LIBERATION

Unreal. That word sums up my experience this past weekend. Our trip to Switzerland was filled with travel failures and everything that could have gone wrong probably did. First, our easyJet flight was delayed from Amsterdam… should have known. We therefore arrived at the Geneva airport too late to catch the last train to Interlaken. We purchased the wrong tickets, thinking we could get away with half fare tickets only to find out we would not only have to purchase another 60 swiss frank ticket, but wait in the airport until 5:12 am. FUN. It was actually fun though. If anyone ever needs to know their way around the Geneva airport, just let me know and I can tell you all the cool things to do there, including taking a ride on a luggage carrier down secret hallways or running up the down escalator.
We finally made it to Interlaken around 8:30am and arrived at our hostel a little too late to make our 9 am pick up for skydiving. After a short nap, the skydive company picked us up at 1pm and we signed our lives away (aka wrote our name and birthday and signed a piece of paper… not much for jumping out of a helicopter). The weather was icky and we waited around all day in our suits and couldn’t jump! Sunday was a national holiday, so no one was allowed in the air so we occupied ourselves with the beautiful scenery of Interlaken, went on a nice hike and saw the Trummelbachfalle which was awesome! All these melted glaciers turned into waterfalls in the mountain. After a long day on Sunday, we woke up super early on Monday morning, the weather was perfect and our jumps were about to be completed! I can’t even describe how I felt before/during/after the jump. It was absolutely amazing. The place we went to only had helicopter jumps because they had no planes or something, and apparently not too many places around the world have helicopter skydive. Only two tandem could fit in the helicopter plus the pilot (you can see how small in the video below). Me and Mara wiggled our way in the helicopter and before we knew it we were up above the swiss alps. WHAT?! Mara was practically hanging out of the open door of the helicopter the entire ride up and I was just looking around amazed by how beautiful the surroundings were. Clear skys, white snowy alps, and vivid evergreens crowding the lower mountains. Yes my heart was almost pumping out of my chest, but somehow I got a little less nervous and more excited. As we reached between 10 and 12 thousand feet up, it was time to jump! First went Mara, then myself. In through the nose, out through the mouth. We shoved our way to the ledge of the helicopter and I shakily put my feet on the ledge on the bar outside the door, arched my back, looked up, and in a blink I was soaring through the sky over the mountains. What I saw with my eyes and what I felt while free falling was indescribable. After supermaning through the air for 45 seconds, my jumpmaster released the chute and we soared on down the rest of the mountains. We did a few spins in the air and I could almost touch the mountain and trees with my feet. It was absolutely incredible. This video below entails most of our experience this weekend so please enjoy!