This weekend I went to Interlaken, Switzerland and it was INCREDIBLE. Literally everywhere you looked could have been the front of a postcard. I guess I'll start from the beginning..We left for Interlaken on Thursday night and got into our hostel at 3 am. Took about 6 or 7 hours by bus to get there. We stayed at a hostel called Funny Farm (have no idea why it's called that) that is more like a hotel. We had a pool, restaurant, bar and club downstairs that was actually pretty fun.
There is an incredible view from every room. Here is what I woke up to in the morning..
Friday morning we woke up at 8 am to sign up for our activities for the weekend. There was paragliding, hang gliding, bungee jumping, skydiving, ice climbing, canyon jumping, zorping (you literally get in a plastic sphere and roll down hills), canyoning, hiking, ATVing, whitewater rafting and probably a few more I forgot. Our friends from school, who had gone to Interlaken right before school started, went canyoning and said it was amazing so we signed up for the 6 hour canyon trip. Best decision I ever made.
The start point for the canyon trip was about an hour away, so we got all our equipment and left. We literally were covered by so much wetsuit material that we had trouble bending our legs and arms (turns out it was VERY necessary).
We started our trip at a 150 foot cliff that we repelled down. It was awesome but a little scary. The perfect adrenaline rush to start off the day.
The rest of the day we spend doing crazy s***. This includes jumping off 25 foot cliffs into the water, climbing up rocks with ropes with no harness, swimming in rapids, ziplining across the canyon and jumping into the water, "watersliding" down waterfalls, and jumping from one rock onto another to ricochet into the water. The craziest part of it all was that there were no safety rules or videos before we left. Our instructors would literally stop us at a waterfall, tell us what to do, and then you'd do it.
We ended the trip with cheese sandwiches and Swiss beer in a beautiful valley. It was an exhausting day that made muscles that I didn't even I know existed sore, but I'd do it again and again.
That night we went to a traditional Swiss meal at this cute little restaurant by our hostel. My friends and I all got different things and shared. We got fondue, vegetable pancakes, their famous macaroni, and a traditional hash brown dish. They were all delicious, but unfortunately for us, the portions were about the size of my pinky finger:(
We went out that night to a nearby hostel called Balmers. Their club was PACKED and it was so hot everyone looked like they had just gone swimming. Nonetheless, Swiss people know how to party so it was a great night.
We woke up bright and early on Saturday and tried to plan a hiking trip but failed. Turns out you have to buy a 40 franc train ticket (about $40) EACH WAY to get to any of the hiking trails. We thought hiking would be the cheapest activity we did! Instead some of our friends went on a day trip to Bern, the capital of Switzerland. Myself and a couple friends decided to go into town and do a little exploring. We did some shopping, some eating, some goofing around.
In the afternoon we decided to rent an ATV and a funcar (a small car that has a roof & windshield but no real doors or other windows. There were 3 of us, so we all switched off driving the ATV & funcar. We drove up to Trummel Falle, which is a huuuge waterfall essentially inside of a mountain. We got so close to the waterfall that we were soaking wet when we left.
Later on we went to a chocolate demonstration at one of the chocolate shops in town. He told us how the chocolates are made, the process of making the candy from the actual cocoa bean, and even had us make some candy. We "taste tested" unlimited amounts of chocolate, which I literally made a meal out of. Then we got an 8 franc voucher for any chocolate we wanted! Predictably, I bought a whole lot more chocolate than just 8 francs, but it definitely helped out.
We went out again that night, this time to the club at our hostel. It got a little crazy, but we had a blast. On Sunday, we explored more of "downtown" Interlaken and then had coffee on the roof of the tallest building (a whopping 15 stories), which had a beautiful view.
We then relaxed at our hostel's pool until we had to catch the bus back to Florence. I did not want to leave. It's hard to explain if you haven't been there, but something about the place just makes you feel at home, like you would be completely content there forever. It's very serene, even in a touristy spot like Interlaken (which was NOTHING compared to a real tourist destination like Florence). Everything is fresh and green, and you can just smell how clean the air is.. a ton cleaner than our air in the states. Overall, it was a wonderful weekend and I will definitely be going there again.
This week during photography we learned how to print our photos, which is really cool. It is a lot more complicated than I thought, but it is a great feeling when you develop your prints and can see all your hard work there in your final product. I've completed almost 3 prints (very close to finishing the 3rd), so I'm pretty content with my photo skills (some people haven't even finished their first). We're now starting our photo project, which I will do with my digital camera. It's largely independent, so I can basically do my project on whatever I want. In art history, we had class in the hot classroom (bleh) and will have our next class at the New Sacristy.
Alert: July has officially started! AKA the sales in Florence have officially started. This means that all the stores take the month of July to put on HUGE sales to get rid of all their merchandise from the summer so they can get new merchandise for the fall. Nearly every store that I passed today had a sale sign up, most at a 50% discount. It is heaven on earth. I bought my first Italian item today, which I have fallen in love with. It's a beautifully made Italian leather purse that was originally 300 euro that I got for 180. Still expensive, but a great deal for its quality. My philosophy is that I'd rather get a few really worthwhile things instead of a bunch of cheap crap. I mean come on, it's Italy! It's against the law to leave the country without a leather handbag. Well, against my laws. Of fashion. The man I bought it from was perhaps the nicest salesman in Italy. I walked in and he said hello, introduced himself, asked me my name and where I was from, poured me a glass of really good wine, and then started chatting with me and another lady. It wasn't until 3 glasses of wine later that I asked him about a bag and he went on to say that he is a terrible salesman because he doesn't like to push people into buying his bags. He said they should want the bag themselves, not because he was selling them. To be honest, these bags clearly didn't need him to sell them at all-- they were gorgeous, well-made and at a discounted price. When I asked his opinion on two different bags, he even suggested the cheaper one, since the color is "so in this season" and because it "looked so good" on me. He also gave me an extra discount because I told him I could go get cash instead of using a credit card. In case you haven't gotten the message yet from the past paragraph, Antonio at LDL bags is GOD.
Although the next couple of weeks will be hard on my bank account, I'm not feeling too guilty since I haven't really bought anything yet besides my beautiful bag. Anways, more updates to come next week after the AMALFI COAST (Sorrento, Capri, Positano, Vesuvius & Pompeii)!!!
Love and miss you all!
XOX Hill
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