Skydiving in Switzerland!

Yes, you read that title right: we in fact went SKYDIVING! But I'll get to that soon enough...first I had to get through easily the hardest school week here in CIMBA. Before I could relax I had to finish a paper, take 2 tests, 2 quizzes, and do an Italian oral presentation. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the time Friday rolled around and definitely ready to head off to Interlaken, Switzerland! Due to my schoolwork, I was a little late on packing and literally threw a bag together 20 minutes before the bus arrived to take our group.

We left around 10:00 Friday evening and weren't looking forward to a 7 and a half hour drive overnight. And yes, we arrived to Interlaken around 5:30am...awful decision to leave so early. The bus driver who arranged this trip said we had to leave at that time in order to avoid fog on the mountains, which I could understand, but arriving that early in Interlaken meant that absolutely nothing was open, not even our hostel! It didn't help things either when the bus driver got lost as soon as we got there, driving us in circles for a good half an hour.

However, we eventually found our hostel, Balmer's Herberge and were then forced to set up camp in the hostel lobby, taking over all the couches and floor space. I'm sure we looked like the biggest fools all morning since we were room-less until 2pm.Oh and I forgot, there was about 27 of us total, so we pretty much took up every area throughout the hostel. However, I noticed that a lot of the other guests were also American so I didn't feel as bad as playing the role of "annoying Americans" haha.

Luckily, I landed a spot on one of the couches and tried to sleep till about 8am. It was a little difficult to actually get some good sleep knowing other guests were walking in and out all morning, fully dressed in snow gear on their way up to the mountain. Some of us grabbed breakfast in the hotel lobby and ended up just laying back down, building up the energy to change clothes and go out to explore the city. Some of the group left to go skiing/snowboarding, while the rest who chose to skydive, decided to walk around the town a little before our scheduled time to leave. The minute we walked out of our hostel and into the sunlight, I lost my breath. Every direction I looked there was a HUGE mountain just dominating the entire scenery, it was incredible. The size of these mountains put the Blue Ridge Mountains to shame. I couldn't help but constantly take pictures because I was so overwhelmed by how pretty the city was with the mountains in the background. As we walked, we all kept saying how excited we were to be flying above those mountains later on that day..ah so crazy!!

View of the town outside our hostel

More hotels in Interlaken

Our bus for skydiving was supposed to pick us up at noon from our hostel, but was running a couple of minutes late of course. This didn't help with our excitement, nervousness, and anxiousness at all! When the bus finally arrived, we were pleasantly greeted with AC/DC songs playing the entire way to the skydiving site. When we arrived, there were a bunch of guys laying around, honestly looking like a bunch of punks just chilling out..not very comforting. We then went through literally a 2 minute instruction session and learned what we needed to while jumping out of the plane. The jumpsuits they provided us were pretty attractive too I must say! (Haha just kidding) They weren't that flattering, but made for some funny pictures.

For those who bought a video through the skydiving company, we were lucky enough to participate in some awkward interviews. The first one started with my cameraman asking, "Hey Kacey! So what are you doing today?" Haha yeaaah..good times. My skydiving partner was named Hans and he kept making jokes about my harness not working properly, wasn't so funny at the time but I went along with it. Finally it was our time to board the plane, so we said our final goodbyes to the rest of the group. We got on this tiny, tiny plane and ended up squeezing about 12 people with all of our gear, so it was pretty packed. As we made our way up in the air, I was surprised at how calm I felt. If anything, I was far more excited than nervous, is that weird? The view from the plane was spectacular and even more so knowing that I was about to be jumping out over those mountains! When we finally reached the correct altitude, one of the divers opened the side of the plane, making the whole situation extremely real. All of the divers had their own handshake between each other and it seemed like they weren't scared at all, just another day on the job for them. One of my favorite parts was watching those experienced divers literally just hop out of the plane like it was nothing! I ended up being the last group to jump out of the plane so my nerves finally kicked in when I watched the other two simply fall out of the plane.

