Mes Parents à Fribourg

My parents arrived in Switzerland the day I got back from spring break, and I was exhausted, but it was so nice to see them. The first thing I did was to take them to Chocolat Villard which is the chocolate factory in Fribourg that produces our canton's chocolate. We ordered hot chocolates, which are made the way hot chocolate should be--melting real chocolate. Then I took them on an abbreviated tour of Fribourg before the sun started to set, through the old city and across the Sarine. After that they settled in the hotel and we went out to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant even though they had just come from Italy. I tried to do most of the talking in these places because my mom's french is a little rusty/hard to understand and my dad's is nonexistant. Sometimes he would speak to the waiters in English as if they knew what he was saying--nope. Anyway it's more funny than anything else and eating out in Switzerland was definitely a change.

That night was Monday night, so somehow, I managed to go out to Kasia's birthday party and crazy monday after getting almost no sleep in the previous 2 days, I'm sure that didn't help my recovery, but you gotta do what you gotta do. (I chose this picture also because of all the happiness!)














The next morning I almost went to class, well I went, saw it was going to be in German, and snuck out. Then I took my parents to Gruyère. Somehow we got lost on the way, my dad drove over a raised rotary instead of around it, and we almost got all the way down to Montreux. Turns out we made a wrong turn when we were right there, and I think that decision was probably my fault. When we did actually get there, we went to the cheese factory of Gruyère in time for the tour and demonstration! They gave us cheese samples and a headset where Daisy the cow told us the story of milk and cheese production in Switzerland. Then the demonstration involved them turning on a machine that stirred the milk curds. We agreed that the highlight of this experience was the cheese samples. I do not recommend the museum-esque part.

After Daisy, we hiked up the trail to the old city of Gruyère.














It is a small town on a hill with a sweet castle on one side. Every restaurant was offering Fondue and Raclette and Quiche, basically the exact same menu so I wonder how they all stay in business. It was still pretty early after we saw the whole (small) city, so we decided to get a map and take a hike.














The trail went down from the city to the river where we passed by the cows responsible for the famous cheese.
(The one on the right ;-) ) (just kidding, mom!)













I kept mooing at the cows to all look at me at the same time and voilà!














Right before we were about to cross a covered bridge, a street cleaner passed by us and decided to "clean" it first--typical Swiss right? Problem was that it stirred up so much dust and dirt that was trapped that we couldn't cross for a really long time. Once the dirt settled we crossed and took this path along the river.














It was a beautiful nature walk, I wouldn't call it a hike. On our way back, it started to rain even though the sun was out, so we got soaked really fast but then it stopped just as suddenly as it started. The hike back up to Gruyère was tough on my parents, so I gave my mom a piggy back ride for some of it. When we got up to the city it was time for raclette, especially since I had never tried it before. We pretty much did eeny meeny miny mo to choose the restaurant and went inside a cute looking one. We got raclette for the 3 of us which was a block of gruyere cheese on a melting block that you scraped off every time the top layer melted and applied to potatoes, pickles, onions, and bread.














It didn't see too different from fondue to me; the only difference was that you bring the cheese to the food instead of the food to the cheese. I guess there is not much flexibility with melted cheese meals.

Then it was Wednesday and I had classes in the middle of the day, so they went to Montreux without me to see where I will be working this summer and have now explored the city more than I have. I took them to my favorite view of Fribourg and a much bigger tour of the city.




























That night, since we were already in the basse-ville, we stayed there for drinks and dinner. We went to this restaurant on the German side and when it came to ordering drinks, I didn't know the French translations. The only 2 I knew were rum and coke and gin and tonic, neither of which I wanted and I don't think the waitress believed I was old enough to drink hard liquor anyway so I felt embarrassed and pressured and ended up without a drink. That was a weird experience. Then we went in to eat and I had fresh lake fish from Neuchatel and it was ok again.

The next day, my parents and I went up to the top of the cathedrale st-nicolas--another thing I had been waiting to do till they came. The view was great, 360 degrees only interrupted by gothic spires.




























