In which Jill has some updating to do...

Bon matin tout ma famille et mes amis. Je suis dans Nice!


I can't believe that my week in Switzerland went so quickly-and I was so tired out on a daily basis that I got halfway through many, many blogposts and may or may not have fallen asleep in the middle of writing them with my computer open on my bed, a la my entire fall semester. Whoops! Old habits die hard I suppose.


Before I run off on my first Jill on her own adventures, lets do a quick play-by-play of Switzerland.


Day 1:
-Wander Bern with cousin Kate
-Buy 4-day rail pass, little did I know what I was getting myself into. Details follow
-See the best way to scare small children into bending to your will: the 'Kindereater' statue, depicting a scary giant eating babies quite viciously. If you don't behave.....
-Discover the wonderful smell that is wandering Europe, pastries and street waffles everywhere, lordy!


Day 2 (railpass Day 1):
-Head to skiing world cup up in the beautiful mountains. Swiss people are really into their skiing, though that really shouldn't surprise me, what did, however, were the brilliant costumes that could be seen among the spectators. There were guys painted green with strange medieval costumes on, who apparently play in really bad bands, dudes with viking helmets on (these are treacherous, stay away at all costs, especially is you suspect that the wearer has been indulging in gluwine (hot, mulled wine-lovely on a cold day in the snow, especially if you've fallen down on the hill up there or if you simultaneously rock some roasted chestnuts. Too bad the US had a blight of their chestnut trees...) or other such substances, you will get impaled. On the day that Kate and I went, a Swiss won first but the US came in second and third, not too shabby. We celebrated with a picnic of cheese, bread, grapes and beer, all in the snow, watching the insanity unfolding around us.
-Realize that maybe, the rail system isn't all it's cracked up to be, or the fact that Kate and I are maybe just a little clueless and shouldn't follow crowds so much after boarding a train that took us up the mountain at the end of the day, instead of down, adding on over an hour of travel-but on the bright side, an hour more of observing the drunken fans, who all sound like Swedish Chef from the muppets.


Day 3 (railpass Day 2):
-Bad weather, so head to Geneva for some indoor fun! Went to the museum of modern art there and saw, among other things, a room with multicolored, fuzzy walls, weird flourescent blobbly things and mushrooms, and crawled through an installation that reminded me of Fraggle Rock (believe me, the muppet references don't stop here!). It was fun, but also, major sensory overload.
-Tried to continue on to other museums, but ended up getting on a bus (after also missing our train in the morning to Geneva) in which the driver neglected to tell us where to get off in order to transfer. Kate had words with the driver. En francais. I was very impressed.


Day 4 (railpass Day 3):
-Much more successful day journeying to the town of Montreaux, a cute, windy cobblestony road-ed town dotted with a plethora of lawn gnomes and beautiful views.
-Walk to the Chateua de Chillon in the rain along Lake Geneva. There were palmtrees. In Switzerland. I was very confused. There were also some interesting topiaries, of which I will post pictures of as soon as I can get an adapter so I can charge all of my US electronics.


Day 5 (railpass Day 4) aka. Obamarama:
-Head to Murten, a small, medieval town, that I'm pretty sure I'm going to retire to. The perfect place to be a very, very gossipy old woman, riding her bike around town to tell the neighbors about the latest scandal.
-Avenche: Roman ruins in Switzerland-again, surprise from Jill! I may or may not have pretended to be a gladiator with Kate's umbrella...
-Home early for an Obama party, complete with Mexican food-Obama's favorite, 'cause he's a down to earth type o'guy. Kate and I watched a good deal of CNN for the rest of my time there, especially reveling in the first time we saw the words 'Former President Bush.' Beautiful. Jetzt we can!


Day 6 (no more railpass-Kate and I sleep in!):
-Another day of wandering in Bern and getting Jill ready for her travels on her own. Scary.


Day 7:
-Up early, best bowl of oatmeal of the trip, head to the train station, get on the wrong car, as per usual, walk awkwardly from one end of the train to the other through first class, ramming into many Swiss people with my suitcase on the way, making a successful transfer on my own and 9 hours later arriving in Nice!


I know that was intense and list-y, but I will try to do a better job of updating in the future and pictures will come up soon, both on the blog and on shutterfly.


So far, I'm loving Nice, though I haven't even left my hostel yet! It's a pretty great place...


Well, here's to getting lost in France!