All of today could honestly be made into a Hollywood blockbuster. Okay maybe not entirely, but for the four of us, today could be our most favorite day of the trip.
We woke up in our "tent" with what felt like baby spiders in our throats and ants in our eye boogies. That tent village was quite an experience to say the least! We ran into a problem early in the day; what were we suppose to do with ourselves/our backpacks all day and night. All the hostels in interlaken were booked! Like honestly a true "no room in the inn" experience where we figured we might be sleeping in a park that night. Our train to Italy in the morning left at 6am and paying for a spendy hotel (our only sane option) was not in our budgets. We took everything one step at a time, and once again, "we'll cross that bridge when we get to it" mentality worked out perfectly.
We knew we wanted to do this hike/walk along a river that lets out to a beautiful lake but we sure as heck did not want to lug our backpacks the whole 4 hour hike. I was positive I could convince the bungee jumping man, henna, to keep our bags in the office for the day. Sure enough, he kindly obliged...after he called us "princesses." We didnt know whether or not to be offended or flattered that he is comfortable with us? Either way, our bags were stored away and off we went...to the grocery store for the second time today! We all got fruit, big bags of granola and Swiss ice cream to take and eat at the lake!
Off we were on our walk! This time together was really special. We find that the times we grow together the most are on our long walks. It forces great conversation and there is just something about being in the beautiful nature that makes a great time. We talked about what we've learned from each other and about our future (careers, husbands, families, the usual!). The walk along the river was so beautiful but when we made it to the lake it was truly spectacular. The kind of views you see in movies or national geographic and don't believe places like that really exist. Well, I'm here to tell you they do. In interlaken, Switzerland, they do exist. We sat on a dock and ate our big bags of granola and chatted some more and wrote post cards and had journal time. We all felt so at peace with nature and each other and ourselves...how cheesy and pathetic that sounds, that's the best way I can word the feeling we all felt.
After the glorious hike, we made our third stop at the grocery store for dinner food to take with us for later. Here we got more fruit and more granola and more ice cream. Not kidding. We walk back to the bungee jumping office to retrieve our bags and ask Henna what field/park near the train station would be the safest. Secretly hoping he or his associates could offer us a couch or floor to crash on. Now he is calling us homeless princesses. Great! So we thought he must hate us and would never want to house us for the night. He never offered, but he did say that some of the guys who were taking us bungee jumping later could possibly give us a place to say.
Toby, a hairy man in his late 30s from Arizona, came and picked us up in the "Alpine Raft" bus. We now have out huge backpacks with us and when we pulls up and says something along the lines of "what the Fword are you doing with those?!" yes! Perfect Segway to ask for a place to stay. But before we even had to ask, he assured us we would have someone to stay between the bungee worker guys and that he wouldn't let us, the four homeless princesses, sleep in grass next to the station. And before we knew it we were on our way up to Stockhorn to take the biggest leap of faith!
