“Bern”ing up

With only one month left in Bern, the capital of Switzerland, I’m starting to take into stock all of the things I’ll miss when I leave this strange, wonderful city.

The first thing I’ll miss will be Switzerland’s natural beauty. Of course Australia is also breathtaking in its own outback, dusty way, but it’s a completely different scene here. Below you’ll see the view you get from the train window; I personally prefer this over the views you’d get on a train from Town hall to Central in Sydney.

I’ll also miss the abundance of SNOW here! Sure, sometimes when you’re late to university and you need to cycle extra hard, the last thing you’ll want is a sleet of tiny snowballs pelting you on your journey. But coming from the mostly snow-less Australia, even these moments are novel and exciting, no matter how inconvenient they may be. This article’s featured image was taken at Grindelwald, where I went to go snowboarding.

Speaking of university, I have to admit that I’ve really fallen in love with Unibe (University of Bern). Their mascot is a bear!! UTS’s mascot is a lizard. Not only are the facilities and libraries wonderful, but the buildings themselves have a”Hogwarts”-ian vibe to them, as you can see below:

Finally, I think what I’ll miss most from my exchange is all of the traveling I did with my friends (below is a photo of our group at the John Lennon Wall in Prague). One of the benefits of coming to Switzerland is its central location to Europe. During my time here I’ve been to London, Strasbourg, Freiburg, pretty much all of Italy, Prague, and Budapest, and I’m still planning to go to Dijon, Vienna, Bratislava, Slovenia, Croatia, Germany, and Greece. While I’m not fulfilling my (retrospectively over-ambitious) goal to visit every country in Europe, I’m checking off quite a few. Being able to travel to so many exciting places with the amazing friends you make is definitely the most rewarding aspect of studying abroad, and even when I return to Australia I hope to continue to hold onto that traveling mentality.

Liebe Grüsse!

Olivia

PS: Apologies for the pun.