day 8, bern again!

yesterday night had dinner at the hostel which was lovely, really simply cooked chicken and these potatoes things, but was really tasty and well done, proper nice cauliflower soup and a very average desert, which i couldn't tell if it was a light cake or a mousse! I met a really nice lady called Ann, born in london but lives in cape town, and just seems to spend her retirement jetting around the world, location being dictated by the cheapest flights and which friends she can stay with! I then got on the internet and sorted out my next stop, have bought me ticket to lauterbrunnen, just south of interlaken for friday at midday, and have booked a hostel for 4 nights. really looking forward to lauterbrunnen as it is in the jungfrau region and there are loads of waterfalls surrounding it, including one which you can see from the hostel! I've become a member of the yha, which seems to be a big thing in switzerland, a 3 year membership was 20 quid and in bern alone i've saved 8 quid for staying two nights, so that's all good! it was still bucket-ing down so went back to me room and had a cracking chat with Chris (the canadian) and this japanese bloke who goes to uni in bath. was very interesting and fun, finding out different bits about each other's culture and the like. Woke up just before 9 after a amazing sleep to catch breakfast, which was good, then headed into the town centre (only 5 mins away from the hostel). i went with chris and Tiago, a brazilian 38yr old who's a architect and was sharing the room, and had a look around the city, gathering different bits of information and learning a bit about the history behind it. Chris went off to the library, so me and tiago walked around for a few hours, to no where in particular and had a good old chat, he was a proper sound bloke. among other things in bern they have what they call a bear pit, which is part of a hill they've fenced off and have some bears just mooch about, was quite surreal. we left the city centre and went to a suburb, passed a anti nuclear protest where people seemed to have set up a permanent camp outside this post building, like the one outside westminister, however this being switzerland it wasn't full of tramps or booze bottles, they had even built a vegetable patch! we stumbled across a botanical garden which was real pretty. at 2 tiago left to catch a train to a city which he couldn't remember (so i have no luck) so i carried on my wandering round the city. i got some chinese food which was proper nice, sat on a bench on this terrace with a cracking view of a mountain and across the river Aar. I picked up a book in basel called the vesivous club, by mark gatiss (i think one of the blokes behind the league of gentleman) and it's bloody brilliant, about a portrait artist of questionable intergrity in edwardian times, who happens to be a secret service agent on the side. so for a couple of hours it went walk for a bit, find a bench and read, walk... was amazing. i got back to the hostel about 6, still full from my chinese, so thought i'd go for a swim. was looking forward to it immensely, it's 300m down the road, turned in to the pool compound and this angry swiss woman starts shouting that they are closed, she said in in bad weather they close at 6. bollocks. def want to go before i leave so will wake up a bit earlier and head off in the morning. not much planned for this evening, may get a snack from somewhere, wander around or see if i can bump into anyone in the lobby, then hit the hay. tomorrow go for a swim then off to lauterbrunnen at midday! can't wait!