With all the craziness trying to figure out living arrangements out, our brains were distracted what we were about to do. We were gonna strap a chord to our feet and spring off a platform on a gondola, 450ft in the air!! Emotions were flying! First psyched, then scared out of our minds, then butterflies galore, then a realization that we would be plummeting head first down to a frozen lake and so on. Everything emotion you can think of, what felt. Prayers were a constant! Especially after we found out we were the first jump of the 2012 season and that we would be the first girls to go! We signed our lives away, suited up, and headed up in the gondola to jump! Unfortunately Riley had to go in the second gondola to go up. But it worked out cause we were able to video each other on Nicole's camera from the bottom! Kendall, Nicole, and I said a prayer at the top and gave each other a pep talk. This pep talk is one I'll never forget! The overall outcome was to channel Pocahontas when she leaps off so gracefully off the cliff. We all share the same dream of doing exactly that in the after life but for now, this was as close as we were gonna get! So Pocahontas it was who eased all our fears! Kendall was first! The entire gondola yelled 5...4...3..2...1!!!! And there Kenny went, In the most perfect form! Her arms were spread, legs so long and her back was arched just as Pocahontas! All the workers raved about how beautiful her jump was! And beautiful it was! Then I was next! I've sky dived twice but this was an entirely different thing. Before I could even think, the gondola was counting down and BAM! I'm soaring through the Swiss air! You're in a complete free fall, not feeling a pull of resistance from the bungee for a good 6 seconds. Which doesn't seem like that much but in those 6 seconds you feel a sense of liberation indescribable. I was lowered into the boat at the bottom and Kendall was there to greet me! We screamed and laughed and looked up to see Nicole jump. When she jumped she had a beautiful dismount then quickly went into her hilarious flail and repeatedly opened up then closed then opened and closed while screaming a terrified scream. It was awesome to watch from below! We rowed back to the shore to let us off and we were on top of the world! What we just did was the most invigorating feeling! We screamed some more and quick ran back to the main place to meet up with Riley! Ah! It was so cool! I wish I could describe it better but you'll just have to experience it for yourself! We had our freak out reunion with Riley, telling her all about our pocohantas theory and she was so ready! Riley suited up and headed up. The first man jumped and we were expecting Riley to go next. Except the bungee was not being brought back up...it was just hanging there and we knew something was wrong. Minutes and minutes passed and the chord was still hanging and no jumpers had have gone. My allergies were raging so I stayed in doors, but Nicole and Kendall were right outside waiting for Riley. After a good 20 minutes of nothing happening, the girls said a prayer that whatever is happening up there will be fixed and Riley will be able to jump. Immediately when they said amen, the bungee began to raise up and the machine was fixed! Heavenly Father answering our prayers yet again!! It truly is incredible. Riley was up and she jumped off and screamed a screamed that won her best scream ever heard!! She was so funny! The entire country knew when Riley Jane made the biggest leap of her life! We all ran down to greet here at the bottom. We jumped for joy and screamed some more and had a total freak out! We were seriously so happy!! Bungee jumping was the highlight of our trip for sure!! Here are all the girls personal experience bungee jumping:
Kendall- I love bungee jumping!!! It was the most fun thing in the whole entire world!! But I'll start from the beginning. Ever since we booked the bungee jumping, I had tried to not think about it. I didn't want to freak myself out and get second thoughts. All I knew is that I was going to do it! I wasn't going to think about what it would be like or what would happen if something went wrong...i didn't want to not want to do it...if that makes sense. so when we got in the gondola to head up to the place where we were going to jump...I was still sort of in that mode. We were planning on Avery going first, Nicole going second, and me going third. But as soon as we solidified that, Toby (one of the guys) grabbed my arm and strapped me up!!! I was going to go first! First of the entire season! First of the year! As we dangled 450 feet above a lake, Toby opened the door of the gondola...it was beautiful but I could not look down or I wouldn't have the guts to go! So I just stared out into the sun shining on the beautiful mountains! I grabbed into the sides of the gondola, hooked up and ready to go. The whole gondola started counting down. "5, 4, 3..." I knew if I didn't go when they said one I'd psych myself out and I'd look like an absolute idiot! "...2, 1!!" I launched myself out of the thing and when my mind caught up with my body, I had a few split seconds of freak out and hyperventilating but a few instants later realized that I was flying! It felt almost peaceful and freeing with the wind blowing on my face as I did a Pocahontas dive towards the beautiful blue shimmering lake! I was in the most beautiful place in the world! All of these peaceful thoughts were very quickly interrupted with the jolt and pulls and tugs of the bungee cord! The things around my ankles kinda hurt my bare feet, but it was fine! I kept boing-ing for a while after the initial one and it was so fun!!! Then they pulled me into a little row boat and I watched Avery and Nicole jump!! It was amazing!!
