Wow I am tired! I’ve
been in Paris the past few days, hanging out with people in my hostel, and they
just keep going and going!
So! Bern,
Switzerland. I went to Bern because of
the LDS temple there. I stayed in temple
housing most of the time, but while I arrived in Switzerland Sunday, I couldn’t
check in until Monday (because the temple isn’t open on Sunday). So I stayed in a hostel my first night. My first impression of Switzerland
was…expensive. A big mac cost $12! I could barely find anything under 10 euros,
but I shopped at the grocery store the whole time I was there.
Monday I explored the city of Bern. It’s small and easily walkable, not to
mention beautiful and charming. I saw the
clock tower, the prison tower, and Einstein’s house. At Einstein’s house, I ran into a dorm mate
from my hostel, Ashley. We hung out the
rest of the day. Einstein’s house was
actually quite inspiring. People were
constantly telling him he wasn’t smart enough, and he worked as a professor for
most of his life. After Einstein’s house,
Ashley and I visited the clock tower and the bear park. The bear park was so cool! Bern actually means "bear." They have fenced-in brown bears wandering
along the river. After the bear park, I
grabbed my stuff from the hostel to move to temple housing and settled in the
rest of the night. I was in a six-bed
dorm with only one other woman the first night, then by myself the last two
nights.
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| Bern Clock Tower |
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| Einstein's House |
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| Ashley from New Zealand |
I was up early Tuesday morning to go to the temple. I tried to make an appointment, but they told
me to just come in at 8:00 AM. So I did,
but they still had to assemble a team of temple workers to help me. The
Bern temple is beautiful. The rest of
the day, I mostly explored the city and relaxed. I went up to the rose garden, wandered
around, looked at the skyline, read Harry Potter, and took a nap. It was fabulous! I meandered around the street market. A nice Peruvian man gave me a scarf! He got a little too flirty after he gave it
to me, but I left quickly. One of the
missionaries I met at the temple told me about institute Tuesday night, and he
and his friend gave me a ride. I walked
into the room and, this guy immediately stood up and welcomed me…how sweet :)
For my last day in Switzerland, I decided to check out
Lauterbrunnen, a little village Ashley told me about. I had told her I was disappointed I couldn’t
see the Alps from Bern, and she told me all about Lauterbrunnen and its
mountains and waterfalls. I took the
train using my Eurail pass, but I didn’t see the signs on my last connection
that Eurail wasn’t valid on the last train.
When the woman came by asking for tickets, she informed me of this, and
I expected to get hit with a huge fine.
Luckily, she just charged me for the ticket back. My favorite days so far have been the ones
where I find a beautiful little town, and just explore it for a day. What a gorgeous place. It has waterfalls coming out of the
mountains, an amazing view of the Alps, and the oh-so-charming little
church. I kind of wish I had taken the
tram up to the higher villages, but it was over 20 euros.
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| Behind the waterfall! |
I really enjoyed Switzerland! The next time I come, I definitely plan on
visiting Interlocken.
Gorgeous - I want to go to Switzerland! The Bern temple was the temple members in Portugal would attend once a year. They would save up all year long and take a 2 week trip to the temple every year! They were amazing people. You look happy and like you are having fun so I'm glad about that! I would suggest that you try and make it over to the Jungfrau for the train and gondola ride over there if possible. By the way, did you learn that Einstein did a lot of his first scientific reasoning exercises as a Swiss patent clerk in Bern. He took the job because he could finish the work in about 4 hours (what others would do in 8 hours) and then contemplate his scientific theories and thought experiments as he looked out over the river and the city. Quite an amazing man.
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