Interlaken, Switzerland

When coming to study abroad in Barcelona I was SO excited to get away from the good ol' Michigan winter and avoid the snow altogether!  After being skeptical about booking a weekend long trip to below freezing temperatures and over a foot of snow on the ground, I realized that Interlaken, Switzerland is one place that EVERYBODY needs to experience in their life time.  I seriously cannot put into words what this experience was like.  I tried to capture what things were like with my pictures, but they really DID NOT do the view justice!

The clan outside of our hostel Backpacker's Villa which was very nice especially because they had an espresso machine in their lobby :)

Absolutely amazing looking up into the mountains!

Before coming to Interlaken my friends and I pre-planned activities for the weekend.  I held off on telling others about them because I knew my mom would absolutely kill me if she knew I was going to canyon jump!  I was EXTREMELY nervous, but knew I would regret it if I did not do it!  Interlaken is one of the four places in the entire world that you can do this (don't quote me on this fact) because of the way that the canyon is shaped.  It was THE MOST incredible experience ever!  The adrenaline rush was unbelievable and the feeling I had when I was free falling for 250 feet was indescribable!  Luckily there was a professional photographer to capture the entire jump and my friends at the bottom to video all of it!

About to jump!

Swinging through the canyons!

Our group was signed up to go on a daytrip to Zurich to do some shopping and explore the city on Saturday but after being in the Alps for not even 24 hours we knew skiing was a MUST!  We arranged to switch our plans for Zurich to a full day of skiing on the Alps!  I am SO glad we did this because skiing in the Alps is one thing that EVERY person must do in their lifetime!  I am not the best skier and have probably skied a total of three weekends in my life and still managed to survive the Alps so seriously anyone who has a little experience can do it!

Our group was of all different skill levels so we quickly lost each other because we were taking different trails.  Personally I stuck to only the easy trails, but even those were borderline black-diamond status in the United States (not really but it truly felt like it..they were definitely not easy trails)!  At one point I was skiing all by myself because I lost everyone (sorry mom and dad) but miraculously found Kiersten and we skied from the highest point of the trail all the way down into the city.  After this 3 hour long trip down the mountain we retired our skis and made our way up to the top of the other mountain via train to enjoy some mountain-side cocktails!  We made it up to the infamous teepee tent and had some great bailey's irish cream and coffee (the drink of choice of the trip)!

After we had exhausted our time at the teepee tent, Kiersten and I continued our booze cruise down the mountain and found ourselves in a little bar at the train station where we had a traditional drink "mulled wine"!  It was a deep red wine combined with spices similar to those used in apple cider and it was AMAZING! It was the perfect drink for a cold day and a nice pick me up for the ride back to Intelaken! After a few drinks, lots of new friends and multiple modes of transportation we made it back to Interlaken and made our way to an Irish Pub for some good ol' fish and chips!

Our bodies were actually killing us from skiing all day so we attempted to go out to Interlaken's only night club which was actually a joke of a bar!  Needless to say we wound up in our hostel sipping on hot chocolate sober in our lobby and cuddling up and going to bed soon after! Interlaken took a lot out of us!

Overall, Interlaken was amazing! I would highly recommend people to go back there and definitely canyon jump! I would do it 100 times again if I could and you HAVE to go skiing!  It is a great experience and seriously unlike anything you have ever seen before!  I would really like to go back to Switzerland and explore Geneva a little more during the day and definitely take a day trip to Zurich! A four day trip would have been perfect there to get everything I wanted to do in!  Also make sure you visit the New Yorker bagel shop for some good ol' American favorites!  Us kids LOVED this place because it offered us things that we did not have in Barcelona! BUT be prepared to spend LOTS of money! Switzerland is VERY expensive and things are ridiculously expensive so hit up the markets, make food in your hostel and be conscious of what you are spending your money on if you are on a budget! 

LOVED LOVED LOVED this place!  Coolest experience ever!