"The double-barrelled town 32km northeast of Murten, and almost exactly halfway between Geneva and Zürich, can get a little confusing. German-speakers call it BIEL, French speakers know it as BIENNE, but it’s Switzerland’s only officially bilingual town and so all road signs, documents and public information must be in both languages. Train timetables, maps and books always call the place Biel/Bienne, and the locals cheerfully straddle the Röstigraben without a second thought – perhaps chatting with a friend in German whilst ordering lunch in French. In addition, some forty percent of the town’s inhabitants originate from outside Switzerland, with particularly high populations of Italian and Spanish residents as well as Turks, people from the former Yugoslavia, Arabs and more. Eavesdropping can be an entertaining pastime, but it takes a certain shift in attitude in order to find your way around smoothly. Unless you’re a linguist yourself, there’s no reason why you should know that the street called Seevorstadt, for instance, is one and the same as Faubourg du Lac, or even that the body of water stretching southwest from the town is either the Bielersee or the Lac de Bienne depending on who you’re talking to.

Aside from the town’s continuous shifting between German- and French-speaking control, Biel/Bienne’s history isn’t particularly distinguished, and it was only when the railway arrived in the latter half of the nineteenth century that it began to expand beyond its old walls. Watchmaking had been a mainstay of the regional economy for a century or more, but had been suffering from the inefficiency of tiny cottage industries – there were some 350 enterprises throughout the Jura at one point, each employing a few artisans working by hand. Mechanization meant that production could be expanded and made more competitive, and Biel/Bienne took on the role of factory centre, initially for watchmaking and subsequently for precision machinery and other industries. To this day, such huge names as Omega, Rolex and Swatch maintain factories and headquarters here.

Biel/Bienne is a lively, modern town, utterly different in both style and mood from its near-neighbours Neuchâtel and Bern. The main attractions are strolling in the Old Town, dropping in on a couple of small museums and taking a boat ride on the lake or the river, but it’s also a remarkable place to spend a day acclimatizing yourself to the language and culture prevailing on the other side of the Röstigraben. "


TODAY I LEARNED MANY WONDERFUL THINGS ABOUT LIFE IN SWITZERLAND...ESPECIALLY IF YOU'RE A SICK, BORED STUDENT HOPING TO BE A TOURIST....IT SOOOO DOES NOT WORK OUT!!

THIS WEEKEND, ABOUT HALF OF THE STUDENT POPULATION IN HIM WENT TO THE ALSACE WINE TRIP.... SO....KATLEHO, CZARINA, MARIA, AND LISA DECIDED TO JOIN ME ON TOURIST DAY IN SWITZERLAND! GIRLS' ROAD TRIP...OOOH... EXCITING! HAHAHA... WE STARTED OFF BY ASKING THE LADY IN THE TRAIN STATION WHERE WE COULD GO ON A SATURDAY AFTERNOON...WE HAD THREE OPTIONS....1) GRUYERE TO SEE SOME CASTLE AND ENJOY THE CHEESE; 2) BEX TO SEE THE UNDERGROUND SALT MINES; 3) BIEL/BIENNE BECAUSE APPARENTLY ITS A WONDERFUL CITY!..... OH AND THERE WAS THE FOURTH OPTION MARIA KEPT INSISTING ON>>> GRANDSON TO SEE THE TORTURE CHAMBERS MWAHAHAHA.... UHNOO....

SO, BEING THE OH SO IMPRESSIONABLE STUDENTS THAT WE ARE, WE FOLLOWED THE TICKET LADY'S ADVICE:: "OH YES, I THINK ITS BETTER YOU GO TO BIEL/BIENNE...ITS A NICE CITY LIKE MONTREUX...BIG BUT LIKE MONTREUX..."...... CURIOUSLY UNCERTAIN...WE SAID YES AND BOUGHT OUR TICKETS...

