The Mecca of Extreme Sports: Interlaken, Switzerland

My friends and I made a trip out to the well known tourist destination Interlaken, Switzerland. Interlaken is located in the Canton of Bern. Interlaken is located between Lake Brienz and Lake Thun and is located at 1,870 ft. above sea level. This is a town based around tourism and considered the capital of extreme sports for adrenaline freaks such as myself.

I did all of my snowboarding in the Bernese Alps mountain range, which is located in the western part of the Swiss Alps.  This specific area is known as the Jungfrau region.  The main peaks in the Jungfrau region that I snowboarded on were Jungfrau, Monch and Eiger. These peaks are all around 13,500 ft above sea level.

For the two days that I snowboarded (Friday and Saturday), there were three different mountains that I snowboarded on. Here is the map to give you a better idea of the trails and mountain range:

           If you look at the middle of the map all the way at the bottom, you will see Interlaken. From there, we had to take a bus to the train station.  This train eventually took us up through the mountains and dropped us off at Wengen and Grindelwald.  From there we were able to take a chair lift or gondola of some sort up to the top of the mountain. The one thing that I have learned during my study abroad experience is that the Germans are amazing when it comes to engineering. Without them, I can’t image a lot of the engineering feats that have been possible without their expertise in this field of study. Here are a few pictures of the ride up the Alps on the train and rail system the Germans built:

           Overall, it took around 30-45 minutes to arrive at the top of the mountain. From there, you could take many different types of trails to get to the other mountains. Some of the trails that we rode took over an hour long! It was the most amazing and scenic snowboarding I have ever experienced and even rode through towns while snowboarding over streets to eventually arrive at a gondola station to bring us up to another mountain. At one point, there was a guard dog protecting a trail near a few houses.  I thought it was just a dog wanting to play. I did not know why this family had stopped in the middle of the trail looking at this animal but being a snowboarder, I wanted to keep up my speed on the trail and carelessly cruised right pass them ignoring this wolf/dog. This animal soon caught my attention and was chasing after me! I was very surprised he was keeping up with me since I was going pretty fast.  After a few seconds of chasing me, he then started growling with this very ferocious look.  His teeth were out like he was about to eat my leg for lunch. I finally realized that this wolf was not a friendly dog and I had to whip my board around to scare him away and make the wolf think I was going to hit him/her.  After I did this, he realized how tall and aggressive I was and understood that I was probably not the best person to try to eat.  He then went back to the trail where the family was cautiously going down the trail with their children. The kids were very small and the wolf went back to try and bite the kid’s leg and the father eventually scared away the wolf with his ski poles. No one was hurt during this encounter but it was definitely an experience I will never forget.

         Feeling pretty gutsy after this encounter, I then thought it was a good idea to snowboard in the out of bounds areas. If you look back at the map, I was snowboarding under the middle peak called Eiger. More specifically in the area where the word in blue "Kline Scheidegg" is and the white area without trails to the left of the word "KL. Scheidegg" on the map. Everything underneath the rocks where there are no trails and all white area is where I was snowboarding the majority of the time.  There was endless fresh powder and even though it was the hardest out of bounds area I had ever ridden, it was well worth the possibility of getting injured. I fell a few times in the out of bounds area and must have slid 50-100 yards on one fall because this area of the Alps was very steep.  After two full days of snowboarding in the Alps, I came out healthy, uninjured....but very sore.  My body took a toll from the out of bounds snowboarding but it was the best snowboarding I have experienced! Here are a few pictures from this out of bounds area where me and my roommate Reza were the only two people in this area: 

             Feeling the need to push the extreme sports limit again, I decided to canyon jump on Sunday before I left back to Rome. This is similar to bungee jumping but you are safely connected at the chest and it is more of a big swing. I was the first out of the group to jump since I was the biggest and need to prepare for the taller people first. The feeling I had when I was falling through this canyon was similar to the feeling one gets in an airplane if the plane drops very quickly and suddenly. So imagine that elevator drop type feeling, and multiply that by 100! I was definitely scared while falling but it was such a cool feeling. It was a very safe thing to do and would canyon jump again if I ever came across the opportunity! If you have facebook, here is a video of my canyon jumping: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150716670345961&set=t.1056570085&type=3 

I will upload videos of some of the trails I rode on later down the road when I have more time. If you guys think I should check out other resorts that can give the Swiss Alps some competition, definitely let me know in the comment section. Thanks!

Here are a few more scenic pictures captured on my GoPro camera:

          

Ireland

Theme song(s) for this trip: Mumford & Sons- Little Lion Man, Steve Earle- Galway Girl 

Just got back from Ireland yesterday, and I am already missing it! Wow what a great weekend I had in Ireland. I went into this trip not knowing much about Ireland but mainly went because I have many friends with an Irish background and wanted to see what Ireland has to offer. I went on this trip through the study abroad travel service that many study abroad students use called "Bus2Alps." I am very glad I did this Ireland Coast 2 Coast trip because they don't offer this trip a lot.  I ended up going on this trip by myself and was one of only two guys on this trip (lucky me!). I met a lot of really cool girls from the South, Midwest and East Coast.  The places that our group visited were Dublin, Cliffs of Moher in the county of Clare, and Galway.

Dublin: 

I arrived Thursday night and knowing me, I already made friends with the other American looking study abroad students on my flight from Rome to Ireland.  We stick out like sore thumbs because we are usually giants compared to the small Italians with black hair. Anyway, we eventually arrived at the hostel around 10 30pm and decided to go out with our trip leader/guide, Lauren.  We went to this bar (of course) in the Temple Bar area.  We were able to relax and got to know one another over a few beers.  I forget the name of this pub but I really enjoyed it because of the live music. The musician who was playing the guitar was excellent, and it helped that he played some classic rock songs as well.

