Interlaken Day 3

Sunday morning Caitlin and I got up early, packed up all of our things, checked out of the hostel and left for our morning activity.  In November friends of ours from the University of San Diego went to Interlaken and did something that we had been looking forward to doing ourselves for months, and it was finally here.

We were going paragliding!

For those of you (Katie) who do not understand what paragliding is, I will explain it.  You are hooked into a large parachute that uses the wind to propel you through the air.  You start from a high point, not an airplane, and run off the side of the mountain until you are suspended in the air.

The paragliding company picked Caitlin and I up at the hostel and drove us to pick up our instructors. For each jumper there is an instructor that goes along with you, so our crew included two other jumpers and four instructors.  They hauled all of the equipment into the van and we drove off for higher ground.

We stopped at a clearing on top of this very steep hill and each pair began to set up their parachutes, and harnesses.  One by one each group began to run off the mountain. 

Brendan and Me at the top of the hill (Caitlin and Kurt next to us)

My instructor, Brendan, and Me "nervous" before jumping

After Brendan had us sufficiently harnessed into the parachute he waits for the wind to be blowing directly at us and then you jog forward a few steps to get the parachute suspended in the air.  Then, he counts down from three and you being running down this hill until your feet can no longer touch the ground.  

In the air! 

It was actually a very comfortable experience you are essentially sitting in the harness, and my backpack had a seat contraption attached to it that he sat in behind me. 

Hamming it up for the camera

Safely landed! 

We landed in an open park right in the town's center.  The parachute floats down until your feet touch, you run for a few steps and then it is all over.  

This was by far one of the coolest things that I have ever done in my life.  Interlaken is so beautiful and it was so unbelievably beautiful to see it from the air.  These pictures are great, but if you can believe it, they do not do the real thing justice.

Brendan, my instructor, was telling me how lucky we were to have gone this weekend.  The past two weekends were very bad weather and any time before would not have been good either because of winter weather.  He explained that during the winter the clouds are a lot lower so you do not have nearly as much of a view, and that the winds are a lot stronger making for a harder take-off and landing.

We had gone so early in the morning that we had landed by 10:30am. We did not have to leave for our flight for another couple of hours so we decided to stop for some hot chocolate. It was such a nice day that we were able to sit outside on the patio overlooking this field.

Hot Chocolate in the air

Town Square/Park

Before leaving, we decided to walk around town some more to soak it all up before we had to leave. 

We walked for about an hour or so, got lunch, and then had to head back to the train station to begin the long journey home.  Not only did we have to do everything we did to get there, but on the way home we had one extra connection in Frankfurt, Germany.  The whole trip was about 14 hours, and we did not make it back to our beds in Cork until 3:30am Monday morning.  However, even though it was the worst traveling trip of any that I have taken I would repeat it in a heartbeat to get back.

I know that I say this after every trip that I go on, but Switzerland was probably my favorite trip.  It was an excellent ending to my year of weekend trips.  This marks my last trip staying in a hostel, and traveling from Friday-Sunday.  The remainder of my travels begins in a month and that is my big, long, last trip for all of study abroad.