Weekend Trip - Switzerland

I fell for Switz. I mean it literally and figuratively. I adore Switzerland. This weekend was thrilling and relaxing at the same time. And to think we almost didn’t organize this trip for a split second makes my heart drop!

Thursday

In arranging this trip to the beautiful Interlaken (pronounced like “interlockin”), we struggled finding trains and places to stay, but with lots of time and effort, it fell together. We managed to make all 4 trains without any hiccups and stayed in a nice apartment that slept 8 pretty well all for a good price. For this trip, I was with the same group from my trip to Florence (Haley, Oliver, and Evan) and we teamed up with a group of 4 guys who also are studying abroad with TCU. On the train ride there, we all were amazed with the gorgeous views of Lake Como and the lakes near Interlaken. The mountains were stunning. We could barely stop looking out the window.

Thankfully, our apartment was maybe 100 feet from the train station, but it did take us 20 minutes to find. I got a apartment tour for you below.

Next task was to find dinner, obviously. We found a place pretty close by that worked so great we went back for our last night. It was so nice how small the town was because we were able to walk everywhere pretty easily. We were stunned by the view on the way there as you can see Evan clearly amazed in a photo below. He has to be my favorite person to catch candid photos of because he’s a hoot, which we all realized this trip.

Haley and I explored town a little while the boys went out. We found so many cute little shops and ended up getting chocolate because thats what everyone does in Switzerland! We ended up coming back to this shop like everyday we were there. It’s called Vanini, which I will come back to later.

Friday

Rise and grind is exactly what we did. Haley and I were on cooking duty this morning and whipped up some great eggs with bacon bits. We had a big task ahead of us this day: Canyoning. I found this online and convinced everyone in the house to sign up to do it Thursday night through YouTube videos I found. For those of you who, like myself, never have heard of canyoning before, it’s basically going down a fast flowing mountain stream by jumping, sliding, and repelling down it. Fun, yet quite scary.

Come 10 am, we were getting suited up in wetsuits in the shop. We had a long sleeve, fully body suit, jacket, and life vest. Talk about a struggle to get on. Then we got some socks, shoes, and helmet with a name on it. Didn’t get the photos, but it was pretty fun. The boys, according to Haley, were not the best at repelling. I was watching them all from the top and I don’t think I’ve seen any of those guys as scared as they were doing that. We completed a few jumps, some sliding, and floating and had a great time. I have to give Haley credit for her form because she was pretty great. I did slip once and freak everyone out, but I was fine -don’t worry. Definitely worth the money.

After, we showered and got ready after canyoning, Haley and I went back out to explore town some more. We ended up going to a different chocolate shop, but weren’t too big of fans and meanwhile I was also trying to figure out skydiving which will come up later. We explored basically the whole town of Interlaken. It was so cute I wanted to put it in a little jar and carry it around with me forever. We ended up going to get coffee at the chocolate place we went to the day before. Vanini loaded the coffee, so much so that Im not sure if you would consider it coffee. You can check out my coffee review for that one.

After, we had to return home to our children- I mean friends. As a group, we decided to cook dinner together to save money and boy did we do that because we ended up paying 7.50 euros for a burger fries and salad, which in Switzerland, one of the most expensive countries to visit In the world, it would have been like 25 euros elsewhere. It was so fun how we all had a different task and we’re enjoying it. Look at us!

Then, we had all our friends over later to hang out and go check out the night life in Interlaken. It was fun, but Haley had paragliding in the morning so we went back early.

Saturday

Woke up and Haley was gone. So, I decided to do my quiet time and then head off in time to watch her land. It was so gorgeous and great advertisement because they landed right on the main street grass field and had their sign ups right there. Talk about perfect positioning.

Next, we went and got great breakfast burritos and iced coffee at VGs. It was great and super cute.

