interlaken (6/11/11)

Today, I soared, I glided, I flew.

And I don't just mean that metaphorically or figuratively. I literally flew through the air, with the aid of another person and a parachute. It's called paragliding :) and it was awesome. Meeting my paragliding partner (Dave, with an Australian accent), driving up the mountain to our liftoff site, suiting up--those were all pretty exciting (and the view was suhweeet!). But one of the best parts was when we were about to lift off. Dave said to me, "When I saw '3,2,1, go,' just start running. Don't lean back on your knees--just lean forward. If you feel me at your back, you need to go faster. Ready?" I just nodded, and we were off. I definitely didn't run as fast as I needed to, I don't think, but it didn't matter. A few more steps, and then suddenly--the ground disappeared from beneath me. That was SUCH a cool feeling.
Then we began to soar. High up above the trees on the mountain. We even saw a hawk flying around beneath us in a similar manner, and watching it made me feel like a bird, hehe. We made some crazy turns and dips over the trees before going out over the rooftops of the city, where we could see both lakes on either side. That was a pretty dizzying but unique view, too. Too soon, it was time to land in a large meadow...but seriously, paragliding was so amazing. :) Do it if you can! Plus, I bought the pictures from when we were in the air--even though they were a tad pricey, it was worth it.


Other than paragliding, I went hiking in the morning (in the rain, sadly) to go see one of the lakes, which was pretty fun. The water is just so clear! And it turns into this beautiful blue color when you look farther out...so cool.
After paragliding, I ate some random things for lunch before going on a 6-hour (I didn't realize this at the time) hike. I climbed up this small mountain behind my hostel, from which I could see both lakes from different vantage points. After that, I just kept walking...stopped by some old castle ruins and also walked through a couple of mountain towns before turning around. I got slightly lost on the way back (and had to walk along rail tracks downhill, grr), but it ended well. I got to see the lake at ground level, which was pretty sweet. Those lakes are SO HUGE. But so beautiful :) Topped off the night with some deliciously soft passion fruit/mango ice cream. Yay for a wonderful day in Interlaken!