Cheese and Bars...Wait, Am I Back in Wisconsin??

{Actually written Sunday, August 24, 2008, 2:30 PM Swiss time}
Yesterday was absolutely incredible. It started off slowly - I got up late, yet again {not much seems to happen here in the morning, and I'm trying to get rid of this cold as quickly as possible}, but once we'd all eaten some lunch {around 3 PM} and the weather improved, and after playing The Sims in French {which is wicked funny, but not as much fun as the Sims mischief Caitlin and I perpetrated in sixth grade}, we decided to head to Gruyères. That's right, folks; the village where they make the cheese - the real Gruyères, anyway. It's an ancient walled town from the medieval era, with a château, an old church and, of course, lots of shops and restaurants for all of the tourists to visit. And they do. Gruyères is, in fact, the most visited place in all of Switzerland. To be fair, the country is no bigger than the state of Indiana, but as a tourist, I'd say that there's still a fair amount to see and do, depending on the time of year - historical villages and landmarks, parasailing, lots of lakes {and therefore, beaches}, festivals {most notably the jazz festival at Montreux}, and more mountains than you can shake a baton at. But I digress.
After a winding car trip through the mountains {actually, that's the only kind of car trip you can take here; fortunately for my stomach, this was a short one}, we arrived in Gruyères.

I don't know why there's a random person next to us, but I thought it would give this photo more character. No pun intended.


It's very tiny and obviously quite old; one of the newer buildings is dated 1655. It reminded me a bit of Concarneau and Locronan in Bretagne, but the really cool part about it is that it's nestled in the green hills of Switzerland, so the background of each building is breathtaking, be it tacky tourist shop,


Cow bells - the one on the right is the size of my head. There are apparently very large cows somewhere in Switzerland. I haven't seen them yet.

castle stronghold,


...or the Museum Giger. Imagine all of the works of the morbid mind behind the "Alien" movies, and a creepy café where you can sip your latte in the company of faux skeletons. Now imagine it inside a medieval walled city in Switzerland. None of the others was too keen to go in, and we wanted to explore the rest of the village before dark, so unfortunately, I have only two photos. But someday, I will enter that museum with one of the many folks I have roped into watching scary movies with me. It could be you.


The museum *shudder*


The café ceiling

The village was otherwise very normal for what it is; we ran into an old friend of Olivier, whose wife congratulated me for speaking French without an American accent. Woo hoo! On that subject, I've been faring quite well, with the exception of the times when I'm pretty tired. But yes, we passed the horrifying museum and continued on to more gorgeous views,



and the castle.



Earlier, Virgil had lamented the bad weather, but the clouds actually made everything cooler to look at. The castle itself isn't too ornate, but Carole told me a great story about its inhabitants. There was a count who lived there once upon a time, who fell in love with a peasant girl {actually, she was just really pretty, but you get the picture}. He kidnapped her and made her his wife, but what he didn't know was that she was in love with another peasant. The man she loved came to the castle in disguise, and the countess, recognizing him, convinced her husband to hire him as a music teacher. As soon as it was dark, they stole away and commenced their very own happily ever after.
We returned to the maison "Robinson", where Isabella informed me that Virgil and his friends would be going out to Lausanne, and I could join them if I wished. Needless to say, I was wicked excited - European nightlife! People my age! What to wear? Virgil said I didn't need to change, so I tiptoed around my room pretending to be busy while he showered and otherwise made himself beautiful {a long-running joke in the family Rozumek is Virgil's vanity and, in fact, he checks himself out in every reflective surface that we pass}. Finally, around 8:30, we left with Gabriel, who is the only other sibling allowed to go to bars and clubs, as he is also over 18. We took the backroads instead of going through town, racing at 90 kph up and down the green hills on one-lane farm roads with an up-tempo version of "Caravan" and a mountain sunset in the background. At 9, we arrived at Yannick's house, where I met Yannick, "Bryce" {real name: Benoît}, Valentin and his twin brother {real name: unknown}, Susana, and Lucas. Doing les bises {the European cheek-kissing hello} has led me to conclude that European girls' cheeks are very soft, and guys' are not - I practically got beard burn just from greeting everyone. We then took two cars to Lausanne, and I had the, er, fortune of being in the car that was playing a CD of Québécois death metal {including a song about potatoes being delicious}.
At "Taco's Bar", we all chatted and had a generally good time. Everyone was very receptive toward me, despite what we all hear about the French being rude and hating Americans {although you should never confuse the Swiss with the French; trust me, neither group likes it}. I spent most of the time there talking to Lucas and Yannick about my French, the Olympics, politics, and various differences among France, Switzerland, and the U.S. Lucas likes to speak English with a British accent; he's very outgoing and funny and reminds me of Ugo from Brest. Yannick is tall and looks remarkably like Colin Farrell - only of Peruvian ancestry and, well, speaking French. Susana is his cousin who's visiting from Peru; she studies modern languages, so we had a good chat on that subject. Valérie, another of his cousins, arrived later; she's the model of the chic European woman, but very sweet and easy to relate to. The other three guys I didn't interact with as much, but they all enjoyed butchering the French language {and occasionally attempting to speak English} with me.
We all had a vague plan of going to a discothèque {dance club}, but the lines were apparently too long, so we actually just ended up wandering around downtown Lausanne for a few hours, then sitting by the lake before deciding that it was definitely time to sleep. However, with the 20-minute trek back to the vehicles, 30-minute drive back to Yannick's, 10-minute detour to drop Yannick off at his girlfriend's house in Bulle, and 30-minute overall drive to chez Rozumek, our 3 AM bedtime became a 4:30 AM bedtime by default. I collapsed in Carole's bed and slept very well for the next few hours, minus occasional sniffling. On that note, a warning to those who visit Switzerland: there is no such thing as a tissue here. Either that, or they are all freaks of nature who never get head colds; I haven't decided which.