Nicole-so bungee jumping was number one on my list. I was going to find a way to jump no matter what, so by the time the day came when I actually got to go, I wasn't even afraid at all, I just couldn't wait! In the gondola on the way up, naturally I started getting a little nervous about the fact that I was actually going to make my body fling out of this thing without standing there for ages and causing a scene. I started dancing in the gondola to get rid o my nerves, but still thought I might pee my pants. Then I decided to not think of it as falling, but to imagine myself as Pocahontas swan diving into the Swiss alps. A dream come true! I shared this thought with the other girls and we all pumped eachother up. All the workers were calling us the Pocahontas girls the whole day, which of course we loved. Kendall and Avery jumped so gracefully, that I wasn't even afraid as I stood on the ledge. I didn't look down, and as the gondola counted down, I dove out into the open like a bird. A couple seconds into it, my body realized it was falling through the air and I went from a graceful swan to a flopping, flailing spaz, screaming and laughing. And then back to a swan, and then a hysterical laughing spaz again. It was the craziest, best feeling in the entire world. Completely unreal. I think I might become an adrenaline junkie. Maybe I'll move to Switzerland and work for alpin raft? They said they need a new receptionist. Yep. I think that's what I'll do. See you never, America! For Switzerland!
We were on a high as we rowed into shore and walked back up I the lodge slash look out point an started raving to Riley about how muH we Lovved it!!! Then we snacked for the next 2 hours on granola and apples that we bought at the grocery store earlier.
We talked to the photo lady and got a little bit of a deal on the pictures. We found out later when we looked at them on the computer that only 5 of them were cool of us and the others were unfocused or taken 10 years earlier of the scenery... Talk about rip off! But they forced us to buy them. While Avery and I negotiated that, Riley made her way up in the gondola! The first guy went and then from the lookout point we could see that the bungee jump cord was not being reeled up. We waited probably 20 minutes and the sun was starting to set! So Kendall and Nicole said a prayer and the second thy said "amen", the rope generator started working again and we could see the rope being reeled up!! After one more guy jumped, it was Riley's turn!!! Here's her take:
Riley-Bungee jumping was by far the craziest/scariest/most exhilarating thing I have ever done in my whole life, and quite possibly will ever do. So I'm pretty sure I was the most scared of us three girls, so naturally once we got up to the gondola they separated is into two groups and I was all by myself! My group was second and a couple of these German au pairs who we were talking to in the van on the way up were with me so we were watching the other girls go. I was feeling so sick to my stomach, I actually didn't think I was going to be able to do it. So when the other three girls came running back up I was freaking out more than ever, they we all talking so fast saying it was the most amazing thing ever and thy kept saying 1. DO NOT LOOK DOWN and 2. JUST PRETEND THAT YOU ARE POCAHAUNTUS AND IT IS NOT SCARY, in fact it is liberating. So naturally I'm freaking out even more and start singing all of the pocahauntus songs in my head. So there I go up with eight strangers, the hippie photographer, and the two jump masters and I am scared out of my mind. So we get up there, the first guy jumps, and then we hear a huge chuehdhx shahid bang bang bang from the top of the gondola...uhhh...that's not good? The generator that pulls the rope back up stopped working. So now my mind is racing figuring out just how mad I would be if I got myself all the way up here and couldn't jump, while simultaneously freaking out more than ever. Then within an instant I decided that I should just forgert about every thought going on in my head and just start signing the pocahauntus songs, but this time OUT LOUD, HIIIIIII. The German girls who were with me had heard what Nicole was saying about pocahauntus so they got it and they started encouraging me and massaging my shoulders. When I think about that five minutes of my life I do not believe they actually happened, it was one of the most hysterical moments of my life. Meanwhile unbenonced to me Nicole and Kendall were saying a prayer for me that the problem would be fixed and everything would be safe for me, within the instant they said amen the rope started going up. Amazing. However then I realized that it was real now and I was going to jump out of that gondola and boing all around that lake or die trying. One other guy went before me, and then as I'm literally shaking the jump master has to tell me four times that in order to get to the door I have to go under the rope as opposed to walking straight through it, what a moron. And then there I was, standing on the edge, holding onto the sides, they count down from five, and then ladies and gentlemen, I jumped. It was not as..err...graceful as some, the arms were good but my feet were a little Off. But it still worked I boinged and boinged all over the place all the while screaming my brains off and once I was just dangling there I started to laugh, and laugh and laugh and laugh. They lower you into a little row boat, so it was me two bungee jump guys, and the guy who went before me, just hanging out in the boat and I cannot stop laughing and shaking and I just kept saying "I cannot believe I did, that. Who am I?!" Luckily they all though I was hilarious, but I pretty much just felt like a bafoon. One of the guys even said I was the loudest screamer he has ever heard in his ten years of being a jump master, hiiiii. It was a total adrenalin rush, and I loved it. I'm not so sure of I'd do it again, but I am definitely glad that I did it!!!
