Bern Expo

This morning we set out for the famous Swiss Alps. Think Sound of Music. Yes, I know that was set in Austria, but think of the setting nonetheless. We took a morning train from Zurich to Interlaken, where we would spend the night. The approach into the Alps was breathtaking. Technically it's breathtaking in more ways than one, because at the higher altitudes it does become a little more difficult to breath, but not as noticable as I've ...

... br>One day, I went to Worb, where there is a beer factory that every saturday has a beer festival. The workers there call it Oktoberfest without the benches!! It was great being around local people, and I think I'm the only american ever to go to worb, germany!! it's timy, and the beer kegs there were still delivered by horse and buggy!! so cool!

... unsuccessful until a guy came in with an Apple shirt on. Turns out he worked for Apple so he tried to help. He, too, was unsuccessful. You know the story has an eventual happy ending because I am posting this blog entry by way of wifi, but you&#8217;ll have to wait until the Paris entry to hear about how I got to this point. The story involves being lost, running, and department stores. <br><br>One ...

... la difficulte a comprendre et a se faire comprendre en francais malgre que louest de la Suisse soit tres francophone....ils parlent francais aussi pourtant mais bon...on a arreter de se poser des questions en arrivant a Berne et en constatant que notre allemand etait plus que rudimentaire. On apprend les expressions les expressions dici "sans soucis" et "file moi une goutte" (pour donne moi une gorgee ...

... A new habitat for the bears is being built along the river's edge. After viewing the bear pits, we stopped in a local microbrewery for a taste of the town's lager, and enjoyed some rare early-afternoon sunshine while conversing next to lovely views of the terraced old town. After our beer, we climbed the hill to a rose garden park--somewhat barren in October--and were treated to a very pretty view of the entire old town ...

... ogre putting small children in his mouth to eat them. It sounded cool, kind of like an evil version of Shrek, however I must say it was a little disappointing as it is one of the smallest fountains I have ever seen. We would have walked right past it except for the group of Japanese tourists clicking away on their cameras. The next drive was one that I had been looking forward to the most in the whole trip. We drove past Interlaken and down into the Lauterbrunnen Valley ...

... love it. It's great to stay with young people for a change and meet other young people as all the other hosts are older. We had a nice national day up in the mountain looking down on all the millions of fireworks and bombfires everywhere, beautiful with lots of banging and booming (sounded like a war was going on!). been to a few festivals, did a trek in a stunning national park, been up the mountain near jungfraujoch (weather has been **** here so too rainy and cloudy to go up ...

... heutigen Abend - seit Simon's Infektion mit Reisefieber auf der Terrasse vom Cafe del Mar letzten Sommer und Peschaes sich-umschauen-nach-neuen-Ufern seit zwei Jahren ist viel Wasser die Aare runtergeflossen. Umso schöner ist es, die Sache mit einer Pfütze zu besiegeln und mit Träumen zu beginnen - und zu spüren, dass da in der nahen Zukunft etwas grosses, wunderschönes, beglückendes auf einen wartet.

... views from today were just breathtaking. I saw all these cows in the mountains and decided that I'd like their job. All they do is eat grass all day with the alps as their backdrops. I wonder how much it pays. This hostel is spectacular and I'll be here for at least several more days hiking and playing in the mountains because it's supposed to be spectacular weather all through the weekend. I decided I want to stay ...

... some of the weird rules they have here. They are REALLY strict about recycling here. Each Canton in Switzerland has specific garbage bags that you MUST use. This is rather silly and annoying I think because you have to buy the bags from the grocery store and they are NOT cheap let me tell you! Also, paper should be recycled and you have to stack the paper and tie a string around it a certain way....I could go on. I think the craziest ones have to do with quiet time ...