Here we go!

Following the instructions, I gave the cameraman (who was hanging out on the side of the plane filming us) a big smile, then laid my head back so that Hans could see. Then..all of a sudden... we were falling, falling, falling. It was such a rush and incredible feeling, even writing this 2 weeks later is giving me chill bumps. The immediate fall and feeling my stomach rise was by far the best part. From then on, it felt like we were falling but at the same time floating because my arms just stayed still in midair when I was able to extend them. The cameraman stayed with us during the free fall and at one point I thought he was going to run into us in the air, it was scary! I just remember my eyes watering a ton and trying to scream but nothing came out. It was such an exhilarating feeling especially when I started to notice the mountains that we were descending upon. I just remember at one point looking around and seeing only mountains, no flat ground or greenery at all. That image will stick in my mind forever.

After about 45 seconds, which seemed more like 20, Hans pulled the parachute and the intensity subsided. We were then floating above the Switz Alps, it was so quiet, peaceful, and all so surreal. Another favorite part of the dive was when Hans pulled the chords as we were floating, which forced us to fly in circles at a pretty quick rate. I actually got a bit dizzy and just kept thinking, "woah, my mom would not like this one bit" haha. Finally it was time for the landing, and honestly I thought we were going to land on the concrete until Hans pulled one side of the chords, turning us a complete 360 degrees and over top the landing area. I was told to lift up my legs as we slid into the ground on our bottoms. I was a little shocked at how fast yet smooth our landing was too! Good job Hans!

Phew, I'm alive!

As soon as I landed, my cameraman ran over and started filming and taking pictures. As soon as I stood up I could still feel my legs shaking and heart pounding. Also, since we were the first ones to dive, everyone bombarded us with questions. It was so weird too because I honestly felt like I blacked out because I couldn't describe what I did, how it felt, or what it was like. My responses were only, "I'm not sure.. I just kinda fell.." and "It was AWESOME!". After the initial shock, I immediately wanted to go again. I don't think anything will ever top the rush that skydiving offers and I would absolutely love to go back and dive again. I even joked with my parents that I want to attend skydiving school to become a certified skydiver so that I can dive by myself! So advice to anyone who is considering skydiving at any point: DO IT. It was honestly the best decision I've ever made and I will never forget how it felt jumping out of the plane and free falling above the mountains. I was the happiest person alive in that moment.

View from the plane on the way up

After the others jumped, we treated ourselves to a nice meal at the local Hooters. We were looking forward to some good American food, yet were a little disappointed at how different everything tasted. Not only was the food expensive, but the sauces and dressings tasted awful! Who knew ranch dressing could taste like watered down oil? We then walked back to our hostel, completely exhausted, and in desperate need of a shower. We were able to finally check into our rooms and tried to gain as much energy as we could for the night. Luckily, our hostel had an underground club connected to it so we didn't have to travel far at all. The boys headed down before the girls, and as soon as we walked in, we were immediately informed that we were now celebrities! The club had TVs along the wall and what do ya know, our skydiving videos were playing on all the TVs! It was hilarious to watch all of us in our videos and how awkward and silly our faces looked during the free fall.


The next morning we woke up and ate lunch at Hooters again, while we waited for the bus to pick us up. When it arrived, we were completely drained and it actually felt so nice to just sit and sleep. It was snowing that morning so driving the winding roads down the mountain was a little nerve wracking. I also noticed on the ride back the amount of tunnels we had to pass through. At one point, we were driving through a tunnel for at least 20 minutes. Then, later in the drive our bus driver got pulled over by the Switzerland cops, it was quite a ride back. As soon as we got back to Paderno, we all watched our videos and enjoyed laughing at our pictures. It was by far one of the best weekends here in Europe and I know I will never forget the memories of skydiving.


But that is all for now, this next weekend we are traveling to Malta!! Quite a temperature change so I am looking forward to warm(er) weather! We're alive and all is well! Until next time..