(at first they told us we needed more people or we would have to pay extra because with less people they have to use a helicopter - but they ended up allowing us to go without the extra fee in the helicopter) so we signed our lives away and headed outside to catch a shuttle to a small air field. A man named Roland picked us up and explained what was going to happen. After about 20 min we arrived at the air field and put on our harnesses and had about 5 min of instruction until Roland and Dave (our instructors) told us to hop into the helicopter. They strapped us tightly to them and we scooted into the helicopter with no doors. It was absolutely amazing going up into the air and sitting on the edge to the helicopter.
We had about a 10-15 minute helicopter ride and then all the sudden Dave (my partner) was like ok Liz put your camera away and I look over and Monica
and Roland are on the edge of the plane ready to jump (she wanted to go first so that she wouldn’t have time to chicken out). Next thing I knew she was flying out the door. And literally a minute later we were on the edge of the plane ready to go. I really wasn’t even scared at all because I was just so shocked at the beauty and the fact that I was about to jump out of a plane that I was too excited to be nervous.
So we jumped out and free fell for about 45 seconds (this is where you’re doing flips and turning and everything) then they tap you on the shoulders and you change your body position and you even out your bodies so that you can get steady enough to pull the parachute. Then once the parachute is out you fall for about 10 minutes until you come to the landing. The landing was awesome because it was snowing so it was like coming in on a sled or something. Once it was over I was just in shock- all I could say was “That was so awesome!” I had
such an amazing time and I’ve always wanted to sky dive and I am so happy I was blessed enough to have that opportunity in the Alps. I will have memories of that forever. I think I can go home happy now (even though I know there will be many more great days here to come). So anyway, sorry this email was so long but this weekend was awesome. I would love to tell you all about my skydive and I can’t wait to be able to and if you ever have a chance to do it- GO!!! It is the most amazing thing ever to be one with nature and feel as if you are flying. I really cannot explain it in words- so I’ve attached some pictures of my skydive so you all can see how amazing it was.
Anyway, I hope all of you are having a GREAT day and I miss you all very much! I will give you another update next week once I get back from Florence (that is our plan for this coming weekend.)
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