All change in Bern

As it is so many times with staying in Hostels, a new day beings a whole new bunch of faces as the old ones move out.

The Australian girls have left for northern Italy, the Irish couple are leaving a day ahead of me to Geneva and then on to Barcelona before flying home and although they were not actually staying in my dorm the friendly Canadians from British Colombia are heading off back home too.

The French speaking lass with her father, or maybe uncle, are doing a bit of a switcheroo as they were sleeping in separate rooms for the past two days but today he moved in to our dorm so that they could be together.

The funny this is that Sunday is such a mellow and mellow day in Switzerland, more so than in most countries, and so why so many people have chose today to try and make it out of the city and go places is unusual, but then perhaps it makes sense as it is so dead that there is nothing left to do except the very basics, eat, sleep, sex, etc. Even the locals joke that the city is so very laid back that if it was any more so it would be horizontal.

Before they left I got chatting to the young Dublin couple who have been travelling since January just around Europe, and who managed to stay in Hungary for about three months. The saved up a bit but much of the time they ended up finding work actually in the hostels that they were staying in, as well as offering to do the obvious bar work and if they wanted to they were even offered to teach English abroad, despite having no proper English qualifications in teaching.

It is true that every traveler that I have met, thus far, has got a few stories to tell, enjoys talking to people, seem very relaxed and are easy going people, and again it makes me think about what I want to do after I get back to the UK should the writing not take off.

I know that I do not want to go back to my old job of being an accountant, although I feel that that would be very easy to do, and I have long ago considered building / owning or running a hostel somewhere in a warm country. As I am going to interview the girl who works for this hostel tonight, I think I will ask her for the pro's and con's of doing so and see how that idea shapes up.

Mr Sociable

It won't come as a surprise to many people to find that me staying in hostels is making me talk to people, and that once I get them talking we find that we can talk about just about anything.

Bern is a quiet little sleepy and laid back capital city where nothing much happens during the weekend, which a lot of the guests here in the hostel have found out, like the Irish couple who were sharing the single bunk and the pair of Aussie girls who are off to Italy tomorrow { fancy that, more Australians, lol }. We are all feeling as cooped up as each other and I found out that we even share the same taste in movies as my 8pm movie choice was the same as their choice last night, so of course we switched to another film that none of us have watched.

After the film, at about 11pm, I was just surfing away on my laptop when a Canadian asked me where there was any place to buy some large batteries, and cutting a long story short I ended up lending her my power adapter so that she could use her $7000 anti- smoking device on her son in law. She was awfully grateful and even offered to leave some form of ID with me, but over such a small matter I really couldn't really ask or accept anything.

After that I was about to go back to my typing when one of the girls who runs the hostel asked me about my typing and soon after we were chatting like old friends and she easily agreed to complete my mini questionnaire tomorrow after she finished her shift as she was just about to go clubbing with her sister right now.

I knew that travelling would be good for me meeting people but this could also be a great chance to get some background info on JJ as the girl here is a real Swiss who also speaks perfect English, has visited Chur and even helped me learn to pronounce it more correctly.

I really think that this trip is the right thing for me to be doing now, and meeting the people is just as important and valuable as taking photos of the places.

Bern is closed for the weekend it would appear

Today started off well, my earplugs had stayed in all night and so I got a nice long nights sleep and thought about catching up on my emails, checking that my friends in Brazil and Peru were still up for meeting me in less than a month and then taking a nice leisurely stroll around the town.

Although the sun was shining there was not that much heat, but clear blue skies are great for photo shoots and so I didn't feel that this was going to be any real pain. The first signs of today going a bit Pete Tong was when I sat outside a nice church at the end of the old town near midday.

At precisely midday the chimes started and at first it was nice to hear the bell ring out the time in hourly bongs, only they didn't stop at 12. They didn't stop at 20, I seriously started counting at about 6 or 7 but gave up after 50 and still they went on.

I went in short order from "mmm thats nice" to "hmmm, thats got to be more than 12, wasn't it", "ahhhh, are they going to go on all day" ,"ok you can stop now" , "no seriously stop" , "I said stop" , "enough already" , "oh for crying out loud, ENOUGH" , "ok, you asked for it, I'm gonna walk away and you can just bong yourself into oblivion without me".

It is a shame really, as it was a lovely clear blue sky, I had just found a bench in the sun that was out of the wind and I could happily have sat there all morning but not with that incessant monotone ringing loud and near going through my skull.

