| Bern, Switzerland |
[Aug. 28th, 2005|04:48 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  amused | ] |
It's been only 1 day since I arrived to Europe (Amsterdam) and already since then we managed to drive through Germany to Bern, Switzerland (and spend about 110 EUR on gasoline *ouch*) but it is pretty cool driving on these highways where the speed limit is just not existing... when everyone is flying with such high speeds you don't even notice that you're going that fast (or maybe the roads and the car are just so good).
Some things that I found interesting so far:
- Most cars don't have sunroofs. I guess Europeans prefer form over function. Most cars are very small and efficient. We are driving Ford Mondeo and it has a built in GPS system, which makes driving in unknown countries much easier. Funny thing is that the GPS system is in miles (and in English).
- in most places if you want to enter a washroom you either have to pay (there's an automatic machine) or a person that stands and looks at you so that you can't pass by without leaving 50 cents.
In Bern in McDonald's and Starbucks (they actually have one!) both washrooms had a code that you can know only by buying something (it's written on your receipt).
- Speaking of McDonald's their menu has some interesting items (apart from hamburgers) that I haven't seen in North America (or maybe I just haven't been to McDonalds in a while).
- For some reason in Switzerland they write on food products pretty much in any language you want, including Russian. On a McDonald’s burger package it said “Я это люблю” (I’m lovin’ it) and in the hotel they have tea with Russian on the packages as well. I guess the neutrality all the way. That’s in contrast to Germany where they don’t speak English (or pretend they don’t) in food restaurants on the road.
Today we got to Bern at around 4pm, walked around the old city (which turned out to be pretty small) and met my cousin, who lives in Bern right now. I haven't seen her since 1990... we walked around the town and she told us some of the stuff she knew about the city.
One peculiar thing she noted is how efficient Swiss are - when they throw out the garbage they do it on specific days and not only that but they buy specific garbage bags and specific garbage stamps. The stamps vary on the amount of garbage you're throwing out and without the right stamp and garbage bag they won't pick up your garbage.
Overall, Bern has a pretty old city that is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Although right now there’s construction all over the town (I guess that’s the same as in the states, construction happening in the summer).
P.S. Their Caffe Late in Starbucks tastes somehow better than the one we have in Seattle! Maybe it's the milk... :-) |
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| Comments: |
nice! did you get stoned in amsterdam? ;)
so what language do they actually speak in bern?
i love the restroom pin and garbage postage ideas!!
Not yet ;) I was in Amsterdam only a few hours to pick up a friend. We've left it to the very end :)
In Bern they speak a certain dialect of german, which has some french words. For example, many say Merci. | |
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