Paragliding | Bouncing Through Abroad

SWITZERLAND

Posted on February 13, 2019 by baileyadams19

This past weekend I was lucky enough to go on my first weekend trip and explore somewhere other than Barcelona for a few days. I had the best weekend of my life in Interlaken, Switzerland. To get there my friends and I took a flight to Geneva, and then took a two and a half hour bus ride to the good old Balmers Hostel in Interlaken. This hostel was pretty old however the character in it and the city surrounding it made up for the squeaky beds and cold showers.

While in Switzerland I was able to cross something very high up on my bucket list – Skydiving. When I initially told my friends I wanted to do this they thought I was nuts. I thought I was going to be able to convince one person to join me, however this ended up being a thing I had to do solo. Although this was been something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, the thing that really pushed me over the edge (no pun intended) was this video of Will Smith talking about his skydiving experience. The quote the stuck out to me was “God placed the best things in life on the other side of fear.”

So here I am, alone at my hostel getting on a bus to take me skydiving. After a 20 min drive to the heart of the Swiss Alps we have arrived to the skydiving center. To my surprise, we only had a five minute instructions section and then everyone was suited up and off to a very small plane. In this moment I felt as though my mind was blank and my body was moving automatically. Four of us were in the airplane and before I knew it we were flying above the Swiss Alps. After a short scenic tour it was go time. The door opened and two people jumped out before me.

Then, there was I, sitting on the ledge of an airplane. My skydiving partner gave me the thumbs and titled my head back. Instantly I went from seeing the airplane ceiling to doing front flips into the snow covered mountains. Following that was the best most inexplicable 45 seconds of my life. Then the parachute was opened and after a few more spins I landed on the ground. I was overfilled with joy and instantly wanted to go again.

It’s without a doubt skydiving was the highlight of my trip, but to say I didn’t enjoy myself the whole rest of the trip would be a lie. I’ve included pictures of all the other things I did while in Switzerland. I hope that one day I’ll be lucky enough to return to this place that made me feel like I was in a real life snow globe. I’m so grateful that I had such a successful first trip.

Enjoy!

Bailey