But it as still a nice day, I had a bit of dosh in my pocket and I was alone in a foreign city, which always makes me feel a bit more confident and happier than normal. Gently strolling along I thought that the centre of the old town was a bit pricey and empty of people but that was nothing compared with what it was like just five minutes walk westward. The cars became as infrequent as passing flies, the people thinned out and the shops all had fewer and fewer people in them.

Then all of a sudden it was like I was back in St Marys Island as it was a ghost town and everything was closed. It is hard to come to terms with the fact that I am was in a European countries capital city and it was a warm Autumn Saturday afternoon as shops after shop was closed and one of the main reasons was that there was just not any customers walking past to make it worth their while staying open.

In a ten minute walk I passed five hair salons, three of which were closed, one did not cut mens hair on a Saturday { except OAP's by the look of the other people in the shop } and the other was even more bizarre as it was being run by a lone Italian who was born and raised in Bolton { which explains his accent } but now living and working in Bern and although the place was empty except for him and his one customer he said that he was fully booked out all day, but that otherwise he would have loved to cut my hair for me!

The whole place seems to have many bear motif's all over the place, and after awhile I decided to find out and luckily I passed a postcard seller who had a card that explained its origins and background which was cool.

I did have ideas of doing a few other bits today, but once I saw how the whole place except the very centre, seems to be closed down over the weekend, I gave up and came back and rested up a bit in the hostel.

Holy Exploding Luggage Batman

I'm sorry, but I just couldn't help it as the timing was just so spot on, really it was .... just read on and it will all become clear.

As is one of my favourite pass times, especially in foreign cities, I went to the late night showing of the "Batman : The Dark Knight" which is just great and although Gary Oldman does a wonderful job, as does Christian Bale I still say that they are both upstaged by the superb Heath Ledger.

There are about 20 mini cinemas in the near vicinity of central Bern, and each of them seems to have one or possibly two screens and each can seat around 300, that are widely spaced apart that you have no problems knocking into knees to find your seat and the person in front would have to have the largest hat in the universe, or be about 8 foot tall, for it to intrude in your viewing pleasure.

However the Swiss themselves like to ruin the movies themselves as I could not get over the amount of background talking and noise all the way through the film, the loudest I have ever noticed from a mature audience { well mature in age if not manners }.

What was almost as bad is that they threw in a 15 minute intermission, during a high tempo fight scene no less, which totally killed the atmosphere and also as I was so tired and bored by the time it restarted I momentarily lost track of what was going on in the film.

After the film, and emboldened by my recent experience of visitng Sexual Spartacus in Vienna { and of a desire to find something truly exciting to do and write about } I decided to go take in a live Cabaret show with dancing girls. Live Cabaret Show on a Friday night in Bern ... 'Whata Mistaka Ta Makea!'.

No, I didn't get mugged, or ripped off, or ended up drunk in an alley ... or even get offered a private dance, no, it was one of the most anti-climatic moments in my entire life.

It was after 11pm, I geed myself all up to go in {slightly wondering why there was no bouncer or scantily clad women at the door beckoning in punters from off the street but I took this to be a good sign as that always puts me off anyway} opened the glass door underneath the pink neon sign and slowly descended down a spiral staircase.

Descended and descended only to get to the bottom of a staircase that opened out into an empty club, and when I mean empty I don't just mean that there was no boozed up marks or that there was only a few dancing girls touting their wears I mean it was as empty as the frikkin Marie Celest.

Pink semi secluded booths with leather sofa's and dancing pole with mirrors be damned, I didn't see anyone no matter which way I looked, and so I just gave it up as a lost cause and ascended back up the winding stairs again and feeling more than a little deflated, walked the 5 minutes back to my hostel.

Back at the hostel there seemed to be a nightclub underneath the place, so much so that in the main reception they actually have a wicker basket full of ear plugs to take with you as you go on up to your room to sleep.

However with my excitement gauge bruised and never being one for loud base pumping night clubs at the best of times, alone and tired i just didn't feel up to it and so I headed on up to my room to grab some kip.

Adding to last nights frustration, during the train ride over from Zurich to Bern it would appear that my suntan lotion bottle decided to explode inside my wash bag and thus when I woke this morning to freshen up I had instead to clean up and leave out to dry all my smellies.

Slightly more amusing though, I also noticed that on the lower bunk next to mine was a nice young couple all snuggled up to each other, and considering the size of the single bunks that was impressive by itself and also went a long way to why they were both partially exposed from underneath the cover.