Friday:

Friday, our group took a Dublin history and city tour.  We saw the government/parliament buildings and saw the City hall of Dublin. I learned a lot about the history of Ireland and how they were able to become free from the British Crown. This is also why there is a difference between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland today.  We also walked through the courtyards of the prestigious Trinity University in Dublin. This was a very beautiful campus and I would not mind going to school there!

After getting a crash course on the history of Ireland and Dublin in about 3 hours, our group went back to the hostel where we would get ready to go see the Guinness factory. But first, here are a few pictures of Dublin:

Dublin City Hall

Pour your own Guinness at the table

Trinity University

Guinness Factory:

       Before coming to Ireland, I hated Guinness beer. For some reason or another I just did not appreciate the taste of Guinness. My favorite Irish beer was Harp before coming to Ireland. Now Guinness is giving Harp its run for the money as my #1 favorite Irish beer.  The Guinness Factory was huge and you could smell the Guinness being made as you walked into the factory.  Guinness has a very distinct taste and smell due to the burnt flavor from the roasted unmalted barely. Just talking about Guinness makes me want to go back to the factory were it was flowing fresh off the tap! The end of the Guinness tour ended at the top of the factory which had a 360 degree glass window view of Dublin where the bartenders were serving endless Guinness. I don't know what Heaven is but this was pretty close to it. Here are pictures and a video of the Guinness Factory: 

Getting ready for Mustache March

360* view at the top of the Guinness Factory overlooking Dublin

Cliffs of Moher:

This was probably the highlight of the trip for me.  The Cliffs of Moher are one of the most visited places in Ireland by tourists. These cliffs rise 700 feet high and are located in the County Clare.  The drive on the bus from Dublin to the Cliffs took about 2-3 hours but sleeping and waking up to beautiful green scenery helped pass time! I could not believe how green Ireland was. I will never forget passing through these towns with small but old brick looking houses.  They were very unique looking and complemented the scenery and confirmed what I imagined about Ireland. 

After the long but scenic bus ride, we finally arrived at the cliffs. The Cliffs of Moher are the most exposed part of Ireland so it is very common to have high winds.  The winds were so strong on this day that I almost lost my hat and camera trying to take pictures multiple times.  It was actually pretty funny to see people struggle walking against the wind. It was so strong that it would push people around and almost knock them over. Back to the Cliffs...

These Cliffs were extraordinary.  There is no way I can explain how beautiful these cliffs were.  It almost seemed fake the way the cliffs lined up; Unreal! We lucked out on the weather too as it was supposed to rain all weekend and only rained the night before. Since there was so much wind, the mist from the waves crashing into the Cliffs would rise up. It was a crazy sight to see water flowing up towards the sky instead of coming down as it normally does.  I traveled off the beaten path and even walked along the cliffs where there was no guard rail. Before walking on these paths, there was a plaque to remember all of those who have lost their lives falling off the Cliffs...  I eventually mustard up enough courage to walk along the cliffs with no guard rail and got very close to the edge to get a few pictures looking down on the ocean.  After I got a few pictures and actually sat down to take in the scenery, it was time for me to go back towards the gift shop and get lunch. I could go on and on about the Cliffs, but here are a few pictures and a video where you can hear the wind howling to help put my thoughts into perspective:

My Video at the Cliffs of Moher

 Trip to Galway: 

After we saw the Cliffs of Moher, we then made our way towards the city of Galway.  We did not get to see much because we had to make it back to Dublin, but Galway was great. During my trip to Ireland, everyone was extremely nice.  They did not care where you came from and always had some sort of joke to say.  Sometimes you could not understand the thick Irish accents but that was always part of the fun.  I thought the Irish accent was awesome and I had a lot of fun talking with the Irish locals over a pint of Guinness.

 Friday Night Bar Hop: 

          I know this is out of order but oh well. On Friday night, our whole group did a bar crawl in the Temple Bar area of Dublin. This is where everyone goes out to drink and socialize at night.  I have to say that the live music that was being played in the pubs was excellent. I was highly impressed with the musicians and their music.  Even if they were playing cover songs, they put their own twist to the songs and made it their own. I will forever have the song Galway girl stuck in my head when I think of Ireland. I had never heard it before I went to Ireland but it was always being played by the musicians at some point in the night. 

          I met the most beautiful Norwegian girl named Johannah (spelling?). She was a tall, blonde hair, blue eye girl. That was the American version of her name as I could not pronounce her name in Norwegian.  It was fun hanging out with Johannah and her two friends and the night eventually ended and I gave Johannah a goodnight kiss. I also met another very nice and pretty girl named Sonia who studies in England. We met on the Pub Crawl and ended up dancing the night away. This trip has made me realize that I have been missing out on life and that American girls can be overrated! Sorry American girls haha.

Videos of some of the songs that were being played in the Pubs:

 Mumford & Sons- Little Lion Man cover by Irish Musicians

Irish pub music

Galway Girl song cover

Last Thoughts:

I would love to go back to Ireland someday.  The countryside was so scenic and everyone was a pleasure to talk to.  This was definitely a spontaneous trip for me to take but I am glad I made it. I am also happy I went on this trip by myself because I met a lot of people from different backgrounds, universities, and countries. Good thing I went to Ireland not on St. Patrick's day either because I feel like I got to see more of the true Ireland and their culture rather than just getting drunk. Guinness beer is like religion in Ireland and they take it seriously.  Maybe I will play Gaelic Football for the Celts in San Francisco and take my buddy up on joining the team so I can go back to Ireland again! Cheers