Switzerland!

We left Florence Thursday night (2/4) and traveled about 7 hours on a bus to Interlaken. Three movies later we arrived in Switzerland at the Funny Farm Hotel (which is called something completely different there). We were able to get a few hours sleep that night, but we wanted to wake up early so that we could go visit Bern. The Hostel that we were staying at provided a free breakfast, which was basically just bread, water, and coffee. This was enough to fill me up...atleast until lunch. We took the train from Interlaken Ost to Bern. There weren't too many people out and about in Interlaken when we went to the train, very different from Florence. The train ride to bern was just under an hour and the scenery was amazing. If it wasn't for some clouds it would have been a beautiful day. The mountains surrounded us and the water was the bluest water I have ever seen, it was unreal. A little side note, the train station at Bern was like a small city. As soon as we entered Bern the snow began and pretty much continued the whole day. In Bern was popped in and out of many shops, one of which was this great chocolate shop. I wanted to buy everything in there, but nothing is cheap in switzerland. That afternoon we trekked over the bridge to go to the Einstein Museum and the Bern Historical Museum (we figured that it would be a good idea to get some of the cultural aspect while we were there). The museum was nice; we spent a good amount of time there. I ended up stopping at a McDonald's for some food because I was starving and thought that would be cheap...that was not the case. But what are you going to do. That night we just hung out in the lounge in the hostel. Saturday was the big ski day! We got up a 7 and we were at the rental place by 730ish. It took us about 2 and a half hours to rent stuff and get up to the mountain. The views going up on the train were unbelievable, but the veiws from the top were 10 times better. The train stopped at Kleine Scheidegg which was at the top of this side of the mountain. There were several different mountains. We didn't stray too far from this area because the maps were a little confusing and there were no real trail markings. Everything was just so wide open, not a lot of trees at all. My favorite trail was at the top. it was very long, but it was all powder which made it so much fun to ski in. By this time the sun was beginning to set and I had to take some pictures while I was at the top. When you are at the top you realize that you are in one giant snow bowl. I could have sat up there for hours. Instead of taking the train back down, we decided to take trail 22 down which is about a 30-40 mins trail that takes you all the way to the bottom. The trail was almost unreal. The sun was setting here and there were so many great sites, but I didn't want to stop to take pictures because I figured that it wouldn't be good to be stuck on the Alps after dark. After another short train ride, a trip to the rental shop, and a short walk, we were back at the hostel. WE went to a place called happy Endings (I think), for dinner. It was a nice little Swiss pub/ resturant. Sunday was spent walking around Interlaken, however, there is much open on Sunday except for the tourist shops (which of course we went to). We left Interlaken around 4 and got back to Florence around midnight. Overall I would say this was a great first trip and I definitely need to go back in the future to ski again! The Swiss people were very nice; we didn't run into one mean person the whole time we were there. The other thing that I thought was funny was that they always stopped for you if you wanted to cross the street. This doesn't happen that often in Florence hahaha. if all my trips are like this I will have a great semester! **fingers crossed**