december 30 1996 - day four - besancon-interlaken

when i woke up this morning, i noticed a bit of snow coming down. from laura's balcony, this flutter of snow turned into a near blizzard and it has snowed all day long. we started off off very early this morning (before the sun) and caught the 8:30 train that would take us into switzerland. our train in dole was 30 minutes late; which sucked because we were outside the entire time, in the pouring snow. anyway, we ended up in lousanne and eventually, bern. in bern, we ate at a restaurant and came to one startling fact...none of us speak german. french, covered. spanish, covered. german, nope. after more than an hour fumbling through communication at this restaurant, we finally got out. the food was great though. we then caught our train to interlaken. we got in here about 5 or so.
there are a lot of little stores and places here that looked pretty neat, but by the time we got to balmer's, our hostel, and back, they were all closed.

balmer's is pretty stinkin' great. it's just as a friend told me; just like summer camp. there are a ton of other americans here (maybe too many) and it's pretty laid back so far. tomorrow, we are going to go sledding in the alps. i really hope the snow lets up a little so we can see some of the views. i'd hate to be in switzerland and not see it.
well, we ate dinner tonight of fondue and two things were quite interesting: one, the cade factor* was bumped from hypothesis to theory. also, we stole stephen king's soul.** more later.

outside balmer's - interlaken
* -the cade factor is a phenomenon that surrounds me in most group dining situations. if there is a chance that i will get screwed out of my meal, it will happen. i've been skipped, forgotten, ignored, had food dropped on several occasions, and charged for things i didn't order, just to name a few instances. this time: wrong food and charged for two meals.

** -in some cultures, it is believed that a camera will capture the subject's soul. and therefore looked down upon. at dinner, a man strongly resembling a certain american horror novelist entered the restaurant. unable to determine amongst us, if it was, in fact, said novelist, we decided to sneak a picture for future research. upon doing so, the king doppleganger became upset and moved to a different room. whether mr. king is of the aforementioned beliefs, or was even in interlaken, switzerland that night, remains to be argued.
click to examine more thoroughly

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