Interlaken: The Best Place on Earth

I love Florence for its culture– the food, art, style, and people. but I love Interlaken for its beauty and for its way of life. 

We (half of the Velluti girls and some other students from FSU) left for Interlaken Thursday night and got to our hostel, Balmers, around 4 in the morning on Friday. 9 am Friday morning rolled around soon enough and we got up for breakfast (bread, jam and cheese) and walked around Interlaken to explore before we went canyoning at 1 pm!

Interlaken is totally my style. The place is BEAUTIFUL. Extreme greens and blues with white-tipped mountain tops in the distance. The scenery looked like it was a painted picture. Everything in Interlaken revolves around outdoor activities. Even though I had never been to Switzerland before, I felt right at home in Interlaken because it was a lifestyle I am already familiar with– appreciation of the outdoors, an active lifestyle and the mountain scenery. Everyone in Interlaken is wearing hiking gear, bike jerseys, t shirts and shorts. I fit in perfectly. It was a nice change from Florence where so much emphasis is put on style and how you look. 

At 12:45 we met back at the hostel to go canyoning– and outdoor activity popular in Interlaken where a guide takes you down a river with waterfalls and small streams to swim in. There is really not a good way to describe it… just look at my pictures. We were picked up by the company who does a lot of the touristy outdoor activities– Outdoor Interlaken– and taken to their station to get suited up in wet suits. Then we had a short drive to a path and after a little hike (to the guides maybe… we were all pretty much struggling) we jumped in the freezing cold glacial water, coming down from the mountains looming over our heads. For four hours we made our way down the stream, jumping off small waterfalls and rappelling off rock walls. It was AWESOME. It was an entirely new experience, something I have never done before and after living in a city for almost six weeks it was so nice to be outside in the fresh air doing something challenging.

After four hours of canyoning we were all tired, cold and hungry. We returned back to the Outdoor Interlaken base where we were given a free beer. After cleaning up and watching the pictures of us canyoning on the screen, we returned to Balmers and the Velluti girls decided to go out for dinner while others ate back at the hostel. For dinner we ate at a cool little Swiss restaurant. There, a marching band (yes, marching band- drums, trumpets, trombones and all) played music to our enjoyment (is my sarcasm obvious?). It was a little bit hard to hear through dinner so we were glad when they finally took a break. I wanted a typical swiss meal so I told our waitress to bring me their most popular dish. I’m not exactly sure what it was but it was so good– egg, ham, potatoes, onions and swiss cheese is what I believe made up the meal. Very healthy =). For desert, of course, we all ordered chocolate fondue with real Swiss chocolate! After all the fruit was gone, Heather and I used our spoons to scoop up the last of the chocolate. We couldn’t help ourselves. Afterwards, we headed back to our hostel to hang out at the local bar connected to Balmers. It was a great first day in Interlaken.

Day 2 (Saturday), Morgan, Heather, Katie and I got up around 9 to do a 2 to 3 hour hike in the Swiss Alps before going rafting with everyone else at 4. The hike was beautiful. It was a relatively easy hike (I mean, we haven’t worked out for almost 2 months so we couldn’t outdo ourselves) with great views of the mountains and the snowy peaks in the distance. We decided to hike to a popular restaurant located at the top of a hill with great views of mountains surrounding the restaurant. Along the way, we passed cows grazing on grass by the side of the path. They almost let us get close enough to touch them!

We got back in to town around 3:30 with just enough time to get ready for rafting with the rest of the Velluti crew and some other FSU friends. We were using the services of the Outdoor Interlaken company again and they picked us up in a van and took us back to the same site we were at yesterday. We suited up again and then we were loaded into a truck for a half hour drive up the river (with amazing views) to where we would drop in with our rafts. The Velluti girls had their own raft and we had an awesome guide by the name of Jezza. He was a little crazy– he called himself a “Kiwi” because he was from New Zealand and he had the personality of someone who has spent a little bit too much time out in the wild “connecting with nature.” He was missing a tooth that he had accidently knocked out rafting a few weeks ago and had yet to get it fixed. Despite his wackiness we loved him and had a great time with him… or maybe it was because of it.

After a crazy four hour rafting experience (again… the scenery… couldn’t get over it), we returned to our hostel around 8 and decided to get burgers there and just hang out. We were all pretty wiped out so it was a pretty chill night, hanging out at the outside bar by our hostel.

Sunday was my favorite day. We got up around 10 am and a group of us decided to rent vespas and four-wheelers for the afternoon. All of us partnered up and we took about an hour drive up a mountain road that took us to a place where waterfalls were all around you with beautiful scenery of mountains and valleys. It was so awesome and a perfect last-day activity. On the way back to town, we stopped to grab a lunch of bratwursts. We took one last drive around the town of Interlaken and then headed back to Balmers to turn in our atvs and vespas and load up on the bus to head back to Florence around 3pm. This was the last weekend for FSU students so the mood on the bus was kind of melancholy and quiet while everyone realized that we were returning to Florence for our last week in Italy.

I have been on some of the most amazing trips of my life during my time here in Italy but at the end of the weekend trips, I am always happy to return to Florence. Interlaken was the first time I was sad to return home. Interlaken is the most beautiful and happiest place I have been. Interkalen suited me and the way I have grown up, in a family who appreciates the outdoors and an active lifestyle.  If I- when I ever go back to Europe Interlaken will be one of the first places I return to.