We'll always have Switzerland

First off, Switzerland is the most beautiful country ever and at some point in my life I'm going to live there. I absolutely loved it. Interlaken was my favorite city. It was just the perfect little Swiss town nestled in the middle of the Alps between 2 gorgeous lakes. I could have stayed there forever. It is also like the extreme sports capital of Europe. You could sky dive, paraglide, canyon, white water raft, hang-glide and more. It was intense. When we arrived on Friday we checked into our hostel and then walked around for a little bit. Just down the street from the hostel was a really nice little Irish pub so we stopped there and had lunch. Our waiter was from New Zealand and he was really funny. The olympics were on and he was critiquing his team and asking about where we were from. It was a really nice meal. After that we headed a couple doors down to go canyoning with Outdoor Interlaken. I was super nervous. I didn't really know what to expect. We put on our swim suits and they dressed us up with wetsuits, jackets, boots, lifejackets, harnesses, and helmets. Everyone's helmet had a different name on it and that was what the guides called you the whole trip. I was babe, Morgan was love, Katharine was Peanut Butter, Caleb was Single, Sarah was Cockles, Mikaela was Gaga, Meredith was Mystique, and Jooye was Nemo. Some of the reactions to the names were hilarious. Once we were all dressed to the 9's in our gear, they loaded us in the van and took us up the mountain. When we reached the top we had to hike up a trail for another 10 minutes to reach where we would go down into the canyon. The first thing we had to do was repel down. The instructions were to lean back and put all your weight on the rope then walk backwards down the wall. It was not that easy. I stumbled a bit at the beginning but then I did pretty well until I slipped at the bottom which was ok because the wall went in so I would have had to jump out anyway. After we got into the canyon we hiked, slid or jumped down the various waterfalls. It was the most fun I've had in a long time. I was able to actually jump off the highest waterfall, so I was really proud of myself. Everyone actually jumped off the tall one. I can understand why canyoning is considered dangerous. The guides told us exactly how to jump for each waterfall and showed us where to jump. If you tried to jump willy nilly down the waterfalls you would get hurt fast. In some places the water wasn't incredibly deep so you had to bend your knees, other places had rocks that were hidden under the water so you couldn't just jump straight out. Our guides were really fun and they were very confident in what they were doing. You could tell they really loved their job. I would love to canyoning again and I probably will one day. I wish we could have done more and there was a little bit of a push to go white water rafting saturday morning but it didn't work out. I love outdoorsy stuff so everything was right up my ally. I could have spent weeks there just playing around in the lakes and hiking up the mountains and doing some of the extreme sports. I would have done paragliding but that was about it. I'm not into any of the stuff that is too extreme. I do like water sports though. All afternoon Friday and all day Saturday the sky was dotted with paragliders flying around. It was really cool to see. Everyone just seemed to love being outside. Saturday morning we decided to take a bus to one of the lakes. It was so unrealistically blue, it was breathtaking. Morgan, Katharine, Jooye, and I decided to rent a paddle boat so we could go out on the lake. It was a lot of fun and really relaxing. I could have totally stayed out there all day. I wish I brought my swim suit because I would have been in the water in a heartbeat even though it was freezing. Mikaela and Caleb rented paddle boards, if I had my swim suit I would have done that instead of the boat, but I was too afraid I would fall in. Honestly, I would have jumped in. In the afternoon on Saturday we caught a scenic train to Luzern. The views from the train were amazing. It was like you were in a dream. I didn't know a country could be that beautiful in real life. It was wonderful. Once we got to Luzern we checked in to our hostel and then relaxed for a little bit while Meredith and Sarah obsessed over finding a fondue place. When they finally found one we walked there and ate dinner. The fondue was good but it was expensive and it didn't really make a meal. I like bread and cheese but I can't make a meal out of only bread and cheese. I could only eat so much and I wasn't full. But at least I got the experience of fondue in Switzerland. The restaurant was by the dying lion monument so we walked over and saw it. It was dark so we couldn't really get good pictures. On Sunday we decided to wake up early and go take a gondola ride up Mount Pilatus. The gondola was really cool, it was a nice relaxing ride. When we got to the top of the mountain it was really cloudy so we couldn't get any of the really good panoramic views. I was a little disappointed. After that we headed back down to Luzern and went to the rest of the big sites that I didn't want to miss. First we walked across Chapel Bridge, which was really pretty. The blue water and the oldness of the bridge made it so picturesque. Then we wandered around some streets trying to get to the 9 towers. We got to see a little bit of the homey side of Luzern since we walked down a bunch of suburban streets trying to get there. It didn't take us that long at all and we walked along the wall and up one of the tall towers. At the top there were some really amazing views of the city and we took lots of pictures. I loved it. Plus it was a medieval tower, who doesn't love medieval towers with gorgeous panoramic views. If we had more time we would have climbed up the other towers but we were getting tired. Once we traversed the whole length of the wall we found our way to the dying lion monument again. This time it was bright so we were able to get lots of pictures. It really is a beautiful carving, it's very sad. I really liked seeing it. It made me think of Aslan from Narnia. Once we finished there and went in a couple of souvenir shops we headed back to the hostel to get our stuff, relax for a little bit and then caught the train back to Bonn. I was really sad to leave Switzerland and I really wish I could have spent more time there. I will definitely be going back.