I guess this means I’m not afraid of heights?

PARAGLIDING IS SO FREAKING AWESOME!

I’m not an all-caps person, so you know this had an impact on me.

We got to Austria about the same time as the fog and drizzle. I got in a van and they shuttled us up the mountain anyway to see if we would be able to fly. That’s when the rain really rolled in. We sat hopefully outside of a ski-lodge cabin and watched the clouds dump water down the hillside, broken only by the occasional burst of lightening.

I was convinced that we weren’t going to go but sure enough the storm cleared. Summer jumped at the chance when the pilots asked who wanted to go and we hopped in the sky tram first.

After more waiting, some apple streusel in the mountain-top cafe and seriously wondering whether my pilot was joking when he said he had started working there two days ago, conditions were good enough and we lined up at the edge of the mountain.

If you have known me for a good chunk of my life, you are probably surprised to hear that I attached myself to a random Austrian guy and ran off a mountain to fly in the sky.

Yes this is the same Ashley Williams who was terrified of ferris wheels.

But it was so much fun and I wasn’t afraid at all.

 

The Austrian countryside is an absolutely beautiful patchwork of green dotted with trees. Flying over is by far the best way to see it.