Bern the Capital of Switzerland!

Pull up a chair, grab some popcorn and make yourself comfortable.  The first week of February came and went with a flash, literally, my camera has been working overtime.  

Back to the end of last week real quick and Super Bowl Sunday, we stayed up and watched the first half and the half-time show.  We were not able, however, to watch the commercials BUT we were able to listen to the game being broadcasted in Italian! Cool, right? No!  I don’t know, to me football is an American sport, and when I heard/watched the broadcasters talk about the game in Italian the feel/magic of the game changed for me.  The whole situation just didn’t feel right.  

Now, the beginning of this past week, Monday.  I need to start bringing my camera to the restaurant because some of these dishes are pretty unique.  I thought that cow tongue would remain at the top of my list for foods that I dislike/physically can’t bring myself to eat, however, we have a new food in town by the name of “Trippa.”  What is Trippa?  Well, it looks a bit like chicken but there are these honeycomb patterns running all along one side, which makes a person wonder what in the world they are eating.  Deja vu was hitting me hard in the face when I asked Sylvia (our waitress) what it was that I was eating.  “Trippa” she said lightly, with a smile on her face.  When I got home I promptly did some research on trippa and to my utter dismay found out what it was...Chicken intestines.  To say the least, I did not feel too badly about leaving my plate full of “food” at the restaurant.  

On Tuesday morning around 6:14am we left Chiasso and started our journey to Bern, the capital of Switzerland.  As a gift to me for Christmas Cinthia had purchased two special tickets that allow a person to travel by train, bus or boat, for one whole day all over Swtizerland for only 40 franks.  The ride to Bern took around 5 hours, but there were a couple things that kept me entertained.  The first was the country side.  Every time I ride through the lush, green, rolling hills of Switzerland I cannot help but think of the movie, “The Sound of Music.”  The scenery is stunning.  Secondly, once we left Ticino, the language changed from Italian to French, German or Swiss German.  At one stop a handful of older women boarded the train and took up camp right next to us.  Of course they sat there and chatted away for hours, about what I couldn’t tell you, but I did recognize that they were speaking Swiss German.  The soft, flowing sounds of Italian mixed with the hard, harsh sounds of German is NOT music to my ears! ha;)  The language is just strange.  

Smart Car on the streets of Bern.

Check Mate!

Once we arrived in Bern my camera started snapping pictures of the Federal Parliament  building, Einstein’s apartment building where he lived from 1903-1905 and where he developed his revolutionary light quantum hypothesis, bears (The towns mascot is the bear), the Zytglogge which is an enchanting old clock tower with puppets who sing and dance at every hour, quaint cobblestone streets that have been surviving and serving since the town was founded in 1191, and of course my camera had a hay-day with the 15th century, Gothic Cathedral, the Munster.  

Side view of the Cathedral.

Looking out over the city from a look-out of the Cathedral

Narrow streets and rooftop twins.

My favorite part of the day was spent touring the inside of the Munster, gazing up at its enormous organ, scaling up the hundreds of stairs that lead to the top of the tower, and listening/watching the enormous bells that struck at 3pm.  The largest bell weighed 6,395 kg, which is 14,069 lbs!  Cinthia and I stood in the room where the bells were as they were ringing.  I have never in my life, heard anything louder than these bells.  Anyone looking at me as I walked out of that room would have said that my whole body was visibly vibrating from the hairs on my head to the shoes on my feet.  For the rest of the day I could still hear the ringing in my ears.  The view from the tower stretched as far as the mountains would permit.  Bern is located about 20 km north of the Bernese Alps. The above view of the town reveals the likeness of each building.  Every structure is built with the same shape and every rooftop is identical in color and texture to the next.  Every street is just as narrow as the next one over and every street has at least one smart car taking residence.  To end our day in Bern we stopped in for a coffee at Starbucks!  Sitting down and toasting to an American sized hot chocolate was just what the doctor ordered;)

Tops of the Cathedral Spires. 

I learned many things about the city of Bern during our trip, and when Wednesday night came around I learned something else.  Fabio, our head coach had been let go and a new coach by the name of Aldo Corno had been hired.  I enjoyed Fabio as a person, but I honestly did not enjoy him much as a coach, and so this change came as a nice surprise.  The next day I learned this about our new coach, he is the most winningest coach in the history of women’s basketball in Italy.  His teams have won 12 italian championships, 6 Eurocups, 2 Ronchetti cups, 5 Italy Cups, 1  italian supercup and 1 club world championship.  He is used to coaching players of WNBA caliber.  I feel like I am being coached by John Wooden, that’s how well known and respected this guy is in Italy!  So, why is he coaching our little team?  I am not completely sure, but I think he might be doing someone a favor.  He will only coach our team for a few months and then once our season is over he’ll go right back to coaching at a higher level. Practices with him have been great and I am just thrilled to be able to learn from him.  

The weeks here have been pretty cloudy and rainy and so it was no surprise that Friday brought rain as well, but it also brought Mariah!  Mariah is a friend of mine from college and she was over in Europe for work.  She started in London, then went to Spain and ended her stay in Switzerland.  She had a couple days free at the end of her trip so she graced me with her presence and appeared at the train station on Friday night! I had most of the day free on Saturday since our game was on Sunday so Mariah and I bought two tickets and took off for Milan.  Once we were in Milan we met up with another friend of mine, Lauren.  Lauren is studying abroad in Milan and so the three of us got to hangout and catchup all afternoon!  The only downfall of the day was that it was raining, and Milan is basically an outdoor shopping center.  I didn’t have an umbrella but everyone else on the street did, which caused me to be constantly on the lookout for umbrellas that were potentially looking to poke my eyes out. Ha, everyone in Italy is shorter than I am and so when they carry their umbrellas they are at the perfect height to poke me in the face!  

Me, Mariah and Lauren in-front of the Duomo di Milano.

Darkness started to settle in Milan around 5:30pm and so did the water in our shoes.  I was glad that we stayed as long as we did, though because I had never seen the Cathedral ignited with lights at night.  

The next morning Mariah and I were 2 seconds from leaving my apartment in order to take her to the train station when I received a phone call.  Filippo, my GM, was on the line informing me that our game had been cancelled due to an avalanche that was blocking one of the tunnels.  So, Mariah put her suitcases back in her room and we made different plans for the day.  First we went to Lake Como, Italy and spent a couple hours walking along the lake and through the streets.  We were absolutely blessed because the weather was finally on our side and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.  

Mariah and I in Como, Italy.

After Como, we accompanied Cinthia to go and watch her brother play in a band for Carnivale.  Carnivale is a big party that lasts for several weeks taking place in different towns.  Many people dress up, wear face paint, eat food, drink and listen to the bands.  We will be celebrating Carnivale in 2 weeks, I’m excited to see what it’s all about!  After going to see him we decided to take Mariah to Lake Lugano.  It was an absolutely beautiful day and it was really fun to spend it with a familiar friend from home.  At 4:12pm Mariah’s train left from the Lugano train Station, so we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.  

Me, Mirko and Mariah celebrating Carnivale.

Dr. Seuss tree in Lugano.

Once at home on Sunday night I was exhausted.  The week was busy and full of new towns, new coaches, new/old faces and new food...;)  Now it’s Monday again and already the start of a new week!  This is definitely my longest e-mail yet, high-fives all around to those who are still reading!;)

Have a great week and congrats to the Gopher Ballers for their wins this past week!!!

Love,

Leslie