My first few days in Bern
Trip Start
Unknown
1
5
Trip End
Ongoing
Where I stayed
Julias apartment
Bern, Switzerland
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Usually the heavy decision making doesn't end upon arrival in your desired city. You still need to figure out how to transport yourself to where you're staying that night. For me, I planned to stay with Julia, a Swiss couch surfer and her room mate Chatrina, a foreign exchange student from Germany. Luckily Julia and her friends were going to see a movie the night I arrived and decided to meet me at the train station. They were even kind enough to meet me on very the platform I would be getting off at. All I had to do when I got off the train was wait to be picked up. Oh the luxury!
After some quick introductions of Julia's friends, we walked literally around the corner to the theater and watched the new Harry Potter movie. It was nearing mid night when the movie finished, so Julia and I took a tram back to her house and called it a night. I was so happy to find that she had laid out a mattress complete with a fluffy pillow and duvet in a room of my own. Once again, oh the luxury!
Originally I had planned to visit Geneva as my first stop in Switzerland, but decided to skip it and head straight to Bern. I really like smaller and older cities and according to various resources I found on the internet, that is exactly what Bern was supposed to be. After this decision was made I also realized that the only office to apply for an Indian visa was located in Bern. Upon realizing this fact, I made it my main concern to obtain a tourist visa to India during my stay.
I slept in Monday morning and had a difficult time finding the Indian visa application center. Once I finally figured out where it was, (of course its location was exactly where I originally thought it might be but doubted myself and searched everywhere else first) I realized that I was too late; they had closed at 2 pm. So I hopped back onto the tram and went to the grocery store where I bought 30 dollars worth of chocolate bars and waited to return tomorrow.
I was extremely nervous when I was finally applying for a visa to India. There is just something very unsettling to me about putting the possibility of accomplishing my goals/dreams in the hands of someone else who doesn't give a crap. I was so anxious about answering each question as clearly and completely as I possibly could that I must have looked over my application 4 times before submitting it to the impatient man sitting on the other side of the counter. I asked him several times whether my answers would suffice or whether my penmanship was ledgable. Of course he said that it was, although he answered before he even saw the forms I was still holding in my hands. But, my application was submitted and my 140 "Non refundable under any circumstances" dollars was paid. All I could do was trust that my application, and passport for that matter, would come back accepted and in one piece and enjoy the next 3-5 business days that I had in Bern.
So instead of running home, I took a leisurely stroll through town. Everything is so close here, so I was able to walk down their main shopping road, dip into Old Town and trot across two bridges. I think walking along both bridges was my favourite part of the excursion. Standing in the middle of the bridge provided the most picturesque view of Christmas in Europe. All of the old buildings and churches which were perched on the edge of the earth, giving way to the river below, were coated in soft white snow. As I stood silently with a smile on my face while the churches bells began to chime behind me, I thought of how it all looked like something out of a childrens storybook. From up above, I could see tiny specks of people carrying large decorated boxes in and out of houses and realized that Christmas was very near. I wondered how much snow was on the ground back home and continued on towards a museum up ahead.
There are a few things that Bern offers an interested tourist, but I wasn't sure if I'd go see them. For example, Albert Einstein lived in Bern and a few other Swiss cities before moving on. They have an entire museum dedicated to his work. I believe they also allow tourists to visit the chambers he worked in. You could also visit the Bern bear pits. Legend has it that when the city of Bern was being founded, their Duke named the city after the first animal they encountered during a hunt within the towns wooded surroundings. Now, they have a few pits where bears are kept and able to play in the river.
During my walk I contemplated these activities and thought I'd head home and let my adventure unfold for itself.
