Day 61 in Europe: Paragliding With Eagles

Hallo! 
Boy oh boy, do I have a adventure story to tell you today!!! 
If this event I did today didn't kill me than surely my mother would have afterwards, but luckily the worst she did was made groaning noises into the phone that basically meant CHILD WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?!?!?! Um, nothing is wrong with me. I did what she said. I didn't go skydiving...


I went paragliding. 


There IS a difference. 


And you know what? I didn't even know I was going to do this, but before we get into the details of that, let me tell you everything about that day. 


So I woke up before my alarm clock went off. I have a hard time sleeping somewhere new the first night and if I can't get the pillows right between my legs, so that my spine is in alignment then I simply do not sleep and it kind of sucks. 
I took a shower and the water here is SO soft and it felt SO good. I was basically in heaven when I took a shower. 
Then I scuttled down the stairs, went into the dinning room (which is a very pretty light blue room with maroon-colored drapes) and had some breakfast. I had a piece of this chocolate cake that was SUPER good. I also toasted some bread, grabbed an orange, poured a glass with half orange juice and half apple juice... oh yeah... I also had some coffee. And man is the coffee here strong. I'm glad no one looked when I pretty much dumped the bottle of sugar into my cup. Hahaha. 

How about a dozen? 

Afterwards the family I am staying with set me up with this guy who does paragliding, but here was the thing... I didn't exactly know what I was doing. I had no idea what paragliding was. I just told them that my mom said NO SKYDIVING. And they nodded and said: No it is not skydiving. 
And they were right. 
Haha. It wasn't skydiving. 
So at 10:20 this really cool guy (who you will see picture of here pretty soon) name (wait for this) Peachy picked me up. So, I hopped in his truck and in there I sat next to this 60 year-old lady name Diane and she is from Seattle. So, we have a lot in common. We became good pals as we embarked on this crazy adventure. She asked me why I was doing this. I kind of joked around and said: Oh, I'm just jumping off a mountain so that I have something interesting to write about on my blog. 
She laughed. 
Good. I like laughter. 

On our ride over to the site where we had to pick up the equipment the three of us debated "what type of shit is the best shit to step in" (not my words by the way I said "crap") at which point I replied with, "Um, horse crap. Duh." Not because I like horses, but because it is true. 
All the equipment was next to this restaurant... which restaurant you may ask? 
HOOTERS. 
Yep, there is a Hooters in Interlaken. 
So anyhow, next to Hooters I met our other guide name Benny at which point this song started playing in my head...

Did you see that coming? If you know me well you would have said: Yes.  
So like bowling you need special shoes when paragliding. I didn't know this. Now I do. How spiffy. Diane and I fastened up our boots and then loaded up in the car again and drove up with Peachy, Benny, and Peachy's girlfriend (who would be driving the car back down after we jumped off the mountain). They were actually taking us up higher than they generally go up since it was just the two of us and they have more time to do so. It was funny because as we were driving up Diane pointed out to this church-like looking building and Benny told us that wasn't a church, but rather a restaurant and I mean, we could barely see this restaurant. It was tiny because we were up so high, but then I remembered when I went walking out with Timo the other day, him pointing out this restaurant and I could barely see it from the ground because of how high it was. So... long story short... we went up REALLY REALLY REALLY high. 
We cruised up this insanely curvy, steep mountain and then parked the car and got out of the van. Benny had to go off into the woods for a couple of minutes and you know what that means...

Code Yellow. 

Then Benny and Diane got prepped than literally just ran off the mountain and then I did the same with Peachy. 

Diane and Benny. 

Peachy and Me before we run off the mountain. 

It was so much fun. I got strapped in to my harness, got my helmet on, and then we literally just ran off the mountain. It is one of the coolest feelings in the world! We soared above and then alongside this gorgeous eagle. We were only a couple feet above these trees on the mountain. At times I literally thought we were going to run into the mountain, which would be an interesting phone call to my mother.  

I bet you are wondering how we took these awesome pictures. Well, Peachy has this cool metal-arm-extension-thing-a-ma-bobber (that's the best that I can describe it) that attached to his camera and he could click this button at the end of it to take the photos. It was awesome. And he is very talented at it obviously. 
We flew over the mountains and I could see all of Interlaken. It was breathtaking... or rather so beautiful that it made me laugh uncontrollably. 
Then we landed which was surprisingly smooth. 
The video is pretty cool. (I posted it on my Facebook, but can't get it uploaded on here unfortunately.) Before we landed Peachy asked me if I wanted to do sharp turns. I was like: HECK YES!!! I love rollarcoasters and going upsidedown in planes. 

