Interlaken

Hi!

So Interlaken, Switzerland was the best weekend I’ve had since I’ve been in Europe! We left Thursday night and arrived to chilly weather, which was fantastic. 10 of us went and we all stayed at a hotel called Balmer’s. Mostly young people stay there so they have tons of things to do. They have a dance club in the basement and a room full of hammocks to sleep in.

On Friday 8 of us went on our first extreme sports adventure. We did something called canyoning, which is essentially hiking through a canyon. We had to repel down a 150 ft wall, which was the scariest thing I’ve ever done. Being the clumsy person that I am, I fell about halfway down and was upside down for a little while. I was screaming and shaking, but somehow made it down to the bottom where my friends were hysterically laughing at me.

After that, we just hiked through the rocks and water. The water temperature was freezing so we had on a ton of wet suit gear on. We got to jump off some cliffs and slide down the rocks, which was really fun. At the end we got to go on a zip line and fall into the water. I was freezing cold, but it was an amazing experience!

On Saturday I explored the town of Interlaken. It’s tiny so it only takes about 15 minutes to walk from one end to the other. The town is surrounded by snow-covered mountains and there’s a river in the middle that’s filled with freezing water from the glaciers. There is also a park in the center that hang gliders land in, so that was cool to see.

That night, we did our second extreme sport which was canyon jumping. You jump off a 280 ft cliff and swing between canyons. It was my favorite part of the summer! I wasn’t nervous at all and actually went first in my group. At both places I purchased photos so I’ll show y’all when I get home.

On Sunday we hiked to Trummelback Falls. We had to take a short train ride to a neighboring town and then we hiked to the falls. We found a restaurant there called Airtime that had the most amazing zucchini & cheese soup. I’m not a fan of soup, but it was delicious and I’m going to try and make it when I get home.

That night we went to a chocolate show where we learned about the history of chocolate. They had bowls full of chocolate to eat and we get to make our own truffles. The picture below is of a pirate ship made completely out of chocolate. For dinner we went to a fondue place. It definitely wasn’t as good as the Melting Pot, but it was still good.

We came back Monday night and unfortunately had to study for finals. I only had 2 finals and then had papers due for Journalism. But everything is turned in so I’m happy the classes are over! I haven’t had a break from school in so long so it’s nice to have a week off to just relax.

So this will be my last blog post from Italy! I can’t believe how fast this summer has gone. I feel like I just got here yesterday, but I’m ready to come home. If all goes to plan, I’ll be in Nashville around 6 on Sunday. I’ll be in Nashville for a few days trying to catch up on sleep and do laundry. Then I’m going up to Oxford on Thursday to start my senior year!

See you all this week!

MH