All in all I do not feel that Bern is the liveliest place to be out and about 'avin it large' after dark, although it still had its fair share of midnight revellers, but for me that only adds to its charm, as I have also not felt this safe as I did back in my little historic town of Alcala de Henares in Spain, and certainly I felt safer than either in London or my home town of Gillingham.

Bern

After the nice long chat that I had with my Tai Chi studying Irish lad room buddy last night, I really was eager to ask him to participate in one of my travel interviews, sadly however he never rose in time and leave it as late as I might, I had to check out at 10am and even by then he was still in the land on nod.

Had I known that he would be such a sluggerbed I would have roused myself up much earlier and headed off to the train city centre in order to do just a little sight seeing, but alas it was not to be.

I did, however manage to get a tiny feel for the place and also spot a signpost for Chur, the birthplace of my fictional detective gentleman hero { copyrighted before any even thinks about it }, which was very cool and a bit like Elvis fans actually reaching Graceland.

Anyway, by the time I got to Zurich main train station I was completely unready for the sheer size of the place.

It seemed to stretch out in all directions, including up and down, had over 50 platforms and as well as the usual crappy shops and restaurants it even had its own gymnasium, sex shop and cinema, THAT'S how big it is.

It's like a mini city in the heart of Zurich, a whole world run to a strict timetable and all under the cover of one all encompassing roof.

There were so many intercity trains that I again regretted not turning up earlier, as I had the choice of at least four in the space of twenty minutes, and were it not for the rucksack on my back I would have for sure enjoyed taking a stroll and coming back later to catch a later train.

Arriving in Bern was like a dream come true, and the first really super amazing point for me on a tour that is crammed with impressive sights, people and places.

The city was so idyllic, so oldie worldie and modern at the same time. The sun was out casting a wonderful warm glow down onto the streets and the greenish yellow brickwork almost gleamed and it was like it was a hundreds years ago.

In the distance the lush dark green forested hills could be seen and down below the main city centre was a ravine and another part of the city which looked tiny by comparison and set beside a flowing river with an ornate bridge spanning across its rooftop all set off wonderfully by the crisp blue sky with barely a single white fluffy cloud was almost enough to bring a tear to my eye and certainly it could inspire a thousand poets to greater heights than they ever managed before.

It was also my kind of place, as it had all the usual conveniences, which included over 20 mini cinemas all within 10 minutes walk of my hostel, numerous coffee shops, the main train station, trams, hills, rivers, bridges, McDonalds and Burger Kings, museums, theatres, banks and ATM machines, clubs and bars, all the comforts of home just in a better setting.

True that most of the folk here speak French as their first language and German as their second, but still they also all seem to speak enough English for me not once to have to reach for a phrase book and as I am used to London prices the cost here is only a little more than I would at first expect, and if I could get a job then this is certainly a city that could keep me entertained for many an age.

In fact, the only mildly frustrating thing that I have noticed about the place, which is in my Hotel / Hostel, is that they ask that you do not use the elevator to get to the second or third floors unless you are carrying luggage, and also that the wi-fi servers signal is not good enough to reach past the second floor even with my range expanding adapter.

Tomorrow the skies will again be dry and clear, although not actually that hot, and so I hope to be able to take plenty of photos to show, but for the time being, here are a few I took this afternoon.

I should have purchased a Swiss power converter at the airport

Dohhh...

I knew that Swiss have their own money, I checked and got some at the airport, I had already booked the flight over, the train from here to Bern and in the airport I bought a couple of maps as the hostel ones seem to only include itself at the centre of a 5 miles radius and not the entire town or city that it is in, however I was not expecting it to have its own power sockets that were almost identical to those on the rest of Europe.

Regrettably the hostel that I am staying in does not have any adapters and although I mucked up the timings and got here a few hours earlier than scheduled I doubt that I am early enough to make it to the local stores before they close, even if i knew where they were.

What makes it worse is that I am going to be sharing another night in a two bunk room, this time with an Irish lad, but again with some logic that I just do not comprehend this place has no lockers and so if i go out I wont be able to safeguard my stuff.

Damn and blast but I was really looking forward to a memorable time here, in a city and country I have been dreaming of for so long.

But I can't use the internet for long as the laptop power will drain faster than I can type, without internet I cannot find anything of interest that isn't on the tourist map, I'm afriad to leave my room in case my stuff isn't here when I get back and I have so much that I could tell about leaving Vienna and the flight over to Switzerland.

However, thankfully I can amend this posting as I WAS in time to catch the local shops which again thankfully were only 5 minutes away, and so in a later post I can and have related many things which I was afraid I might forget by the time I get more internet access and power.