Ok, so then I unbuckled myself and this Chinese family came up to us and started asking me questions in Italian. I actually understood some of it surprisingly. He asked where the heck we came from. I pointed to the mountain and said: Motlo Alto. Then he and his family wanted to take a gazillion photos with me and Peachy. It was hilarious. I felt like some celebrity. 
Later I talked to Diane as we walked back to our hotels and she told me that after her husband past away whenever she sees an eagle she thinks of him. Well, TODAY we saw an eagle. So, both her and her husband were soaring the skies today. I told her: That is amazing. I am going to put that in my blog. 
This made her smile. 
Diane was so nice. She gave me a big hug before we left each other. You know the last time I was hugged was by Mr. Italian-Lover/Maybe Creeper and obviously that was awkward for me, but not with her. I miss being hugged... and when we get right down to it. I miss my family. My mom gives me hugs ALL the time. I miss that. 



I got back to the apartment loaded my pictures and video onto Facebook ate an apple and then took Thomas's bike out. 
Yikes. Let's just say I thought I was going to die today, but not from paragliding. From this dang bike. It was kind of wobbly at first and I was biking on the narrow road with a bunch of cars and I knew my bike was just going to wobble in the way of a car and I would end up like a squirrel. 
I don't like squirrels. 
Not at all.

But I figured the bike out and didn't die. I rode down this awesome path that I walked down the other day, but this time I went a lot further because I had the bike. I took a ton of pictures on my iPhone because my camera is having issues right now. It is this gravel road that runs alongside the river and next to some cow fields. 

Oh yes and as I stood back to take these photos I accidentally stepped into a pile of cow turd, which is interesting considering we were just debating that today. Yeah, cow turd was not on my list of crap I'd be willing to get on my shoe and be ok with it. 
Anyhow, there was snow on the path. 
It was getting cold. It snaked through the fabric of my clothes to my skin, giving me goosebumps. 
Yep. 
Here are zey pictures. 

Then I rode my bike back home and went walking through town. I found some awesome cow stuff. They worship cows here. These are my kind of people. 

Christmas time at Hotel Bellevue. 

I want this shirt so much. 

Don't want to know what goes in there...

Man I did A LOT today. 
Then I was getting hungry so I went to this little... I don't even know what it was. It was the weirdest thing ever. Yeah, it was fast food, but man... it was just messed up. So, I went into this... I thought it was a Kebab shop. Anyhow, I walked in and this guy was IMing someone on Facebook. No one was in there. Just me and him. I ordered some fries and some snitchel, but I'm not that's what I got. What I got tasted like something I could have purchased at McDonalds (which alongside Hooters they also have here). Oh yeah, totally forgot to mention this important fact. So before he actually cooked my meal he said: It will take 7 minutes. (Not exactly in english though. It was a mixture of languages actually.)
Me: That's fine. 
Him: Ok. (nodding and smiling)

Unfortunately, I wasn't making this up...

You would think that the seven minutes would be him cooking the meal. Nope, most of it was due to the fact that he had to finish up his conversation on Facebook. I was like: ARE YOU KIDDING ME???
Now I understood why I was the only person there. 
And as he cooked the meal everytime the little dinging noise would go off that meant he got a new IM message he bolted to his computer. It was ridiculous. 
I'm not even going to tell you what I paid for it because I'm too embarrassed. 

Bleh... :P

The restaurant was interesting. It had this random HAPPY BIRTHDAY banner hanging up and there was this strange Italian soap opera playing on this huge flat screen that hung from the wall. Yeah, he just stood there on his Facebook, while I awkwardly ate my fries and fried meat that literally tasted like the fried chicken sandwich from Burger King only with out the bread. 


Yeah, so I sort of have a stomach ache after that. 
Then I went back in my room. I skyped some friends and family and then went about writing this all down for you, which has been taking FOREVER because I keep wandering off to do other things. I had so much to tell you too and I already wrote a blogpost the other day... not to mention I am just tired in general. 
Okie dokes. Well, that is all I have to say tonight. 
I will write to you all later. 


Sunset outside my window right now. 

I am one lucky girl... :)
Ciao! (I actually miss saying that by the way. I accidentally said "Ciao, Grazie" to this lady when I bought my chocolate the other day. I forgot what country I was in. Hahaha.) 


P.S.
Today marks living in Europe for 2 months by the way. 


~Amanda