Bern

The city of Bern was bustling as I exited the train station. I noticed that the UEFA Championship Cup was to be co-hosted by Switzerland and Austria, with Bern serving as one of the host cities. Although the Cup had not started yet, there were flags and banners all over the place, and already one could tell there was an influx of foreigners into the country. The unfortunate thing about this is that prices of all goods were being inflated even higher than what they already were. Not only were prices inflated because it was Switzerland, they were also inflated because Bern is the capital city of Switzerland, and thus costs of living are higher. My stay in Bern was thus rather brief. The only really fascinating thing I found was a fountain across the street from my hostel. It depicts a man eating children. It made me wonder if the citizens of Bern were really big fans of Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal". Oh, and I did find a store with many cuckoo clocks:


In Bern I noticed it was a lot more “Americanized” than other parts of Switzerland. Not only was McDonalds ever present, but there were Burger Kings and KFCs all over the place. Everything was also in English, despite the language not being one of Switzerland’s officially sanctioned ones (they have four: Italian, French, Swiss German, and Romansch). After walking around for a bit I was able to find their parliament building; here it is:

Right across the large square in front of the parliament building there was an open-air market and at the end there was large chess board. As I was taking some video of it a dog happened to walk through the board, and I found it incredibly amusing since the chess pieces were taller than the dog. Here is the clip:


One night in Bern was all I really needed. I felt I needed to get out of the city and into the countryside, where all of Switzerland’s true beauty lies: