vivere il sogno italiano: Jumping out of helicopters over the Swiss Alps-check that off my bucket list!

A few weeks back my friend Avry and I were trying to think of a fun exciting adventure we could go on the weekend before her 21st birthday. Interlaken, Switzerland had crossed our minds but I don't think either of us expected to follow through with our far fetch travel ideas. However, when the week before her birthday approached, we mustered up and paid our 180 Euros to the Florence For Fun office and saved our spot on the trip! From word of mouth we had heard sooo many great things about Interlaken such as the beautiful Swiss Alps, laid back sporty environment, Swiss chocolate, fondu and oh ya skydiving. The second we heard peoples stories about jumping out of helicopters and planes over the Swiss Alps....I was sold. Avry needed a little convincing in the beginning but before we even got on the bus she was determined to make the jump. Now that we had both convinced ourselves to do it, there was a higher power I had to convince as well....The parentals. Now I knew this one might be a little tricky since in my family I am sort of known as the one who all ironic, impossible, unthinkable, unfortunate events happen to. Or like my parents refer to me as, "the shit magnet." So I approached this topic with them as brief and light as possible just to give them a heads up that I was deeply considering taking the leap of faith out of a helicopter.

Thursday finally rolled around and by 6pm Avry and I were headed to the train station to get on the buses! Of course with us we can neverrr go on a road trip with out some road snacks so we stopped by Conad (my favorite grocery store mainly because the Asian man who works there is quite flirtatious with me and really admires my white coat haha) picked up some snacks and meet up with the group. Now Avry and I did not know any other people going on this trip but we figured hey why not we can both be pretty out going, well make friends! Our first impression however was not one of the greatest. Waiting around for the busses to arrive we decided to secretly open up the bag of M&M's we got, hide them in her bag and sneak a few at a time so we did not look like total fat asses. The bag they were inside of was sitting on top of Avry's 360 degrees rolly suitcase...bad idea. The bag toppled over and the M&M's went everywhere.....no exaggeration. So the first impression all of our potential new friends had of us was that we were those girls eating M&M's at the train station and spilled them everywhere.

Anywaysss after a 8 hour bus ride we had finally arrived at our hostel (The Funny Farm?) in Interlaken, Switzerland at 3:45 in the morning. By this point I had already put my deposit down for skydiving and the next day at 12pm I was scheduled to make the jump.

(Right outside our hostel the Funny Farm!)

Friday morning Avry and I were beyond excited and could barley sleep so we headed down to the "included breakfast" and had originally planed to stock up on the free meal so we could save lunch money for a big dinner. The "included breakfast" consisted of a loaf of bread and a bowl of jelly for all of the hostel guest to eat. Wasn't the biggest selection but with all of the nerves and excitement food was the last thing on our mind....surprisingly.
Next thing we knew it was time to get on the shuttle and head to the SkyDIVE Interlaken office to sign the "Incase of injury or death don't blame us" forms.

(SkyDive Interlaken!)

(The forms were signed, ready to jumpp!)

(All suited up! before they put the stupid hats on us...)

After going through the debriefing and practicing laying in the skydive position and lifting our legs for a safe landing with the 6 other people that were set up for the same time as us, they asked which 2 of the 8 people would be willing to go first. When nobody volunteered, Avry and I decided to take the plunge and go first. Now had we of known that the hats they put on us were not required and we technically had an option to not wear them....maybe we would of gone later so we could of seen how silly they look on. But silly hats aside, we got all of our harnesses on and strapped up tight and anxiously waited the arrival of the helicopter we would soon be jumping out of.

(Cool hats! hah)

(Helicopter landing!)

The helicopter had arrived, we determined that Avry would be the first to jump because she said that if she saw me fall out of a helicopter there would be no way she could go! The ride up was absolutely beautiful! They took the scenic routes to get to the jumping point so that we could get in some good pictures!

(Beautiful Swiss Alps!)

The ride up 14,000 feet is not the most comfortable ride in the world not only because of the tiny back seat of the helicopter but also because you are strapped in extremely tight the the tandem master your are sitting on top of! But comfortability was not really my main focus at this particular point in time, I was much more focused how how much higher we were going to go before they give us the 1 minute count down!

(eeek!)

(Two minutes!)

(The countdown began and next thing I knew, Avry was gone!)

SO before I even had time to register in my head what I was really about to do, the tandem man strapped to the back of me was telling me "ok its time scoot off the edge of the helicopter lets do it!" What felt like a life time sitting on the edge was really not even a minute! We were told to push our stomachs out, do a front flip out of the helicopter hold on the our harnesses until they give us the tap and let the wind do the rest. The second I flipped out of the helicopter, my hands were up in the air even though I had not felt the tap yet. Words can not even describe the feeling I had free falling over 14,000 feet in the air! It was simply the most euphoric feeling I have ever had in my entire lifeee!!!