Deuxieme Jour

Bonjour! Today is going much smoother than yesterday. Last night, after getting to the hostel we took a well deserved nap. When we woke up at 18:00 we were not too hungry, but because we were so tired and knew we would probably wake up in the middle of the night very hungry, we went to this place called Edleweiss. It was the perfect induction into Swiss culture. The restaurant looked like the inside of a Swiss chalet and there were two men playing Swiss sounding music with the accordian and bass. It was fantastic! Every now and again one man would yoddle or sing. It was hard not to constantly smile. We had fondue and Swiss beer, which was sweet. Sweet as in sweet tasting. The workers were dressed in Swiss vests, and they were all nice and spoke slow for us Americans. Then a party of about 100 came in and Shannon and I think they were from a company because they were all speaking English quite loudly. But, the short of it is that the musicians got out the ricolla instrument and that was awesome. He then took the instrument around to various people in the resto. One guy played which was humorous. He asked us if we wanted to try, but we were too embarassed.

The hostel is we are staying at is great. We are staying the room by ourselves, so it is quiet. However, the lockers for luggage were outside of the rooms and you have to slam them shut to make them lock. No problem. Except for when you are trying to sleep and there are people who are getting in and out of their lockers. The breakfast this morning was good. Except for the hot chocolate which was cold.

Earlier today we went to la cathedral de Saint Pierre. It was nice. (I was actually surprised that we found it on our own!!) Apparently, the cathedral used to be Catholique but during the reformation it was taken over by Protestants. The Protestants ruined (rooned) everything inside the church, but kept the stained glass windows. The cathedral was quite impressive. Then we climbed the 98 sprial staircase steps to the top and the view was beautiful. We could see the whole city. And, we were the only crazy people there right when it opened.

So far, I like Suisse and all the people. I even gave a guy directions on how to use a computer en francais. Everyone here probably understands that we speak English, but also a little French. So they humor us and let us carry on a conversation in French.