The last few days in Switzerland have been more adventurous than the previous: we've successfully made a trip to Bern (the capital) and have climbed a mountain, pretty exciting stuff.
Thursday: The usual wake up a little later, take a walk around the village (this time we stopped at the store and got BLT stuff-lunch was amazing!), then stayed up late sitting on the back porch (which has a view of the village and mountains) drinking wine. Lots of fun. and some good convo.
On Friday, after waking up a little later than expected (app
arently this is a trend for no one except for Stephen and me in Switzerland...) but it is quite fantastic to sleep late with no alarm or cell phone.. we took the train for a short visit in Bern. After arriving we wandered in the first direction that caught our eye (the covered sidewalks because it was raining) and were immediately met by some of Bern's juvies...a few guys sitting on the street with rats attempting to scare passersby. One guy came creepily close to Steve (pushing the rat on his shoulder toward him), yet he kept walking as if nothing was going on...luckily, I was on the other side and somehow got ignored or they def. would have succeeded. This was an odd experience, I don't know why he felt obliged to approach me because I didn't want to look at his rats, but I wasn't afraid of them (and didnt look afraid so it was bizarre to be approached by rando). Anywho, we stopped in a few shops in Bern, saw the market (pic below), a fountain or two, and even got to see the big clock tower and it's dancing characters. (pic). Bern is quite the scenic city. All of the buildings are fantastic, its like someone took painstaking time to design each one, the windows, the little mini-porch things, and the stone sides of them. It truly is beautiful. It not only has old buildings with gold trimmings and flags waving, but also a river running through with a great view. The whole city (at least we parts we saw) has a very small town feel (adorable shops, small businesses, people walking)despite its m
etropolitan areas. On the way back to the train station, we witnessed a semi-drunk/crazy guy first yelling at a bus driver then throwing his beer down and scrambling onto the 
backdoor of the bus...very amusing. Especially because he was kind of awkward, so the beer throw and the run were funny to watch. We casually wandered over there but saw nothing. Uneventful.
arently this is a trend for no one except for Stephen and me in Switzerland...) but it is quite fantastic to sleep late with no alarm or cell phone.. we took the train for a short visit in Bern. After arriving we wandered in the first direction that caught our eye (the covered sidewalks because it was raining) and were immediately met by some of Bern's juvies...a few guys sitting on the street with rats attempting to scare passersby. One guy came creepily close to Steve (pushing the rat on his shoulder toward him), yet he kept walking as if nothing was going on...luckily, I was on the other side and somehow got ignored or they def. would have succeeded. This was an odd experience, I don't know why he felt obliged to approach me because I didn't want to look at his rats, but I wasn't afraid of them (and didnt look afraid so it was bizarre to be approached by rando). Anywho, we stopped in a few shops in Bern, saw the market (pic below), a fountain or two, and even got to see the big clock tower and it's dancing characters. (pic). Bern is quite the scenic city. All of the buildings are fantastic, its like someone took painstaking time to design each one, the windows, the little mini-porch things, and the stone sides of them. It truly is beautiful. It not only has old buildings with gold trimmings and flags waving, but also a river running through with a great view. The whole city (at least we parts we saw) has a very small town feel (adorable shops, small businesses, people walking)despite its m
etropolitan areas. On the way back to the train station, we witnessed a semi-drunk/crazy guy first yelling at a bus driver then throwing his beer down and scrambling onto the 
backdoor of the bus...very amusing. Especially because he was kind of awkward, so the beer throw and the run were funny to watch. We casually wandered over there but saw nothing. Uneventful. After making it back to Stephen's aunt's house, we had delicious ravioli and, of course, ice cream (baileys, strawberry yogurt, and vanilla). The ravioli was hand-made by some old Italian woman so you know it was good. We then proceeded to show a slide show of the Rome and Florence pictures. And, side note, don't let Stephen fool you with the "cool" act...he's secretly artsy. He designed the videos with special effects and music. Anndd, believe it or not, he has taken over half of the photos on this trip...and has an eye for emo/artsy pictures. It's phenomenal...ask him to be your photographer :)...moving on. Well I wouldn't say it is all natural, I have had my share of, "steve, wrong angle, thats a crap picture, stop taking pictures of that," and assorted other cut-downs, 
which has honed my picture taking skills.
