Today was an early, but very early day. The earliest I have had in a really long time. Apart from having to get up so early to travel it has been years since I got up at six to get my day going. In a certain way it was really nice. In another way, it was like trying to drag 2 ton rocks with my pinky toe across sand. My brain was working in slow motion, and I had to get dressed in warm clothes, eat breakfast, and take care of my morning breath all before I could even really open my eyes properly. Then, the part that probably makes at least a couple of you cringe is that I had to get onto the bike I used yesterday and trek the same hideous hills into town. Lucky I have such a good motivator in my life. Helena is a tennis coach and is used to bullying little kids into running long distances through the Swiss forests. Well, I was probably worse than any one of those little kids, but her very kind bullying did in fact get us to the train station on time to buy my eight day pass (which paid for itself in just today’s travels), and then get us on to the train itself.
We had to make a train change, and then another to get up the mountain. We were on our way to Toblerone Mountain, more commonly known as Matterhorn. If any of you have heard of the chocolate that is called Toblerone, they are formed in pyramid shapes, made with the shape of this mountain in mind.
It was cloudy up there, so the view was a bit limited, but we wandered around with the hundreds of other tourists taking pictures anyway. A few turned out decent, so when I can put the pictures on my computer I will attach them to this blog. There was a really chilly wind and so not to much time passed before we decided to go in and soak up the warm in a cafeteria they have on top of the mountain, along with some other shops where you can buy various Swiss trinkets, as well as the watches and knives that are so famous.
We went into the cafeteria and a sweet old lady and her maybe-daughter had just finished eating, so they gave us their table. Random acts of kindness are so wonderful. We sat down and opened up our “snack pack.” Helena had put various bread things into a Tupperware, including some slices of my beloved rock bread. We munched on that and waited around a couple hours hoping the clouds would go away so we could see Matterhorn.
With time and luck it started to come out. We went immediately outside, making sure a sweet old couple got our table first, and waited around. For ten whole seconds we got a clear view of the mountain, which I managed not to catch on camera. Oh well, life is better seen through our own eyes.
We caught the next train down the mountain and spent a bit of time in the town, had a coffee and headed back. While were still in that town though, we picked up a few ingredients from the supermarket. Making dinner when we got home was our plan.
Argentine food was the cuisine. Attempting to mimic the delicious things we ate while on our exchange, Sopa Paraguaya was on the menu as well as Chipa, Empanadas Criollas (spiced ground beef) and Empanadas of Ham and Cheese. For dessert we would be whipping together the very simple Chocotorta. This is a cake make of milk dipped chocolate cookie layers with a cream and dulce de leche filling separating them. Everything turned out edible and more! It was such a delicious meal, and fairly simple to make as well. I am very proud of our success.
The heavy and delightful Argentine meal was greatly enjoyed by all, and the following day was going to be Helena’s tennis tournament. I don’t know anything about tennis at all, so I watched very passively and periodically would start reading my book…do not get angry tennis fans. I am not opposed to learning about it when I get home, if you are so inclined to teach me.
After one of Helena’s games, her friend Salome came to get me at the match and show me around Bern. It was a perfect day. Maybe it was even too hot. I did get a sunburn, and now, my face looks a bit like my electric stove’s burner right before it gets to cooking temperature.
Salome took me to the Bear Garden, where there are bears kept on a large hillside for passerbys to stare at. There was a huge confusion as my understanding of Swiss German is non-existent and her English, although really good, sometimes is a tad hard to understand because of her strong accent. It took us near ten minutes to figure out the animal she was talking about. First, I thought she was saying beer garden. She said many people liked to go there because there were many beers. I assumed it was a park people got together in to drink. Then she was talking about how the beers can bathe there, and I realized, beers do not bathe. So, I was on to thinking she was talking about birds, and birdbaths. Like, a birdwatcher park. When I asked her if Swiss people really like to bird watch she said she guessed so. I wanted to know if they tended to use binoculars or just go to this park, and she said that the birds were so close no one needed them. That didn’t really sound like a bird watching park and I had the suspicion she did not want to say bird. I acted out what a bird was. That helped, because in that moment, we were finally able to figure out that what she wanted to say, was in fact, BEAR. Ah…the miscommunication learning languages can bring.
We also went to the famous Rose Garden of Bern, which was a treat. If I were here for more time, I would absolutely go there to hang out on a blanket all day and picnic with friends. There were hundreds of types of roses, and the whole park smelled of them.
We also went to the very top of Münster. That is the cathedral of Bern, and the highest tower goes 100m in the air, from what I heard. She and I were doing quite a bit of huffing and puffing to get to the top of those baggillion stairs. Once there, we got to see an incredible view of the entire city. The breathtaking Aare River was a turquoise color. Mississippi River, step your game up.
A coffee later, I headed home with her first on a train, then a bus. My plan was to rest and then try to convince Helena to go out for drinks with me. Solome and I had wandered through a craft fair, and I saw a bag that will never leave my mind. I stopped and asked the price just out of curiosity, knowing that it would be too expensive. It was a handcrafted leather side bag with a very large piece of pure turquoise for decoration attached to the front. It is the most beautiful bag I have ever seen in my life. The guy working there spoke Swiss German, however, he looked like he might have Central or South American. Out of curiosity I asked where he was from, and he told me Ecuador. I was intrigued because my brother will go to study there next year. I was planning on forcing him into an apprenticeship with the man I came to find out was named Favio. He was nice, and his friend in the booth next to him wandered over and it came out he was from Costa Rica.
They invited my friends and me out to a drink and some international/latin music clubs. We planned on going out that night after they had packed up their booths. In the end, Helena had to stay in to study, but I went. I biked and bus rode on my own to the center to meet up with them. I mention this only because this time I navigated without a single glitch. Go me.
They took me to this club that is fairly famous here because the police aren’t allowed to go in. I don’t understand clubs and bars and social clubs that can break laws here in Switzerland because they are independent of the government somehow. You can smoke weed in one part of this bar, there are great concerts there, and there are ALL types of people there. Usually, the drug dealers and doers are out in front. Don’t be worried though because once you are past them, everyone else looks significantly less threatening. This place used to be a stable for horses, but now is covered in graffiti ranging from beautiful artwork to “FUCK POLICE!”
Speaking of drugs, I found out last night that the drug addicts of the city have special houses where they can go and get their fix. The government pays for this. Sometimes it happens in hospitals even. The guy that informed me of this, a Swiss man who was also out with us, said the government’s idea is that it is better to have them off the streets and using sanitary needles so AIDS does not spread.
This morning we got up early again, and Helena, her boyfriend Andreas and I went to a place called Stockhorn. Andu drove us and then we took a cable car up to the top of this mountain and had the best buffet breakfast of my life looking out the windows that gave us a panoramic view of the Alps in that area. After eating far too much, we hiked about an hour and a half to get down the mountain again. I was exhausted, so this late afternoon, I have just been lazing around the house.
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