Ciao! I am so excited about writing this post because I literally just experienced the best weekend of my LIFE! Switzerland is the most beautiful country I have ever seen. Everything about it is clean, peaceful, and absolutely breath taking! The 8 of us who went were super spoiled and I am so thankful!!
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| First view of the Swiss Alps from the plane! |
Mary Cate's parents friends from college happen to live in Switzerland and when we first arrived in Italy she mentioned if we wanted to travel there we could stay with them, even though she had never even met them. We were all for it of course, what college kid would pass up free housing? Little did we know how great of a situation we were getting ourselves into...
Jimmy and Cheryl Jackson went to law school at University of Florida [with Mary Cate's dad], graduated, and got married 2 weeks later. They ended up moving to Switzerland and have been there for 20 years now! We made arrangements to spend Friday afternoon in Geneva, to see central Switzerland, and then take the 2 o'clock train to meet up with Jimmy...
Well somehow I was talked into it!!! because next thing I knew Jimmy was on the phone making 3 reservations for us the next day! AH! Switzerland must have brought out the adventurous side of Brittany... and that is very difficult to do!
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| Me and Laura on the porch! Killing time before our appointment... |
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| On the gondola! Semi freaking out... |
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| 5 skiers & 3 paragliders |
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| Rae Rae |
Around lunch time, we met the rest of the group at the location where we would be flying off of so they could watch and take pictures! I was extremely nervous and starting asking the guy who would be with me, Stu, a million questions!! Stu and Mike are British twins who own the paragliding company... and have been doing it for 15 years! They even do cross country paragliding where they travel by it... after hearing quite the resume, I felt better. Stu was so much fun!! You would have thought he had never paraglided before because he got so excited about it... even though he does it multiple times a day! haha
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| Getting the parachutes ready! |
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| Stu! My instructor! |
We had literally been standing there 5 minutes, when Stu was like, "you ready!?" I was caught off guard... I didn't have to sign any papers? Go over any instructions? Nope, nothing. He strapped me in and said we were just gonna go in order.. starting with Megan, then Laura, then me... I kept replaying the answers to my questions in my head hoping that I wouldn't screw anything up!
I watched the other 2 girls go off (1 more gracefully than the other) then Stu shouted "Let's go!" and I knew there was no backing out... So I grabbed the red handles and started running as fast as I could [he is strapped in behind me, on skis]. He told me to basically run as hard as I could until I essentially pulled him off the ground and the parachute took off... so I did... and I must say I did a lot better than I was expecting to do! It all happened so quickly but it was such a rush! Being in the air didn't even seem real at first... all I could say was "WOW! This is awesome!!" and Stu would shout back, "Pretty fantastic, Eh?!" It was great. We flew around for about 20 minutes while I got the best view of God's creation. I could not stop taking pictures [yes, I took my camera up there, and held it for dear life] and smiling! Paragliding over the alps was hands down the coolest thing I have ever done in my life. It even booted taking an African Safari to #2... which I thought would hold the #1 position for life! If you ever get the chance to paraglide, DO IT! If this scardey cat can do it, anyone can.
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| Right after we got in the air!!! So cool!! |
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| The most incredible view from above! |
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| Hey there, Megan! |
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| Is this real life?! |
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| Laura and Megan! |
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| We made it back safely! Stu is the best. |
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| Success! |
After our adventure, we headed back to the cabin to relax and pack up to move to the Jackson's actual house for the 2nd night. Their home is about an hour from Verbier and is located on a beautiful hillside with a view of mountains, a lake, vineyards, and surrounded by farms. Perfect location? Yes.
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| Can you believe this view?? |
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| Enjoying wine and snacks and God's creation on the back deck. |
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| They made us fondue for dinner with yummy Swiss cheese and bread! |
Sunday morning we got up and went for a walk over looking the water... it was 75 degrees and beautiful outside! The scenery almost looked fake.
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| Sunday Morning pic! |
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| Jamie- Susanna- Me |
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The whole group!
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After our long walk, we drove into Lausanne for lunch at a great restaurant by the water. We couldn't have asked for better weather... there were tons of people walking around and it was great to enjoy the sunshine.
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| Cheryl and Jimmy aka world's BEST hosts! We are forever grateful! |
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| Cheers to a fabulous weekend :) |
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| my "salad" pizza... delicious! |
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| Paddle boats! |
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| :) |
I could go on for days about how much I enjoyed this weekend. I give the Jackson's, and therefore Mary Cate, all of the credit though. We would not have been able to do a tenth of what we did without them. They were so generous to welcome EIGHT college girls [they didn't know] into their home(S), feed us, and show us a weekend we will never forget. Being with them really made me miss home... there is something so special about a home cooked meal and a fresh bed after you have been staying in
nasty hostels for 2 months.
Thanks again to the Jackson's we made it to our flight just in time and got back to the palace at 10 PM... only to unpack and repack for our departure for Bologna the this morning at 6 AM. Let's just say I did not sleep at all last night...
We made it to Bologna by lunch time and got to have a leisurely day. We walked around, ate dinner, and are now settled in our rooms... ready to get up at 7 AM to head to Milan!! We will be there until Thursday and I am very excited to experience all the hype that Milan has. I hope my style
or lack thereof doesn't get judged too much :)
Goodnight everyone!!
xoxo
Britt
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