Interlaken and Munich

The train ride into Interlaken alone had me convinced it was going to be one of the best stops on this Eurotrip. Even as we rolled past the beautiful lakes surrounding the town, I couldn't stop watching the tops of the mountains because the sky was covered with paragliders, skydivers, hang gliders, etc. Within 45 minutes of arriving at Balmer's Hostel and getting together with our backpacking friends, we were in a van headed to go hang gliding and join in on the fun. As we waited for our turn, we got to hang out in the landing field and watch all of the hang gliders and paragliders come in. Hang gliding was incredible, and (if you're a little scared of heights) a great alternative to skydiving. The only remotely scary part is that you begin by running as fast as you can down a mountainside until you reach a drop off and the wings catch air. After that it is very relaxing and scenic.

The next morning we woke up bright and early to go canyoning. The water was freezing, so we suited up in full body wetsuits, harnesses, lifejackets, and helmets and spent the next three hours hiking, repelling, bodysurfing, and jumping off of cliffs and waterfalls in the canyon. It was absolutely insane. After getting our fair share of adrenalin we grabbed some döner kebabs, one of my new favorite foods.

Since we made good friends with the hang gliding guys, we all went back out to the landing field and spent the afternoon frolicking around and watching everyone come down from the mountains. Our last evening there, we made friends with other backpackers and hung out in the beer garden for happy hour. Since everything is extremely expensive in Interlaken, we saved money by making spaghetti in our hostel's kitchen before ending our night in their underground club.

The next morning we made our way to Munich, arriving just in time to check in to Wombats and hop on Mike's Bike Tour. The tour covered everything from the Marienplatz city center to the English Garden, where we stopped at the Chinese Tower beer garden, and I tried my first Radler (a mixture of beer and lemonade) and was hooked. One of our guides was a Longhorn, and he accompanied us to the Hofbräuhaus after the tour.

We spent several hours exchanging stories from our past few weeks in Europe and his time living in Munich and then all went back to the bike garage to hang out with some of the other tour guides. After having so much fun on bikes our first day, we rented them for day two and spent the whole afternoon exploring the city. We returned to the English Garden for my favorite part of Munich...the surfers.

The manmade river that flows through the entire park has a spot where they created a huge wave that stays in place and allows surfers to take turns practicing their skills in the middle of the city. We spent at least an hour relaxing by the river and watching the surfers before continuing our cruise through the rest of the park. Since some other backpacking friends were in town with us, we all got together for dinner and drinks at the Hofbräuhaus, before ending up at the hostel bar next to ours and watching the Vancouver vs. Boston hockey game and cheering on America in a room full of Canadians.