So I’m sitting here in my hostel in Switzerland, wondering why the hell we seem to be the only ones here in the 18-25 age range. Seriously, there are small children downstairs screaming “we will we will rock you”, and the two women who shared our hostel room were around fifty. I guess they average the ages of the inhabitants so that they can actually call it the Bern Youth Hostel, because it is full of geriatrics and infants.
On to my trip! It all started on Wednesday when we realized we needed to actually reserve our train tickets and get our Eurails validated. So after the class trip to the Ari Pacis we headed to the Rome train station (Termini). We stood in line for about an hour, and Elise and Renee successfully got theirs validated. But the lady wouldn’t do mine because the Eurail listed my country of residence as America, but I had a British passport. I had a copy of my Greencard but apparently that wasn’t convincing enough, nor was my prominently southern accent. She told me to come back the next day (Thursday, which was when we were scheduled to leave).
The problem was that the train we had reserved was for 3:00, we don’t normally get out of class until 1, and it takes about an hour to get into the city. Anyway, good news happened in the form of my Theology teacher getting ill and cancelling class. The poor woman is really ill (in the hospital) but it allowed me to get into Rome with enough time to wait out the line and validate my Eurail. And when I finally got to the front of the line, the lady working the desk told me she didn’t even need to see my Greencard. AURGHHHHHHHHHHH.
So we made the train.
And six hours later arrived in Bern, Switzerland. It was cold, and it was dark. But we managed to find our way to the hostel without any major incidences (except discovering that we were rooming with a fifty year old woman who snores). We went to bed almost immediately upon arrival, after wandering around to find something to eat.
Friday morning we had breakfast at the hostel, and then headed out to look at the Parliament building. We scored a free tour of the Swiss parliament, which wasn’t as impressive as the English parliament, but was so much more modern and accessible. After that we went and booked our return train, and then we went exploring along the main street. There were a ton of chocolate shops and stores. So Renee and I decided to spend a slightly absurd amount of money on a little bag of chocolates from one of the places, with twelve different types. And it was possibly the best thing I’ve ever tasted. So good. Better than a new pair of shoes. And speaking of shoes: Claire has bought her first pair of Italian heels. They’re super adorable. Just a side note, because I’m really excited about it.
So after stopping for chocolate, we visited the Einstein House. That’s right, Claire got to see where Einstein lived. It wasn’t all that impressive, but it was interesting to see, and to read all the history behind his life. Apparently he cheated on his wife with his cousin. Who knew geniuses committed incest (Oh wait, I’m pretty sure that’s the story of half my family). And then we went to the bear pits!! BEARS BEARS BEARS BEARS!! J . They were pretty much the cutest things ever. Although it might have been better to see them in the summer when they would have gone swimming in their pool. After that we went and bought something to eat for dinner. And went back to the hostel to do homework for a few hours before going back out to see the University of Bern.
And today is Saturday. We leave at 1:30, and get back to Rome around 9. Since it’s going to be an early arrival, we thought it would be fun to take Renee to Saints and Sinners because she hasn’t been before. Visiting a sketchy Italian bar—check.
And now it’s Saturday night! Our train ride home was super eventful. A really fun 25 year old Italian guy gave us a 2 hour lecture on “enjoying life” and then gave us a lot of fun bars and clubs to go to in downtown Rome. Apparently, Wednesday nights are “American nights” where they let in American students for free. So looks like that’ll be on the agenda when I don’t have a test the next day. But nothing here starts until 1 AM and the metro stops at… 9 PM. All nighter in the city? Yes please. But not tonight.
PS. Everything in Switzerland is ridiculously expensive. So no one is getting any souvenirs, except maybe Nicki can have a wrapper from the chocolate bar that I bought her but then ate instead. It was delicious, thanks for wondering.
Hanging out in the Einstein house. We're best friends after Quantum Physics... NOT.
For Claire's readers a little clarification on "Apparently he cheated on his wife with his cousin. Who knew geniuses committed incest (Oh wait, I’m pretty sure that’s the story of half my family). ". As a young man, her Australian paternal grandfether travelled to the Uk after the 2nd World war and stayed with a branch of the family. He ended up marrying the daughter of the house who was also an Eastaway and due to a second marriage somewhere -although younger than him - was officialy his great aunt or great step aunt. I have to agree that they were both very bright people!
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