Even cloudy days can be spectacular...

It never ceases to amaze me how you can go 15 minutes in another direction from your home and it feels like another world.  This is exactly what happened Friday afternoon.  We decided to go to Carouge, Switzerland; sometimes known as the “Greenwich Village of Geneva”. It is a cute area of Geneva located on the water full of unique restaurants and boutiques.  It is modeled off of small villages in Italy; the buildings are painted in pastel colors  there are beautiful churches and fountains.  We walked around, looked in ships, took pictures and found a small restaurant that has Rösti, a Swiss dish, it is like a big latke and it can be served with a variety of things cooked into it or on top, I got mine with cheese and a salad.  It was delicious!!  The restaurant was small, there was a group of 9 of us and I believe we took up over half of the restaurant! The walls were decorated with framed cat puzzles.  It was so funny!  The bathroom even had large posters of cats and bright blue toilet paper; it was quite an interesting place!  I ordered a tap water and they charged me 2 Francs!!!  It was absurd, the whole situation was funny we just had to laugh.  After, we all had a craving for ice cream but we could not find anything that was open.  We were walking around enjoying the evening when we saw an elderly man eating gelato.  Ami ran over and asked him where he got it and he explained it and told us it was “magnifique”…how could we turn that down!  We followed his directions and they led us to Gelato Mania!  The gentleman was right… it was magnifique!  They had such interesting flavors; I had ½ cinnamon and ½ vanilla with chocolate chips! We ate alongside the fountain in the center of Carouge, trying to enjoy the good weather while it lasts! 

This morning I woke up in time for breakfast and headed to the train station with Stephen, Kelly, and Alison!  I used my ½ Swiss pass card to get a ticket to Gruyere via Luasanne.  The ride from here to Lausanne is about 40 minutes, and from Luasanne to Gruyere it is another 40 minutes.  We arrived and saw someone we knew! It’s crazy how small the world is!  At Gruyere we went to the Gruyere Cheese Making Factory! They were starting the cheese making in an hour and a half so we decided to eat lunch first.  We got DELICIOUS fondue, it's made with cheese that was made in the same building!! We ate it with bread and potatoes! 

It was neat and we got to see the process from start to finish!  We sampled different cheeses and then bought come cheese along with chocolate…they had quite a selection.  We bought chocolate with pistachio, cereal, honey, orange, and even absinthe!  We then walked into the town, it was about a 15 minute walk and we passed a pasture with many cows with wreaths on their head and huge bells around their necks!  It was cloudy and rainy and still managed to be beautiful!!!  It appeared as if the clouds were right in the middle of the mountains.  Cloudy, rainy, and gray…it was still spectacular!  The town of Gruyere is really cute and has a lot of art, museums, and culture.  I as very pleasantly surprised! We walked up to the Chateau, a castle on the top of the hill, and saw a wedding!!  It was beautiful! 

O-H-I-O on Chateau Gruyere

 After Gruyere we hoped on the train and bumped into two other girls from our program who were headed to Montreux; we couldn’t believe it!!  We got off at Lausanne and walked down to the water.  It was absolutely stunning.  The way the clouds, sky, and water all blended together was remarkable. We took the subway to Notre Dame and climbed up A LOT of stairs to the top for an AWESOME view of the city!  After a long day we were happy and tired and hungry and hopped back on the train to go home!  Got home, made dinner, watched the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy (for all my GA addict friends---WHOA!), and hung out in Le Cenacle!  Tomorrow Stephen and I are planning on going hiking!  We will probably go to the Saleve Mountain; hopefully it won’t rain tomorrow!!  Off to bed! 

Don’t forget to check out pics!  I added some to the ‘Geneva!’ album and the ‘Gruyere and Lausanne’ album is new!!  http://picasaweb.google.com/samanthaebloom

Great win today Buckeyes!  Would love bbm updates of the Ravens game tomorrow!!!

Lots of love from the land of cheese and chocolate!!  xoxo