Again another rapidfire timeline because I am attempting to get more than 5 hours of sleep :)

  • 4:35: Somebody’s alarm goes off and I wake myself up thinking its morning. Sigh.
  • 7:00: Alarm goes off, pack backpack
  • 7:27: Leave room
  • 7:30: Throw backpack in secure storage aka hostel basement
  • 7:32: Grab breakfast. The hostel had a free, home cooked breakfast that was my favorite meal of the trip. I grabbed a giant hunk off freshly baked bread, cheese, and cucumbers.
  • 7:34: On the road- bye bye hostel!
  • 7:51: Meet our paragliding instructors at the park
  • 8:00: Hop in the van and drive 20 minutes up the mountain. We randomly draw for instructors. Mazie gets incredibly nervous the closer we get.
  • 8:25: Five minute walk through a somewhat snowy forest to the hill we’re going to be jumping off (it was more like running until you lifted into the air but its cooler if I call it jumping off the side of the mountain). My guide Lea got everything ready while I put on more layers, looked over the side of the hill, and finished getting properly nervous and excited.
  • 8:45: 1-2-3 Take off!!! It really was not even that scary and it was SO FUN OMG! I will have to write another post about paragliding, but I can say it made me want to get my pilot’s license.
  • 9:05: Land in the park. From the experience of the passenger, landing is no biggie at all- you kinda just stand up.
  • 9:10: Caved and spent $50 to buy the photos of me in the air. All my friends were doing it…
  • 9:15: Walked over to Dunkin’ Donuts with Gracie and Natalie for coffee while Mya left to go paragliding (she booked a later time)
  • 9:40: Watched Mya land. Exquisitely done!
  • 10:00: Walk around town a little bit more.
  • 10:30: Mya and I split off for a hike! We began our quest to Harder Kulm wearing three layers each. Five minutes in we were both down to our t-shirts and sweating. It was absolutely beautiful and very much uphill. The highlight was encountering a natural drinking fountain part of the way up right when we were about to wisp away of thirst
  • 1:00: We’re still not at the top and are wondering if we should turn around because we need to be back at the hostel in less than two hours. But that makes us sad because there’s a cheap fondue restaurant at the top with beautiful views. We befriend this guy on the trail who tells us that the restaurant is closed for the season and the funicular is also closed, so we had to get a move on down the mountain.
  • 2:10: It took us less time to get down than we thought. We randomly run into our new friend at the base of the trail again and ask him for a fondue restaurant recommendation to which his answer is all of them are tourist traps and suck.
  • 2:30: We find a place serving fondue and get some anyways. It’s quite insanely expensive but at least they let us share one (they’re usually very strict about prices per person)! The fondue itself was pretty good but the bread left something (many things, actually) to be desired. I kept wishing we would’ve saved fresh hostel bread…
  • 3:00: Walk back to the hostel
  • 3:30: Grab our stuff and refill water bottle
  • 3:40: Insanely full bus to the train station. You know when you cram toys or books into a closet and slam the door closed so they don’t fall out but the next time you open the closet you forget that you did that and everything comes crashing out? That was what was happening on this bus, and we were the last toys haphazardly thrown on top.
  • 4:05: Arrive at Interlaken Ost. Walk to train.
  • 4:15: Train departs, heading to Basel. I pull out my laptop and work on the presentation I have to give in class tomorrow that I am not done with, of course. We invent SIDES syndrome. If you’re confused you should’ve been there.
  • 6:15: Arrive in Basel. We all instantly like it here.
  • 6:30: Bus to the Euro Airport. We had no idea beforehand, but the airport is technically in France so it was all of our first times visiting France together!
  • 6:50: Arrive at the Euro Airport. Scan my location just to make 1000% sure there’s no Airport POAP here.
  • 7:15: Get through security and find a nice corner to sit in. My laptop is back out and never have I been so appreciative of good, fast, clean airport WiFi.
  • 9:00: We board the flight. Gracie and I are sitting next to each other with Mya and Natalie one row away!
  • 9:15: The takeoff usual: AirPods in, Twenties game out
  • 10:45: Land in Barcelona 25 minutes ahead of schedule! The Swiss will make sure you are there on time.
  • 11:15: After a wild goose chase of random airport signs, we all hop on the Renfe. Natalie and I transfer to the L5 and then the L7, getting off the train a few minutes before it closed for the night.
  • 12:00: Back to Cristina’s!!
  • 12:15: Decided to save my “un sandwich” for breakfast tomorrow, but I had a banana and unpacked.
  • 1:00: Sat on my bed furiously trying to finish my presentation that is now technically late
  • 2:00: Realized I could not form sentences in my head anymore and couldn’t even read the words I was typing so I decided to just go to bed and wake up early to finish. Of course by the time I brushed my teeth and everything I felt awake again and couldn’t fall asleep, so I got a few more minutes of work in.

That’s it for Switzerland! One of my favorite trips so far! What can I say, the land of cheese, chocolate, and paragliding never disappoints.