On the Wings of a Dream

All of us girls

One final out of the way and I finally have a little bit of time to write. Our OXTA test was this afternoon and I am so happy to be finished with that. I just hope I did alright. Now I have a tutorial paper to write, Greek to translate and a trip to Greece to plan. Last weekend I went to Switzerland with a few other girls, and we had a blast. The trip was so much fun.

Walking to the lake

We flew into Basel and had a little bit of trouble taking the train to Interlaken. When we got to our hostel after 2am we all crashed. Friday we just walked around Interlaken, which is a lovely little town at the foot of the Jungfrau.

We spent Friday just walking around and relaxing. I am loathe to admit that we ended up eating dinner at McDonald's in an attempt to eat cheaply. In my defense, however, I ate the McEmmentaler. In the evening we went to a chocolate show. Apparently their milk chocolate was voted the best in the world last year. I think I'd vote for it too. We each ate way more chocolate than should be allowed. And we went back to Schuh at least once every single day.

My friend Casey above Interlaken

Lake Thun from the air

Interlaken means "between the lakes" and we began our Saturday with a beautiful hike to one of the lakes. Because of glacial silt, the river and lakes are a surreal turquoise blue. After a picnic lunch on Lake Thun we headed off to meet up with our paragliding instructors. Paragliding was the most amazing experience! We drove up to Beatenberg and stopped at our takeoff point, a very steep drop off. After I was all strapped in with my instructor, we took about three running steps and we were in the air.

Me taking off

I'm the second from the left, in the middle

The feeling of flying, face open to the air, is indescribable and incredible. At one point a bird flew beneath me, above me and all around. Interlaken lay sprawled beneath me, Jungfrau towered before me and the crystal waters shone in the setting sun. Wheeling through the air I felt so alive and exhilarated. For so long I have dreamed of flying and to soar amidst the glory of majestic mountains ... Suffice it to say, I'm ready to take flight again.

Finally my instructor asked if I liked roller coasters. I do, so we did some tricks in the sky which included flipping almost upside down with the parachute beneath us. All good things must come to an end, and so we began to float down towards the ground. Landing was just as simple and we met up with some of our friends who also went to Switzerland.

Sunrise in the Alps

Sunday morning we woke up at 4:30 so that we could take the early train up to The Top of Europe. Jungfrau is the mountain that shadows Interlaken. The train was early enough that we witnessed the sunrise over the Alps. The train ended at Jungfraujoch, the highest train station in Europe. Here we looked out over the Alps once again as snow fell gently down. A bit of a storm blew in and the wind howled through the mountains, lifting snow up and throwing it in our faces. We slipped and slid through the ice palace and shivered in fifteen degree weather. I had a chai tea latte and Toblerone to warm up. It's so amazing to be up there, on top of the world.

On the train down we saw a St. Bernard with a barrel around his neck - so classically Swiss. We hopped off the train in Grindlewald and hung out there for a couple of hours. Because it was a Sunday in off season, the sleepy resort town was basically shut down. Once back in Interlaken we went once again to Schuh, this time for dinner. We had a classic Swiss cheese fondue that was delicious. Looking like bums we proceeded make utter fools out of ourselves, but that's a long story. Of course we ended our evening with more world-famous chocolate.

Delicious Fondue

Monday was our day of departure. We rose early enough to hike to the other lake, Lake Brienz, for another picnic lunch. The cows lowing in fields all have bells around their necks and every movement fills the air with music. With a little time to spare we made a coffee stop and yet another chocolate stop. We made it to the airport over four hours ahead of time, so we had a bit of a wait. In Gatwick the transit between our terminal and the terminal with the train suddenly broke. Over half an hour later we finally made it to the train station, but had missed our train. The next train, an hour later, was delayed so after all was said and done we were over an hour and a half behind schedule. We were all so tired by the time we made back to Oxford and so glad to see the houses. I flopped straight into my bed and slept late the next morning.

Aquamarine Waters

Now I'm preparing for my next trip, which is to Greece. It'll be another tiring trip, but I'm so excited. And now it's probably time to go finish up some more homework.