A glide and a hike in Interlaken, Switzerland
Being in the air is thrilling. I’m not much of an adrenaline junkie, although to be fair, paragliding isn’t the most heart-stopping activity. Still, this was very high on my to-do list for this year and the lead up to it really had my hands all clammy.
I had booked the paragliding flight with Paragliding Interlaken a month in advance for the 14th of June. The week leading up to it was all sunshine and butterflies- skin achingly hot weather that never ceased and had us craving for a gust of wind to cool us down a little. Of course, when we got to Interlaken, the weather turned shitty; it started pouring down with rain an hour before we were due to have our flights. Feeling down and defeated, we sat in the hotel lobby until 15:15 and would you believe it? The rain had stopped and the clouds were parting for that glorious sun to shine! Our flights were not cancelled and we rode in a van up to the top of the mountain. There were 5 paragliding guides and 5 passengers.
My paragliding guide’s name is Dominik “Domi” . He was the youngest and probably the better looking of all the guides (unless you’re inclined towards older men).
It was such a surreal experience. We were at the top of a mountain with a steep decline and Domi was all like, “Okay run run run run run” and I was half running and half fighting the urge to just sit down. At one point I almost tripped over myself and lost my shoe but then all of a sudden we were just floating in the air and the ground was far beneath me.
I thought I would have been more afraid but I was honestly just breath-taken by the view and how insanely beautiful Interlaken is. Before I knew it, we were gliding lower and lower and we were back onto solid ground 🙁 I wish it had lasted longer; it would be so awesome if I could just glide between mountains and just chill, maybe read a book and sip on a cup of tea whilst casually in the sky (ha! I wish).
Anyway, it the whole experience went by so fast! I really wish I could do it over again but unfortunately it’s super expensive. After our paragliding session we checked into our hotel, Hotel Interlaken.
It’s a really nice hotel and I really recommend it. We only stayed for one night but it was top notch nevertheless and the decor is quite aesthetically pleasing 🙂 After we checked in, we ate dinner at an Italian restaurant called Mercato Pizzeria. I had their speciality pizza and a glass of champagne.
The champagne was primarily inspired by The Fault in Our Stars:
“We have bottled all the stars this evening, my young friends”
We then went for a nice brisk walk around the residential areas of Interlaken which was super nice because Swiss houses are incredibly cute.
We ended off the night with ice-cream at the hotel restaurant. Swiss ice-cream is literally the best ice-cream.
The next morning, we had hotel breakfast. If you ever book a hotel, the inclusion of breakfast is a must! SO MUCH WORTH! You can eat to your heart’s content!
After filling ourselves up with as much bacon, sausages, egg and yoghurt, we made our way to the hiking trail. Destination: Harder Kulm.
The mountain is 1,322 meters above sea level. The hike is approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes but it took us a bit over 3 hours because I am an unfit, lazy buttface that sits on my butt most days wasting my time on YouTube and Candy Crush. About 5 minutes into the hike, my hair was up, I had sweated all the makeup off my face and I changed into more comfortable shorts. The forest was also making my hayfever intensely active so I was sneezing all the way up. Still, I managed to pose for photos 😛
After 3+ hours of intense thigh-muscle work out, we MADE IT TO THE TOP! 😀 SO MUCH WORTH. The view is simply spectacular. Can’t say the same for myself though; what I mess I was after reaching the top!
Lolz, dem grey shorts tho.
My mum called me when I got to the top of Harder Kulm and I was all, “I’M ON TOP OF A MOUNTAIN MUM” and she kept asking me “ARE YOU SICK?!” because my nose was runny and I kept sniffing and sneezing.
I bought this hat, coz I’m a tourist. I thought it was cute.
We went back down the mountain using the mountain train because as if I was going to hike all the way back down #earlyarthritis. Once down, we ate lunch at Hooters and all that hiking and exercising became redundant because I ordered onion rings and a super cheeseburger and they were both dripping with greasy oil.
We ended the day with a walk to the east lake, Lake Brienz.
The water was so insanely clear and even though it was cold, I really wanted to immerse myself in the water! I think it would be so perfect during a warm day!
So that pretty much sums up the Interlaken weekend. I think I’m having Interlaken withdrawals. Lausanne just seems so dreary now in comparison, although I guess I shouldn’t complain because I’m lucky that I get to live in such a beautiful country for the year 🙂 I also finally got my residence permit so that’s a plus!
My parents will be arriving in Switzerland in a week so I’m super excited and I can’t wait to take them to places like Interlaken and Montreux so they can witness for themselves the amazing-ness of Switzerland. Then we’ll be off to Italy, Germany, France, England and Sweden! Exciting stuff 🙂 I hope I’ll be able to keep up with blogging whilst on the road! Here’s hoping 🙂
More later!