Then we went in and checked out the inside of the cathedral. (Giant organ)



















Next stop was Yverdon-les-bains to go to the thermal baths. We drove to Yverdon and explored a little around the tiny city and then walked along the lake (Neuchâtel).














I finalllly got my mom to drink out of a public fountain (you can drink out of almost any in Switzerland) but she only did it because it was shaped like a turtle and I did it first.














We went back to the baths, and went through the 3 different outdoor pools of different temperatures with different relaxation stations. It smelled of sulfur and other minerals, but I think that stuff is good for your skin. In the hottest bath, there was a flashing light that I thought meant get out youve been in too long! But it in fact signaled station changes as a series of jets massaged you starting from you ankles and ending at your neck, I felt like jello after! Since none of us knew we had to bring our own towels we headed to the solar room to dry off and my dad and i ended up passing out. When we got up we tried to find lunch, but it was about 3 or 4 in the afternoon and apparently they don't serve food at that time in Swiss restaurants, just drinks until dinner. Instead we found a grocery store that had pizza and ate it in the central plaza. While we were eating a team of police men and police dogs ran by. They were training the dogs and who had to track down this guy that was running in and out of shops, they got a nice big crowd to watch and when the dog succeeded everybody clapped, yay! When we got back to Fribourg we had a really nice dinner again, not bad having your parents visit.

Friday was my parents last full day in la suisse, so we took a trip to Interlaken to see the my favorite place in springtime.














I think I preferred it when it was snowy and the mountains were majestic and white instead of green, but it was still beautiful. We took a long walk around one of the lakes, but with only 3ish hours on the car meter.

































So when we were half way and there was a restaurant nearby we almost had to run, but never found it because the guy pointing it out to us had us look for this red thing and I think we all saw a different red thing--oh yeah I see it/it's right next to that--and had to turn back. Around that time, the typical afternoon mountain storm rolled in and we were hurrying through it. We stopped to get lunch, but realized we didn't have time and went the rest of the way back.

When we got back to Interlaken and somehow like 3 hours were still left on our parking meter (so glad we rushed back), but we drove to the other side of the city anyway. There we found a cute cafe for lunch and tried to practice our German, and then got souvenirs for all my family members. We checked out the old city--somewhat of a disapointment since there's nothing there, really--then saw the casino which my dad claims he remembered from his last visit.
The casino is beautiful and surrounded by flowers and the alps and has a great reception room, if it weren't so far away from the us i'd consider having my wedding there ;-)
















The great thing about the city of Interlaken is that you can see the alps at the end of every road



















and also that they have signs like this one: I'm sorry, I had to...














By the time we got back to Fribourg, the 2 weeks of constantly doing things and not getting any sleep had caught up to me and I felt really sick. Since they were leaving early in the morning, I decided to come out to dinner anyway and just get some soup. We went to another nice restaurant--where I saw my belgian symbolism teacher but didn't say bon soir because he was in a big group--and I got some good soup and weird conversations with the waiter. He was an interesting fellow and I'll leave it at that. Then I said goodbye to my parents and stayed in. and slept.


Further Swiss Observations (some of which I've come up with since, but I have no idea the exact time I first observe these things, I'm not perfect, you know):
-Gas is super expensive, you don't realize it until you try driving here.
-Rotaries are meant to be driven around and not through.
-Some of the highway signs are in purple--feels like you're in Disney World.
-Spring in Switzerland is either gorgeous or rainy but mostly rainy, my parents lucked out.
-Raclette and fondue are not very different.
-Swiss cheese factory tours are not worth your time. Swiss cheese is.
-Rules are rules and are not meant to be bent or broken, but followed.
-There are cows everywhere here and they eat well and do hill work outs. You should see some of the slopes they live on.
-Window screens don't exist.
-Doors must be closed during class.
-Saying bonjour/bonsoir/hallo is more of a formality than a friendly greeting.
-Sports bras are discouraged.
-Capris for men on the other hand are accepted and even encouraged.
-People have no shame in giving you the once (or twice) over.