My Swiss Adventure

Day 1

Got up to get my train at 6am. I took the train to Lyon via Paris, which took about 5 hours and was very boring and rather uneventful. It was cool to think that it was the first time that I took the train to another country. I went from Lyon to Geneva, then from Geneva to Bern. I was picked up by my Mum's cousin Larryn and his daughter Oriana (My 2nd cousin once removed). They drove me to their house at Utzigen where they had a Mesmerizing view over the Alps, My bedroom had the best view in the house. I went up to the top of a hill after dinner and I could look in one direction and see France and look in another and see Italy. It was amazing.

Day 2
I went to Thun (pronounced Toon) which is situated on Lake Thun which is a beautiful lake with green water (From the Glacier). We only stayed for an hour or so but it was enough to give me a good idea of the town. We went for a walk along the lake with an ice-cream (Its summer here, YAY!!) and then took the boat back to the car park and went back to Utzigen.

Day3 (Today was 3 months since I left NZ, 1/4 of the way)
The weather wasn't very good on this day. Oriana took me on the train to see Bern. Its a very, very small city but it was very beautiful and I had a lot of fun looking around. We went to see the Bernese Bears, A well known tourist attraction. It was the first time I have ever seen a bear so close. It was amazing seeing them just sitting there trying to catch the food that people were throwing to them.

Day 4
Went to Neuchatel with Oriana. Its a very, very small town with not much to do. We got some lunch and ate next to the lake. I didn't take any good photos for my blog because there was nothing to take a photo of. It was a nice town but not much there. It was nice to just sit next to the lake and chill out for a day.

Day 5
Didn't do anything today. I went back to Bern for the night to go see a movie with Oriana and her friend Anina. The film was in English with French and German subtitles. It was strange traveling within Switzerland and hearing Swiss German in one part, then traveling 20 mins and being able to speak French with people.

Day 6
Stayed at Utzigen today

Day 7
Went back into Bern with Oriana to do some shopping. Bought a t-shirt. I was too scared to buy anything else, Switzerland is an expensive country.

Day 8
I woke up and got on a train to Fribourg to go stay with my friend Lea-Nina who was an exchange student in New Zealand last year. It was so great to see her again. She took me into town and we had an ice-cream. Lea had to go to a Scouts meeting (Scouts is actually cool in Switzerland) so I went with two other exchange students to play squash. After we finished playing we went to get a Kebab for dinner and then I went to a cafe to meet Lea-Nina and her friends. I had a really good night meeting everyone.

Day 9
Went into town so Lea-Nina could go to another scouts meeting. I walked around town and took the photos of Fridbourg (It was a Sunday, thats why there is no one there). We went back to Lea-Nina's house and then went to Montreux which is a town on the opposite side of Lake Geneva to Geneva city. It was an extremely beautiful city with views out over the lake with the Alps in the background. We sat down and had some Movenpick ice-cream. They had a dish called "New Zealand", it was vanilla ice-cream with Kiwifruit, WHERE IS THE HOKEY POKEY ICE-CREAM?!?!?!?!?! so i didn't order it.
We walked along the side of the lake and just had a good time. We then drove back to Fridbourg. We had Fondue for dinner. It was pretty good.

Day 10
I woke up early to say goodbye to Lea-Nina before she went to school. It was quite sad to be leaving. I spent the rest of the day on trains (Not fun). I had the 3 noisiest kids in existance sitting infront of me from Lyon to Paris. It was so annoying. I got back to Nantes at 10:30pm.

I had a fantastic time in Switzerland and I hope to see more of Europe during my summer break (South France[where i plan on seeing SKC kids on the Franc trip], Denmark and Sweden)