Friday, July 03, 2009

I jumped out of a helicopter...

...and had I been able to make any noise I probably would have
screamed like a girl. So I was going to write this yesterday and post
the YouTube video of my jump, but it still isn't up there yet. I will
post the link whenever it's available, the video is awesome, and I've
also got like 20 still pictures.

I left Munich around noon on Tuesday and train hopped all day, and
then of course as soon as I arrived here it started thunderstorming. I
was prepared for this, and I have come up with several fun games over
the last few weeks that involve swearing into the sky as loud as
possible. So I hung out and played pool with an Aussie from my room,
and then for dinner I remembered a small tidbit from the last time I
was in Interlaken. They have a Hooters here. So the Aussie was
immediately down, and just when I thought my chicken wing and baseball
withdrawls were at their worst, I was delivered into the promised land
(I actually had to watch cricket, but since I don't understand it I
like to pretend like it's baseball). So one absurdly expensive Hooters
meal later, I was satisfied and returned to the Funny Farm (my hostel)
to get drunk enough to not stay up all night thinking about
Wednesday's activity. I awoke around 7am, went for a jog, ate some
breakfast, threw up said breakfast, and then played on my iPod for a
couple hours. I had my first glass of liquid courage around 10am and
then I started talking to a chick doing the same thing. Obviously my
skydive partner. You'll see her on the video, she's from Florida. So a
couple hours of AM beers and then at noon they picked us up. 1 hour
and 14000 feet later, I'm attached to the hip of an Aussie named
andrew and the helicopter pilot is screwing with us doing a kinds of
dips and bank turns. I watch Alex and John bail out and then about 20
seconds later me and Andrew do a sick front flip into free fall. The
video will tell the story, and I can't really write down the rush that
comes. The rest of the day is fairly insignificant, it involved a
pool, a massive bike ramp and some awesome Thai food. They brought our
videos over last night and played them on the big screen here which
was very cool. I got up early this morning to write this, and then I
am going to hike to this restaurant on top of the mountain. I'm headed
to Lyon this afternoon for a couple nights with Jordan (if I can find
him) and then to Nice for another vacation before I come home. I'll
try to write an independence day blog tomorrow.