which has honed my picture taking skills. Today we awoke with a plan to go to the WhiteStone (Weissen Stein) mountain. My first impression of this trip was the ski lift (we rode up and walked down)...it consisted of two seats facing one way, a flap that came down in case of rain, and a semi roof--it was very open to say the least. This makes it sound a bit more sophisticated, it looked like the chairs that go over the fair in Cola, but wooden, made in the 1940s, and on the side of a mountain. But, even though it was scary, it was actually a beautiful (and not scary) ride up...a whole view of the areas surrounding. and although you are up pretty high, it isn't that far away from the ground and any one time, it stays pretty close to the side of
the mountain the whole time, if you fell it would only be a
bout a 3 story drop. After making it up, we walked a bit and settled at a place to make a fire and grill sausage (delicious) to eat with mustard and bread. Just by chance (after Stephen's aunt had been talking about hearing yoddlers), a group of about 15 older guys showed up in the path above us. They asked if we had something to drink (we offered them flavored water and they reluctantly took it) and ended up singing a tune for us. There was a lot of chatter as they walked up, and I think they were talking about us, joking about us. Our conclusion was that they had some schnapps before starting on the trail. See video! But not in a public setting or people might judge you haha. This was the jollyest group of men I've ever seen see, clearly drunk...it would have been so much better had I been able to understand the words, oh well. After this extravaganza (and st
opping to see cows), we made our way down the mountain. Oh, we also had unbelievable chocolate. It's freshly made and we had:white chocolate with lemon, dark with almonds, and milk with peanuts.
..much better than the usual Hershey's Bar. The first time we went walking (before we w
ent to Italy), Stephen's aunt offered me her hiking shoes and I wasn't sure why my 7 year old new balances wouldn't do the trick...what a joke. These people are serious walkers (even the grandparents) and they love their hiking up, sitting in a restaurant to get a meal/drink/etc., and walking back down (we, btw, stopped at a local restaurant, had hot chocolate...with milk straight from the cows in the back...and got warm. Steve, got a coffee and schnapps that was incredibly strong but pretty
delish.) I did not have lactaid pills, therefore could not enjoy the milk chocolate drink (makes it worse that the milk here is beyond whole milk, like almost straight from the cow). Anyway, back to the trek down, ...I may or may not have slid down...twice--luckily the backpack was on my back to break my fall...it also, however, made a louder noise when I slipped causing all to look back. and she made a "whoop" that attracted attentions, and slid is a bit too graceful, she fell flat on her butt..haha. Anyway, the walk was so pretty and we saw no one (except one biker) so it was so peaceful. Overall, fantastic few days. Oh, and another side note: as far as the Swiss people know, I'm mute. I cannot conquer the sound of the language. For example: Andreas loves chocolate sprinkles called Hagelslag...although in Swiss-German, the 'g' sounds more like 'ch' with a lot of throat in it. I said it once at dinner and it was humiliating. ..and I will admit, my cousin delights in our German failures. (the title is from the dog Desty, when she gets over excited she runs around the back yard crazy-like, similar to her dad Willy, who is a Dingo).
bout a 3 story drop. After making it up, we walked a bit and settled at a place to make a fire and grill sausage (delicious) to eat with mustard and bread. Just by chance (after Stephen's aunt had been talking about hearing yoddlers), a group of about 15 older guys showed up in the path above us. They asked if we had something to drink (we offered them flavored water and they reluctantly took it) and ended up singing a tune for us. There was a lot of chatter as they walked up, and I think they were talking about us, joking about us. Our conclusion was that they had some schnapps before starting on the trail. See video! But not in a public setting or people might judge you haha. This was the jollyest group of men I've ever seen see, clearly drunk...it would have been so much better had I been able to understand the words, oh well. After this extravaganza (and st
opping to see cows), we made our way down the mountain. Oh, we also had unbelievable chocolate. It's freshly made and we had:white chocolate with lemon, dark with almonds, and milk with peanuts...much better than the usual Hershey's Bar. The first time we went walking (before we w
ent to Italy), Stephen's aunt offered me her hiking shoes and I wasn't sure why my 7 year old new balances wouldn't do the trick...what a joke. These people are serious walkers (even the grandparents) and they love their hiking up, sitting in a restaurant to get a meal/drink/etc., and walking back down (we, btw, stopped at a local restaurant, had hot chocolate...with milk straight from the cows in the back...and got warm. Steve, got a coffee and schnapps that was incredibly strong but prettydelish.) I did not have lactaid pills, therefore could not enjoy the milk chocolate drink (makes it worse that the milk here is beyond whole milk, like almost straight from the cow). Anyway, back to the trek down, ...I may or may not have slid down...twice--luckily the backpack was on my back to break my fall...it also, however, made a louder noise when I slipped causing all to look back. and she made a "whoop" that attracted attentions, and slid is a bit too graceful, she fell flat on her butt..haha. Anyway, the walk was so pretty and we saw no one (except one biker) so it was so peaceful. Overall, fantastic few days. Oh, and another side note: as far as the Swiss people know, I'm mute. I cannot conquer the sound of the language. For example: Andreas loves chocolate sprinkles called Hagelslag...although in Swiss-German, the 'g' sounds more like 'ch' with a lot of throat in it. I said it once at dinner and it was humiliating. ..and I will admit, my cousin delights in our German failures. (the title is from the dog Desty, when she gets over excited she runs around the back yard crazy-like, similar to her dad Willy, who is a Dingo).
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