Another week in Florence has flown by. That means time for a trip! Next on the list Switzerland.
Let me just start off by saying Switzerland was amazing! My friends and I all had so much fun, and I would highly recommend this trip to anyone thinking about going. We traveled to Interlaken, a cute little town located between two huge lakes. The lakes there were a beautiful crystal teal blue, which looked so nice next to the snow capped mountains. Although the town was small, there was no shortage of things to do. You could go skiing or snowboarding, make chocolate, paragliding, sky diving, hiking, ice skating and more.
We decided to book our trip through one of the local traveling companies, Euroadventures. It is one of the more popular traveling agencies most study abroad students use. Their trips are affordable and cover transportation, lodging and sometimes breakfast. Only down side the transportation is usually done by bus. So traveling from Florence to Interlaken was not so fun.The bus ride ended up being 9 1/2 hours with two stops for bathrooms and food, but we finally got to our hotel around 3 am.
Even though we were running on barely any sleep, we went on a walk to see Lake Thunersee, one of the two lakes surrounding the town, on Friday morning. After we decided to go on a nine mile hike up one of the nearby mountains, and the view kept getting better at each lookout point. After a long day of adventuring we learned how to make chococlate at the Funky Chocolate House. Why wouldn’t anyone want to learn how to make chocolate in Switzerland of all places! I am pretty sure I ate my weight in chocolate that night, and I have no regrets.
Saturday was a little more slow, but no less exciting. We explored the shops of the town and went iceskating. The ice skating rink was different than a normal one, because it was smaller rinks connected by multiple paths. Originally the plan for the day involved paragliding, but due to poor weather conditions it was cancelled. We did get lucky on Sunday, because they rescheduled us for a morning jump.
Sunday morning, we piled into a van that took us 20 minutes up a mountain and then walked another 5 minutes to get to the jump site. From there we ran one by one off the mountain into the air. It was the strangest feeling, because they tell you keep running even when you are no longer touching the ground. Before you know it you are soaring high above everything. It was one of, if not, the best experiences of my life. You glide through the air for about 15 minutes, which is plenty of time. The professional paraglider with me did tricks and took pictures and videos to capture the whole thing. It was the perfect way to end our trip to Switzerland.
I decided to take this upcoming week to explore Florence some more with my extra free time. I can’t wait to share what I find!
My name is Taylor Mormile, and I am a sophomore at SUNY New Paltz. I am a Marketing major with a minor in communication. I am from Rockland county. I play tennis for SUNY New Paltz. One of the things I wanted to do in college was study abroad. I am excited to get the opportunity to study abroad in Florence, Italy for the next four months.
Ciao Svizzera!
Another week in Florence has flown by. That means time for a trip! Next on the list Switzerland.
Let me just start off by saying Switzerland was amazing! My friends and I all had so much fun, and I would highly recommend this trip to anyone thinking about going. We traveled to Interlaken, a cute little town located between two huge lakes. The lakes there were a beautiful crystal teal blue, which looked so nice next to the snow capped mountains. Although the town was small, there was no shortage of things to do. You could go skiing or snowboarding, make chocolate, paragliding, sky diving, hiking, ice skating and more.
We decided to book our trip through one of the local traveling companies, Euroadventures. It is one of the more popular traveling agencies most study abroad students use. Their trips are affordable and cover transportation, lodging and sometimes breakfast. Only down side the transportation is usually done by bus. So traveling from Florence to Interlaken was not so fun.The bus ride ended up being 9 1/2 hours with two stops for bathrooms and food, but we finally got to our hotel around 3 am.
Even though we were running on barely any sleep, we went on a walk to see Lake Thunersee, one of the two lakes surrounding the town, on Friday morning. After we decided to go on a nine mile hike up one of the nearby mountains, and the view kept getting better at each lookout point. After a long day of adventuring we learned how to make chococlate at the Funky Chocolate House. Why wouldn’t anyone want to learn how to make chocolate in Switzerland of all places! I am pretty sure I ate my weight in chocolate that night, and I have no regrets.
Saturday was a little more slow, but no less exciting. We explored the shops of the town and went iceskating. The ice skating rink was different than a normal one, because it was smaller rinks connected by multiple paths. Originally the plan for the day involved paragliding, but due to poor weather conditions it was cancelled. We did get lucky on Sunday, because they rescheduled us for a morning jump.
Sunday morning, we piled into a van that took us 20 minutes up a mountain and then walked another 5 minutes to get to the jump site. From there we ran one by one off the mountain into the air. It was the strangest feeling, because they tell you keep running even when you are no longer touching the ground. Before you know it you are soaring high above everything. It was one of, if not, the best experiences of my life. You glide through the air for about 15 minutes, which is plenty of time. The professional paraglider with me did tricks and took pictures and videos to capture the whole thing. It was the perfect way to end our trip to Switzerland.
I decided to take this upcoming week to explore Florence some more with my extra free time. I can’t wait to share what I find!
Taylor Mormile
My name is Taylor Mormile, and I am a sophomore at SUNY New Paltz. I am a Marketing major with a minor in communication. I am from Rockland county. I play tennis for SUNY New Paltz. One of the things I wanted to do in college was study abroad. I am excited to get the opportunity to study abroad in Florence, Italy for the next four months.
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