I just had one of the best weekends of my life. We went to Interlaken, Switzerland!
We got there Friday night and we got dinner and went to our hostel: The Funny Farm. It was such a great hostel. It was more like a real hotel than a hostel. Our private room had a balcony that overlooked the alps, it was nearly breathtaking. I couldn’t believe I was actually there. My mom told me Switzerland really was the best place in Europe and I have to say that I agree. I have never seen mountains like these. There are so many of them, and they are so jagged. We took the train right through the valleys on our way there, it felt like we were going right into them. The air was so crisp and the sun was shining. We couldn’t have asked for a better weekend for it.
Beautiful little town of Interlaken Switzerland.
So beautiful!
Saturday, March 8th was one of the best days of my life. I say this with complete truth. We went SKYDIVING! Yes, little Kelley jumped out of a plane two miles up in the air. There were six of us that did it: my friends, Liz, Melissa, Dara, Emily and Courtney. It was a little expensive, but well worth it. If I was going to skydive once in my life, it sure as hell was going to be in the Alps. We had a training session where we learned how to fall out of the plane. They said, “Tilt your head back and try to kick my butt”. That’s how you fall out of a plane. There were other people there, and we waited three hours in the airline hanger for our turn. The runway was also our drop zone.
The Plane that will take us 2 miles up!
Before the Jump! Emily, Courtney, Kelley, Melissa, Liz and Dara!
Hott!
And getting Hotter!
The plane took 8 people up at a time (4 jumpers with 4 tandem masters). I went up around 3pm, the sun was at a perfect height, just setting a little below the mountain peaks. We all got into a small plane. I went with Courtney, Dara and Emily on my flight up. The plane circled around Interlaken and around the Alps for a while.
The Alps from the Sky!
The Hanger Below!
The Runway below. Coming In for a Landing!
Interlaken Below us!
I took some pictures from the plane. I was connected to my tandem master on the plane. I bought the video of my jump, I wanted to make sure I had evidence of this. The video guy was also in the plane. When we got to about 5,000 feet up, I said, “Is this where we are jumping from?” and the guy laughed and goes, “No, we aren’t even half way there yet”. So at 14,000 feet, they opened up the plane door. This is when it hit me that I was supposed to jump out. It didn’t seem real. I was like, doors aren’t supposed to open that high up, what the hell am I doing? Emily was closest to the door, and her and her tandem guy just leaned over and fell out. I started screaming hysterically. I think my body went into shock, I just saw her fall and I panicked. Then some kid, going solo, just got up and jumped out. I thought, well, he makes it look so easy! I knew I was next. He made me get up and put my feet over the edge. The camera guy was already out, holding onto the side of the plane. The next few moments were a blur, but I remember looking at the camera guy and just tumbling. I think I did a somersault in the air. And then I was just floating. I didn’t feel like I was falling, although I really was—at 120mph. The camera guy was in front of me, we were facing each other. We reached out and held hands in the air. I remember holding my arms out like I was flying. Then I was jolted up a bit and I realized that he had pulled the parachute. I looked up and saw that it was purple. He helped me move my harness down a bit and I was now sitting upright. I unzipped my jumpsuit and got my camera out and took tons of pictures.
Me from the sky!
Every minute felt like it lasted for hours, and yet, at the same time, it felt like time was going by at double speed. It was so weird. I was literally above the Alps looking down at them. About 6 minutes later we were coming down to the landing zone and I was caught on the ground by one of the guys. It was such a graceful landing, we just sat down and that was it. It was the best experience of my life.
We did it!
Thats ME!!!!
I made it to the ground!
We Survived our first jump!
Here’s the video of our jump!