scenic routes and another city

I seem to have neglected to blog about Fribourg and have been super distracted. To be fair, I've been busy, sort of. Work is keeping me busy with research, writing, translating and attending meetings. I've recently been pulled into a project with the Convention on Certain Weapons in regards to its Chinese forms. Not knowing much about this, I've been doing quite a bit of research.  Reading it in English is certainly easy, but this required me to know it in Chinese, which obviously, is a lot harder. The more work, the merrier! (no sarcasm intended). I've also been looking at the Language Resource Centre for getting more training for French to take the Language Proficiency Exam.

But Fribourg.

For what ever the reason, I seemed to have completely lost my head Sunday morning. My train left at 7:45am, but my mind was deadset on getting there at 7:45 and not earlier. Of course, I missed the train. Not to worry, the next one left 20 mins later. Thank goodness. It was colder than I expected when I stepped outside into the wintery air. The train was quite empty and I had an entire 4 seats to myself. It was calm and serene train ride. Running along the borderline of Lac Léman, I spent half the time staring outside at the partially frozen lake and the hazy sun mixing with the clouds behind the mountains. I had my book Le Pousse-Pousse (The Rickshaw Boy) and music from "Sarah's Key" accompanying me for the hour and 15 minute train ride. Gazing out into the mountains and countryside, I suddenly longed for the countrysides of France, which, evidently made me feel nostalgic and albeit, a bit drowsy. Nothing a little walking can't fix.

My needs for a train ride minus caffeine

When I got off the train, I started walking to old town, with no particular destination. Having no map or any way of getting one (because it's Sunday and the tourism office is closed), I remember some directions from looking at google maps. Luckily for me, the city is littered with maps. Of course, the first sight I was greeted with was this:

Taken in the afternoon when it stopped snowing

Nothing really indicated that it was St. Nicholas Cathedral, but I had recognized it from pictures. The inside is beautiful and big. Normally, you'd be able to climb the tower, but it's closed during the winter. I wandered into old town, into Basse Ville (lower city) and located Pont Bern (Bern Bridge).

It's old, and constantly being renovated, but cars can go through it. If you cross the bridge, you'll see the Bern Gate, which was built in the 13th century and climb some stairs (speaking of which, I climbed so many that day)

Stairs. Lots and lots of them

The city offered some great views despite the weather. Luckily it cleared up a bit after lunch.

For lunch, I just went to a café, had a sandwich and a café. I spent the rest of the afternoon in two museums; Musée d'arts et d'histoires (Museum of art and history, 5 CHF for students) and Musée Gutenburg. I'd highly advise anyone going to Fribourg to go to the Gutenburg museum. It's pretty extensive and shows how printing and copying evolved from the early ages. It is beautifully done and you can even try to print something yourself the old fashioned way! Oh, and it was free that day, for whatever reason. I also heard a mixture of French and Swiss German that day. More of the Swiss-German, but I always started any conversation in French, so it's all good.

"Here is the road for faithful mariages and also the corner for model husbands"

I caught the train at 4:30pm and rode home against the setting sun and looming clouds and spent the rest of the day reading the books Séverine lent me.

I really must travel more. I know I've said I'm less focused on traveling this time in Europe. But I am in Europe where everything is so ridiculously close and relatively cheap. I really must take advantage of that. Although the bulk of my traveling will be in Switzerland and France. Austria will happen at the end of March. Slovenia and the Netherlands will happen in May. The rest of time I'll be shuffling back and forth in the Swiss and French area. I may go to Spain, having never been there before. Bon, on verra.

I've been speaking French more lately. It's good practice, although speaking French was never a chore for me. Ever since France, it's a natural transition. I can switch back and forth from English to French to Chinese with no problem. Amazing what a year in France can do to you. I'm beginning to find that if I don't speak it, I miss it. A lot. I need to go back to France again.

Finally, today is the annual siren day in Switzerland, where they test the sirens to make sure they work in case of a disaster. They all went off and on for about 20 mins around 13h30. Good thing they didn't scare the crap out of anyone.