During our week long break before finals, my friends and I decided to travel to Vienna and then take a train to Switzerland. Deciding where we wanted to go in Switzerland was difficult, but it ultimately came down to one fact: we wanted to go skydiving. After doing some research and talking to people who have studied abroad, we decided that Interlaken was the best place to go skydiving in Switzerland. We were also suggested to use a company called Scenic Air Switzerland from a friend who also studied abroad in Barcelona. Scenic Air is an extreme mountain sports company that offers all different types of adventures from glacier trekking and heli skiing to paragliding and skydiving. Skydiving is something I have wanted to do for a long time now, but have never really found the perfect time, so where better to go skydiving than Interlaken?! We booked the skydiving about a month before the trip, so there was a lot of anticipation going into it.
When we finally got to Interlaken, all we could think about was the fact that we were going to be jumping 13,000 feet out of a plane in just a few short days. The night before, we all had some jitters to say the least. We all woke multiple times throughout the night just thinking of the day that we had ahead of us.
Below is a photo of my friend Maddie and I the day before we went skydiving.
Finally, after a month of anticipation, the day had finally come. Our pick up time was for noon so we woke up at around 9:30 in order to have time to have breakfast and drive around to get excited. At 12, we met up with the Scenic Air driver and he drove us to the special skydiving airport. He gave us multiple forms that we had to sign and this is when everything really hit us, we were technically signing our lives away to Scenic Air. The feeling on the way to the airport was strange because it was a combination of nervous butterflies and pure excitement. When we arrived we were split into groups by plane, one group had the first plane, my friends and I had the second plane, and one other girl was on the first plane. Everyone then suited up and the first group was off on their flight. We were standing on the runway waiting for our turn, when one of the diving instructors suddenly told us to look up. Way up in the sky we could see the plane that had taken off about 10 minutes earlier, I kept my eye on the air craft and sudden a small white dot came falling out of the back of the plane. 5 seconds later, another white dot, and then another and another. That’s when it hit me that in about 20 minutes I too, would be one of those white dots.
Getting into that tiny plane I knew there was no turning back. At this point, I was freaking out but the nerves were gone, and I was feeling pure excitement. Flying in the air I could see one of the most beautiful views of my life. Rigid snow capped mountains and turquoise blue lakes surrounded me. I was in the front of the plane so I knew that I would be going last, which was cool but also very nerve wracking. As 10 minutes passed, I knew that the time was coming. The diving instructors opened the doors to the plane and one by one my friends started to plop out. Watching them fall out of the plane was one of the craziest things I had ever seen. One second they were sitting right next to me, and the next they were just gone. I got closer and closer to the back of the plane, until my friend Katie was the only one left and she suddenly plopped out too. After that I wasn’t even nervous, it was all just happening. I was sitting on the edge of a plane with my legs dangling over the Swiss Alps and then I was just falling. My stomach didn’t drop and my heart didn’t stop but I knew I was falling fast. It was a feeling that really can’t be put into words except the words I was screaming “holy sh**t!!!!!”. The falling part was so quick and before I knew it there was a parachute holding me up and I was just gliding for about 5 minutes. The view was incredible. As far as I could see there were white mountains and blue lakes. When we hit the ground, my friends and I all hugged and the one thing I remember thinking is that I wanted to do it again.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNzqDprAxZlKTY6a8hln714RJeVe4Q4KfEBb8U0/?taken-by=emluds
Barcelona 2016 