I keep forgetting to write here. Europe has been keeping me busy. For now, just some pictures:

Unfortunately I do not have a photo to prove this....however, last weekend I found bathroom vending machines selling not just the usual items, but also thongs. In a scout camp no less. Do girl scouts really need emergency thongs? Is it even appropriate for the adults at the camp to be using them with all those kids around? I don't understand why a simple tampon vending machine wasn't enough. The place allowed non-scouts, but they shouldn't want to encourage the type of behavior that would cause someone to need a vending machine thong.

What makes it even stranger is that I haven't seen these things anywhere else. Maybe they're making money off teenagers who want to sneakily buy thongs and condoms? Perhaps that was the cheapest bathroom vending. Who knows if there were even thongs in there. Still, it's incomprehensible considering the location.

It's all Lauter and Brunnen out there.

This weekend I went hiking in Lauterbrunnen with Jen and two of her friends from CERN. It was amazing--the world's deepest valley, surrounded by the Bernese Alps. We took a cable car from the town to a farming village on one of the lower peaks, then attempted to hike to the top of the Schilthorn.

There were amazing views the entire way up. The weather was just right--not too warm for hiking, mostly clear skies with only a bit of mist over the mountains.

The fields up there were full of flowers. I have no idea what all the cows and sheep eat. There were more flowers than grass in the cow pastures. But maybe that's the secret to Swiss chocolate (which, by the way, is as good as they say it is).


The lower pastures were full of brown milk cows. They were taking their afternoon nap when we passed them, but normally you hear a chorus of ringing bells whenever there's a herd around. The same goes for sheep, although they tend to make loud noises like a man having trouble in the bathroom...
The sheep were on a fairly steep slope, but they had an amazing view.



The farthest we reached was this little backhoe. It was a unexpected to find this on top of a mountain, and I find the picture a bit ridiculous... You can see the dark clouds that were just about to dump hail on us.
If it was only rain, we would have kept going. The weather wasn't quite so kind that day. Rain turned to hail and then to bigger hail. Fortunately we had just passed a shed, so we ran back and waited in its doorway for the hail to pass. Mountain weather can change very quickly. Next time I think we will remember to bring rain gear in case of a storm.

The next day we attempted to go hiking on the opposite peak, but it started raining again. Of course it stopped just as we got on the train to leave. Oh well...

While exploring Edinburgh, I saw a nice church and noticed it offered free organ concerts. I stopped by and it was quite impressive. The next day I found out this was the birthplace of Presbyterianism--St. Giles' Cathedral.



Scotland was nice. The Queen of England must've heard I was coming, because she came to Edinburgh the day after me. Haha!

Pictures from Geneva will be up soon. I'm in Zurich now.

Geneve

It's strange being that person who can't speak the language. Even in England people thought I had a funny accent. A surprising number of people here in Geneva know English, but it's still difficult to be understood.
CERN is interesting. So many physicists in one place. It's so big it has its own ambulance and fire truck.

Edinburgh is an interesting place. Lots of old stone buildings, not so much green stuff. And of course....there's a castle!
Edinburgh castle is built on the core of an ancient volcano. It's enormous... The place got too crowded before I could see all of it, but it was a good experience.

The city's other landmark, Arthur's Seat, is another volcano core. It was a good hike up to the top. Quite a contrast to see such an untouched area after all the stone buildings.