Girls Day in the City

Switzerland through the train window

Due to my skiing abilities--or lack thereof--I decided to spend day number two of our ski trip in a nearby city that just happened to be the capital of Switzerland and the home of a good friend of mine. I caught the train right after breakfast and although I had a book and my journal for the hour long ride, I just couldn't take my eyes off the breathtaking Swiss countryside as it rolled past my window. At first, everything, including a completely frozen waterfall, was completely white and looked like something off of a postcard. As the train drew closer to Bern, the snow began to disappear but the picturesque landscape of rolling green hills, pastures of cows, and typical Swiss homes all set on a backdrop of the Alps still struck me as picture perfect.

The train rolled into Bern around 10:30 and there was no doubt in my mind that I was once again in a big city. The hustle and bustle of busy people, honking and engines of  overcrowded streets, and smells of everything from freshly baked bread to Chinese cuisine welcomed me instantly to an atmosphere I've always enjoyed and I began making my way to the center of the train station where I knew someone was waiting for me.

Rebekka! Last year, she was in my neck of the woods as an exchange student and our conversations were solely in English. This time around, it was my turn to be the foreigner and although the prospect of speaking English was quite temping, when posed with the question, I decided to see how far my German would get me.

After a relaxing walk back to Rebekka's house, we continued catching up and reminiscing until family began to arrive for lunch. Three consecutive days of birthdays in the Ryf family presented the perfect opportunity for a gathering of the entire family and I thoroughly enjoyed celebrating it with them. Her family was very nice and friendly and even did their best to keep the conversation in German that I could understand by avoiding their Swiss dialect. :-) It was a very yummy lunch and a very fun beginning to the afternoon!








After coffee, we set out to see the city. Although Bern is undoubtedly gorgeous and exciting on any given day, I just happened to come right in the middle of the city's Fasnachs celebration and the city was in an uproar! ..in a good way. As we navigated our way through the mobs, we finally reached a spot where the parade was visible and saw that float/group number 49 was going by. Okay, so if I'm comparing it to Coquille's annual 10 minute long Gay 90's parade...of course I'm going to be impressed, but I do have to say that the parade was totally awesome!

Once the parade itself was over, the many groups spread out throughout the city and began playing music. It was the coolest thing! Rebekka and I went into a restaurant to have a cup of coffee and came out to find one of the "bands" playing right there! It seemed like in every direction we turned, the streets were filled with people in costume and music filled the air! At the end of the day, we trekked back to the train station and took the escalator down only to find one of the groups there, in the main part of this busy train station, performing!

As you can imagine, the day flew by and before i knew it, I was back on that train riding across Switzerland. I don't think I could have picked a better day to see Bern and the fact that I was able to spend the day with a friend I hadn't seen in eight months only made things better. :-)