Saturday, May 1, 2010

5, 4, 3, 2, 1...BUNGEEEEE!






The Drop

The Plank

Signing my life away...


I made a tentative list of things "to do" before I came to Europe...go to a concert, a list of paintings I wanted to see, try some out there foods, but never did I imagine I would jump off a 280 foot cliff and live to tell about it! Bungee jumping in Interlaken was most likely the craziest thing I have ever done, but I loved it!!!! So when we arrived to our hostel on Friday the first thing we did was start researching things to do. Hikes, mountain biking all seemed cool...but then some other stuff caught our eye. You can river raft, "canyon", rock climb, sky dive, paraglide, or bungee. All my friends got talking about bungee jumping and I literally got sick to my stomach. I told them there was no way I would ever do it.

So the next morning at breakfast, they were booking it at the front desk and out of no where I yelled to them, "SIGN ME UP!" I decided that there is no way I could live with myself if all my friends did it and were talking about how fun it was and I didn't try it. I was scared out of my mind though. So we paid the money and we were locked in...all we had left to do was wait for the van to pick us up at 1pm. So we decided to go for a hike and it was really fun! I kept staring up at the mountains though and wondering "how far is 280 feet???" that was the big joke of the trip when I asked someone if it was as high as one of the nearby hills...which apparently according to my friends was actually over 1000 feet high. I still haven't lived that one down.

Anyways, we were waiting for a train from Lauderbrunnen (where our hike was) back to Interlaken...but the train was late! We got back right at 1 and sprinted from the train station all the way back to our hostel so we wouldn't miss the bus to bungee. Originally I was thinking I would have time to go back, relax, and try to mentally prepare myself for what I was about to do. Instead I sprinted after this van and literally jumped in it as it was driving off and before I knew it I was up in the hills with some crazy New Zealander's who think it's fun to jump off cliffs. It was happening so fast that I actually didn't have much time to think about it. Plus, the humor of the situation really calmed me down.

Our drive to the bungee location was beautiful. We passed by the actual Matterhorn Mountain (way bigger than Disneyland!). Once we got to the top I looked over the edge and my heart started pounding. Before we knew it we were getting harnesses put on us! The guy asked someone to read the risks outloud to the group so I volunteered. It was a really witty speech with lines like "try not to die" and "we hope you didn't tell your mother you are doing this." Not so comforting.

There was a group of 7 of us and I volunteered to go first. After the fact, I'm really surprised I did this...but my logic at the time was that if I watched anyone else go through with it I would realize how crazy I was and back out. When he called me up to the platform that's when it really hit me. My feet were glued to the ground and he kept nodding his head at me and telling me to just take one step at a time. When I finally stepped over that rope and onto the platform, I don't think I have ever been so nervous in my life. Me being the over analyzer that I am, turned to one of the guides and asked for advice. How do I jump? A little to the left, straight out, will the rope get tangled around me? His response was a big grin and "Just don't f*#@ it up!" I couldn't help but laugh, even though it was not the response I was looking for. He started counting down from 5 and at 1 I just went for it! The minute my feet left the platform was like slow motion and for a split second I felt myself suspended in the air and then the rest is history and the next thing I remember is hanging upside down and swinging through this crazy beautiful canyon and looking up at the mountains. The adrenalin was unreal! I couldn't stop laughing for like 20 minutes!

We had some pretty cool guides with us, which helped a lot! There was a guy at the bottom of the canyon with a long pole and we got lowered down to him and he detached us. His name was Izzy and he actually held the world record back in '96 for the longest jump (1000 foot bungee from a helicopter!). He told me he passed out during the jump from severe whiplash. CRAZY! Anyways he lowered me down onto the rocks and I was so excited and disoriented that I could barely stand or walk. I got to watch the other 6 jump from down in the canyon and it was so cool! I still can't believe I did it. I feel like it was such a struggle to overcome my fear of it...and now that I have I feel like I can do anything. Who knows...maybe next time I'll do a 500 foot jump? :) There will definitely be a next time because I loved it!!! So awesome that my trip could have ended at that very moment and I would have been content.

Check out my video! It's really blurry on here and not the best quality, but it you can get the picture. (Especially notice how loud I am screaming! haha)

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