The Spiral of Nearly Stinky Panties

Oh my g-d. Interlaken, Switzerland has got to be one of my favorite places of all time. We were warned before our trip that it is a backpacker's hell but we found it to be anything just, that could be because we prepared ourselves for hefty bills at the outright or that it felt like a little bit of Australia in Switzerland (seriously, everyone who lives there is either Australian or Indian). After the six hour train ride from Luxembourg, we found our hostel to be cozy with its red and white checkered sheets and our room was conveniently located by the sinks.
After our free breakfast (something that Sally requires of a hostel) we were picked up by Bernie, an Aussie for our hang-gliding adventure. We met Bernie's wife Minda and our other hang-gliding pro at the landing site. This place was breath-takingly beautiful. The snow capped mountains and peaks surround you and off to the left, down a path that smells suspiciously like the county fair due to horse poop, is an incredibly blue lake that you just want to take 1,000 pictures of. We lucked out with weather too, it was sunny and clear and a jacket was barely necessary. Bernie split the group into three so we each had a partner and then took us up the mountain in rounds for our hang-gliding experiences.
I got to go with Dedu, Bernie's partner, who was also supposedly Evil Knivel's nephew. At the top of the mountain, Minda hooked us up into our harnesses and we were ready for flight. The take-off was spectacular, you ran off the side of a mountain until the wind picked you up. Dedu reminded me to not stop running though so for the first few moments of flight I felt like Wile E. Coyote after he ran off a cliff but his legs kept propelling him over empty air. The views we had of the lake and the Swiss Alps from the air were so awesome that I can't come up with a better vocabulary word for it. After cruising through the empty air over the lake and mountain we headed towards the landing field where Dedu decided I was gutsy enough to do the tricks like the one mentioned in my posting title. It was awesome, there was no point when I didn't feel completely safe in the air and the adrenaline rush was spectacular, it felt like a roller coaster and then you realize you're in the empty air not attached to tracks and it feels so much cooler! After landing I played around by the lake while I waited for the rst of the group to go. We all survived! Afterwards we got a late lunch at a pizza parlor where we ordered the hang-glider's pizza. We explored Interlaken following lunch and sat in the town square watching para-gliders land while simultaneously thinking how pathetic they looked in comparison to us... ;) We went out to a Mexican-Indian restaurant for drinks that night with some fellow MUDECers and took the early train home yesterday.
The pictures from my weekend can be viewed here!