My trip to Bern
I went to Bern today. Not because I particularly care for Bern, but out of necessity. In fact, I find Bern to be kind of boring. But anyway, I had to pay a visit to the US Embassy, which is in Bern. Fortunately, it's only an hour train ride from Basel so I was there and back in no time at all. I needed to go to the embassy to get more pages added to my passport. Some might find this to be a major accomplishment, showing how much travel I've done. But for some reason I was procrastinating it forever. I don't know why I didn't want to do it, but I guess now I feel like I'm going to have all these empty pages in my passport and my traveling days are sure to slow down in the coming months! All those pages will just sit empty and lonely with no stamps in them!
So after much urging from Kirk (he had to do the same thing last August), I finally broke down and went to Bern today. I had to go this week because I'm flying to Wisconsin next week (yippee!) and I know that the US immigration people won't be able to find any blank spaces in which to stamp my passport. It's funny, because a lot of places that I've traveled don't even stamp it (eg. Switzerland), so I'm suprised I've managed to fill it up. The US ALWAYS stamps it-- both coming in and leaving. Switzerland NEVER stamps it. They don't even look at it. They just see it's an American passport and wave me through. Last time I landed in Zurich and went through immigration (I guess I was coming home from Amsterdam), I asked the guy if he could stamp my passport. He looked at me like I was crazy. I pleaded with him. "I live in Basel, but I don't even have a Switzerland stamp!" He still looked at me like I was crazy, but went ahead and stamped it with the most boring country stamp ever.
Thankfully, the trip down to Bern was uneventful, and I had to spend a grand total of about 10 minutes at the embassy. I didn't have to wait in any lines while all the poor non-US citizens waiting for visas or something had to stand outside in the pouring rain. I had heard some very mixed reviews of the friendliness and helpfulness of embassy staff in Bern, but my experience was nothing but positive.
Afterward, I did a bit of window shopping which was possible only because most of the shopping district in Bern is somewhat covered so I didn't have to be out in the pouring rain. I found that to be quite boring considering they have exactly all the same stores we have in Basel. I never find anything I like here, so why would I find anything I like there? I stopped in a nice cafe/restaurant and ate an early lunch with all the elderly early-bird lunchers (seriously, I think I was the only one under the age of 60 in there) and then headed back to Basel. For lunch, I ordered something that slightly resembled a hamburger, which reminded of how annoyed I get about why Swiss restaurants have never figured out how to make a real cheeseburger. Seriously, don't get me started on this topic. A whopper from Burger King is probably your best bet in this country. Aren't there enough expats here starving for a cheeseburger that someone would open up a burger joint? Don't get me wrong, I do love the food here, but sometimes I just want a cheeseburger!
So after much urging from Kirk (he had to do the same thing last August), I finally broke down and went to Bern today. I had to go this week because I'm flying to Wisconsin next week (yippee!) and I know that the US immigration people won't be able to find any blank spaces in which to stamp my passport. It's funny, because a lot of places that I've traveled don't even stamp it (eg. Switzerland), so I'm suprised I've managed to fill it up. The US ALWAYS stamps it-- both coming in and leaving. Switzerland NEVER stamps it. They don't even look at it. They just see it's an American passport and wave me through. Last time I landed in Zurich and went through immigration (I guess I was coming home from Amsterdam), I asked the guy if he could stamp my passport. He looked at me like I was crazy. I pleaded with him. "I live in Basel, but I don't even have a Switzerland stamp!" He still looked at me like I was crazy, but went ahead and stamped it with the most boring country stamp ever.
Thankfully, the trip down to Bern was uneventful, and I had to spend a grand total of about 10 minutes at the embassy. I didn't have to wait in any lines while all the poor non-US citizens waiting for visas or something had to stand outside in the pouring rain. I had heard some very mixed reviews of the friendliness and helpfulness of embassy staff in Bern, but my experience was nothing but positive.
Afterward, I did a bit of window shopping which was possible only because most of the shopping district in Bern is somewhat covered so I didn't have to be out in the pouring rain. I found that to be quite boring considering they have exactly all the same stores we have in Basel. I never find anything I like here, so why would I find anything I like there? I stopped in a nice cafe/restaurant and ate an early lunch with all the elderly early-bird lunchers (seriously, I think I was the only one under the age of 60 in there) and then headed back to Basel. For lunch, I ordered something that slightly resembled a hamburger, which reminded of how annoyed I get about why Swiss restaurants have never figured out how to make a real cheeseburger. Seriously, don't get me started on this topic. A whopper from Burger King is probably your best bet in this country. Aren't there enough expats here starving for a cheeseburger that someone would open up a burger joint? Don't get me wrong, I do love the food here, but sometimes I just want a cheeseburger!
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