So skydiving deserves it’s whole section because it was a whole story itself. So, when I was younger, maybe in high school, I saw a photo of my older brothers friends from grade school’s older sister post during her study abroad her skydiving in Switzerland. At the time, I thought there’s no way I’m ever going skydiving, but if I do, I’m going in Switzerland. Honestly, wasn’t sure if I’d ever make it to Switzerland but as it started coming up in conversation before we left for Italy, it would pop in my head here and there. We secured the trip and then it was at the forefront of my mind. Keep in mind, I love to play it safe and it’s probably my favorite thing to do.

Week leading up to Switzerland, I was talking about it all the time, trying to convince Big Walkers to do it with me and I had them all for at least two days. Then slowly they trickled out with excuses “too much money,” “I’d rather go paragliding” and such. So, in my head, I’m like is this something I want to do still. So I don’t sign up for it but I also don’t sign up with everyone else for paragliding. If I did, it would mean I wasn’t going skydiving. Slowly, I was praying more about it and thinking about it more. Talking to my dad and mom to see what they thought. Initially both were like “why are you asking me?”… uh come on, because it’s expensive and dangerous maybe? Probably because I felt like I needed their approval to sign my life away? Anyways, as the days got closer I was pretty confident I was doing it and still hadn’t bought my ticket but was making jokes to my friends about how they all chickened out well knowing I hadn’t signed up yet. Then, after looking at the helicopter skydiving at least 10 times, I texted my mom and she was very encouraging of my desire and then my dad texted me as well and told me to go, which seemed like a small change of heart from him when he originally told me not to go if my friends weren’t going. So, I took those as great signs and I decided I was signing up and going alone.

One of the times when Haley and I were walking around was when I signed up for Saturday morning at 9 because we all know it’s better not to have the day to build up the nerves. Sometime after, I got a call saying that they were full and the website i booked skydiving on didn’t allow them to take down their advertisement. So, I was devastated. They said that they would let me know if anything changed and that they might have someone cancel for the same day but at 3pm. The call ended shortly after him saying he would let me know. Keep in mind that Saturday was the only day I would be able to go. So, after talking about it for a little while I decided to call him back again and basically beg him to call me back if anything changed and asked for specifics on when he would let me know by. He responded and said by like 8 pm that day (Friday). So, I went on my merry way doing other things and not worrying about it while God was at work. I prayed about it and was like maybe it just wasn’t what God wanted me to do so I just kept praying for peace and to be satisfied with whatever happened because it was all in Gods control.

As 8 pm neared, my phone rang. My buddy Christian had good news - a guy canceled his 3 pm on Saturday. I was going skydiving. He also gave me other good news that I might be able to go earlier at like 12 if it became available so I was ecstatic! He said that he wouldn’t know until the next morning if the 12 would be able so I was just focused on jumping at 3 pm which was a time it was scheduled to rain. However the weather was very unpredictable. On Friday afternoon they had to cancel their 3pm because of how unpredictable the weather was. So, I was worried but knew that if God had it on my path that it would happen and if not He had better plans. So I was totally content. I think the fact I was going alone made me more excited I’m not sure why.

Come Saturday, I woke up and had a great quiet time, went to watch Haley and some of the other girls land their paragliding trips. Afterwards we went to a great breakfast place and had good coffee. It was so cute.

*pics*

After we got back, I received a call at about 11:15 and it was Christian, my buddy! Once again, great news that I could go at 12 if I would be ready. I told him I would be ready. Christian picked me up first in the skydiving stick shift van (stick shift vans seem to be the trend in Europe). We picked up some others and we were off to the base of the alps to get ready to sign the papers and get suited up.

After I signed my life away, I bought the video film, and got suited up, it was go time. I had a new friend I was flying which I sadly forgot his name but I think it might have been Michael. He was quite funny like the rest of the crew. From the moment I got in the van, I couldn’t stop smiling. And it’s funny because I so would have expected to be nervous but God totally was bringing me peace, excitement and joy. It was unreal. I prayed about not being nervous the night before and I woke up ready with the strength that God instilled in me.