Once she came back to the lodge slash lookout, the piled us in the gondola and took us back down I the vans. One of the guys stuck his heads in and asked where we were being dropped off...so we told our little sob story once again. He offered us Toby's house as a joke, but Toby overheard and said that that would be fine and that he takes in couch surfers all the time! So we accepted the offer thinking that it would be better than the floor outside of the train station.
We were taken back to the reception area to get our bags and were told that our pictures would be ready in an hour or so and then Toby rushed us back in the car to drop us off at his apartment. What the rush was, I dont know...but anyways... We pull up to this place next door to a Thai restaurant where the door o the apartment complex is unlocked and we walk up stairs to his apartment that has the door wide open and has all sorts of stickers (one saying "bulls**t") on it! There's a bad in the open area next to the kitchen and he says 2 of you can sleep here and then walks outside onto the patio (which I'm pretty sure was the roof of a different building) and gets a dirty mat from out of a corner and says "and 2 of you get to sleep under the stars". Then he quickly changed in his room and left (not in the creepy way im describing...he was probably just in a rush to see his pals...he even invited us To join him if we wanted). After he left we died laughing! In the gross bathroom that was in the hallway technically outside the apartment next to a MOUNTAIN of empty beer cans, there was a poster of two girls in bikinis holding paintball guns! And on the wall, the only decoration besides some notebook paper that had spray painted letters spelling "Happy B-day" was a single thing wrapped in plastic that was a fur "willy warmer"!!! Hhaaha
We decided to get the heck outta there and went and found wifi at that gross joint Goergie's...which we still felt bad for the owner and even worse that we were stealing his wifi without even buying anything. So there we sat by the dumpster outside his place with the cats...literally.
Well we went and got our photos from the hotel, went back to Toby's and attempted to fall asleep with no blankets and feeling a little scared and skeptical of actually falling completely asleep. Nicole and Riley chose to sleep outside while Avery and I (this has been Kendall typed for the past few paragraphs) slept on the bed with the door to the "patio" open. And then sometime scary happened to Avery. Here are her words describing it: "I was laying in bed and heard drunk people coming through the door and my heart started racing! I see the shadow of a man behind me and I hear a drunk man say: "F-ing ridiculous!" I don't know if I was going to feel a gun on my back or a noose around my neck or witness him take all of our stuff and hurt us! We were debating leaving a book of mormon or not on the kitchen table and i thought that we did and that he was saying that us being mormon was "f-ing ridiculous"! I was prepared to die a martyr in this guy Toby's apartment! He tripped over our bags and fell into the gravel of the patio right by Riley and Nicole! I peer over and see him crouching over them and shake his head and say "f-ing ridiculous couch surfers!"
She ended up making friends with them despite her being scared to the bone so we wouldn't get killed or taken! She also saw Toby later that night walk out of his room in nothing but black underwear!! Needless to say, it was a night and day that we will NEVER forget!!!
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