As we were loading up, I volunteered to be the first one out of my helicopter (each held two people) because I was ready. So we got in the helicopters and there was one helicopter ahead of us but not dramatically far away. This was my first time in a helicopter too. It was so awesome. The views of the alps as we were climbing to 14,000 feet was awesome. As we got near the end of the helicopter ride, we could see the helicopter ahead of us being a little higher than us and we held back as the two in that helicopter jumped out. From our helicopter all we could see was a SPEEDING black dot dropping fast. It was actually so funny. So when they finished, it was my turn and I was ready. “Michael” wing the door open and that was my cue as I had learned in training to go stand on the ledge outside of the helicopter and I was like alright let’s do it. I stepped out on the ledge with Michael behind me. As they told us to, I looked all around as I was literally standing on the side of a helicopter and then also part of the routine, I put my head back on his shoulder because that was ready position. Next thing I know I am flying (flying not falling because it feels more like flying than the falling feeling). Free fall was for about 45 seconds they said. It was so cool and surreal falling towards the ground and it feeling so far away even after so long of falling. Being in interlocked, I was surrounded by the part of the alps and two beautiful lakes. One lake was a deep royal blue while the other was a light blue with a hint of turquoise. As I’m spinning around in circles, I got to admire Gods breathtaking creation. Not only nature but the invention of thrilling activities like skydiving. Before I knew it my shoot was pulled and how much more confident that made me because I saw that as I had survived hahaha. We still had a long way to go down, but now I really was able to just take everything in. Michael even let me swing us all around and control where we went. Apparently, I accidentally made us gain height as I was flying. So I gave the reins back to Michael. He directed us into a beautiful soft landing where Haley was waiting down there for me! Haley is so sweet supportive and overall such a good friend. I was happy she was able to come and greet me when I was done.

We watched my film and Haley was still in shock and asking a ton of questions. Honestly I should have had her write about it because she asked about nearly all of it. One good question she asked me was if I wanted to do it again. And I was like ya know not really. Not sure if it was my old self kicking back in but I did it and I was done. Checked off the bucket list. Sadly I had to give my orange suit back and then Haley and I were off.

To make our day even more eventful, we climbed Harder Klum which was a local hike that was so difficult if you took the path we took. Our girl friends did it the day before and said it was difficult but we didn’t comprehend how difficult they were saying it was. It was 2.5 miles of straight uphill. We burned 900 calories on this hike. It took us nearly 2 hours to accomplish this and 50 pauses. Never again. When we got the top, everyone up there who saw us were in shock. We probably looked like we just jumped in a lake. At the top of the mountain was a fondue place with a great view. We were so excited for it and it was part our motivation other than Philippians 4:8 and Christian music. Funny enough, we ended up getting nothing. Way too expensive and not worth it for us. We laughed because we knew if the boys did it with us like originally planned, they would have died. We ended up taking the train down.

When we returned, we got ready for dinner and went to get some souvenirs we had our eyes on throughout the trip. We met up with everyone that night for dinner. We all went out to eat at the same place as the first night. It was sweet having majority of the house there like a family meal again. We all knew at that point that Switzerland would be a great memory that we all would remember. It was probably the most gorgeous place I’ve seen.

People say that skydiving changes you, but I didn’t have a shifting moment when I jumped out of the plane. I think I had one when I signed up alone because I knew I wasn’t going to be alone and that I had someone to share the moment with that would be so much more special than doing it with any other person. And that person was God. Alone time with God is so sweet and to do something so thrilling and trusting of His presence and protection was what I got to experience. I felt his comfort as I fell into His masterpiece. I was able to sit in His glory and feel it surrounding me, kind of like the feeling of the morning sunrise where it’s quiet and you can just feel Gods presence. There’s nothing quite like it and no one more special to share that moment with. Praise God for all His glory!

Switz holds a special place in my heart.

♡,

Monroe in Switzerland