SO, WE WENT ON OUR MERRY WAY HOPING FOR AN ADVENTURE....ABOUT 45 MINUTES INTO THE TRIP, THE REST OF THE GIRLS STARTED GETTING MOTION SICKNESS FROM SITTING OPPOSITE THE TRAIN'S DIRECTION... SO I DECIDED TO SIT IN THE AREA WHERE THERE WERE BENCHES AND A PLACE FOR THE SKI EQUIPMENT... MUCH MORE COMFORTABLE... LESSON #2 COMES IN THE FORM OF NEVER AND I REPEAT NEVER TRY TO DANCE OCHO OCHO ON THE TRAIN!! POOR MARIA LEARNED THE HARD WAY.. HAHAHA...
SO, AS WE ALL ARRIVED IN BIEL/BIENNE EXUBERANT FOR THE ADVENTURE AHEAD, LITTLE DID WE KNOW WE WERE IN FOR A REAL TREAT...AND i MEAN REAAAAALLLL SHIIIITTY TREAT!!

WE GOT OFF THE TRAIN STATION AND FIRST IMPRESSIONS, IN THIS ADVENTURE'S CASE, DON'T LAST... AT FIRST, WE THOUGHT IT WAS ACTUALLY A NICE CITY...WITH THE CHARM OF ZURICH AND LUZERN....HOWEVERRRRR....WE GOT A RUDE AWAKENING TRYING TO FIND OUT WHERE THE OLD TOWN WAS AND WHEN WE FOUND IT, THERE WAS COMPLETELY NOTHING THERE! JUST SOME FOUNTAIN WE AMUSED AT AND TOOK A PICTURE OF THEN WE ENDED UP MEANDERING AND WONDERING AROUND THE SPOOKY OLD TOWN WHERE KATLEHO AND I TRULY TRULY BELIEVE THE MOVIE "THE GATHERING" WAS FILMED.... AIMLESSLY WE WANDERED LIKE LOST CHILDREN IN A FOREST OF GHETTO BUILDINGS, URBAN HOMES, AND STRANGE SMELLING PARKS... FOLLOW THE STREAM... IT WILL LEAD TO THE LAKE... WE ALL THOUGHT... YES.. WE FOLLOWED THE GODDAMN STREAM FOR LIKE AN HOUR AND A HALF...OBSERVATION: BIEL IS SO FAMILY-ORIENTED... WE SAW ONLY FAMILIES OR HAPPY COUPLES WITH THEIR DOGS (WHICH IN SWITZERLAND MAY ALREADY BE CONSIDERED A FAMILY...HAHAHA...) AFTER ADMIRING THE DAMN LAKE FOR 10 MINUTES WE DECIDED TO FIND CIVILIZATION....HOWEVER, UP TO NOW WE STILL DID NOT FIND PROSPECTIVE CLIENTS FOR MARIA AND KATLEHO (I THINK THERE IS A GREATER DROUGHT IN BIEL GIRLS...HAHAHAHA)...SO...WALKING...WALKING...HEARING OUR VOICES ECHO IN THE GHETTO STREETS OF BIEL, WE STOPPED ONCE EVERY SO OFTEN TO ADMIRE THE CLOSED AND ABANDONED STORES, RESTAURANTS, AND HOTELS OF BIEL... OH SO FABULOUS... AND IT WAS ALREADY DARK AT 5:30PM....CREEEEEPY.....I THINK WE WERE THE FIRST ACTUAL TOURISTS WHO EVER SET FOOT IN BIEL....HOW F*CKING LUCKY WERE WE?! HAHAHA... SO FINALLY, WE SAW THE TRAIN STATION AND REALIZED....WE MADE A DAMN 360 DEGREE TOUR OF BIEL!! WHAT EXERCISE! BY THIS TIME I WAS ALREADY CRAVING...NO IN NEED OF A DRINK! WE WENT TO THE ART DECO HOTEL'S BAR WHERE WE SETTLED DOWN TO CONTEMPLATE ON OUR DAY'S JOURNEY.... AFTER SOME AMARETTO SOURS, PINA COLADAS, AND SOME SORRY EXCUSE FOR A BELLINI, WE LAUGHED TO OURSELVES AND DECIDED IT WAS TIME TO GO HOME...BUUUUUT, WE REALIZED OUR TRAIN HOME WAS AT 7:19PM SO...WE CROSSED THE STREET (DREDDING TO MAKE ANOTHER MISADVENTURE) TO GO GRAB SOME GRUB! AND THANK GOD, THE FOOD WAS GOOD...IT WAS THE MAKE OR BREAK DEAL FOR BIEL... THE FOOD WAS GOOD BUT I WAS A BIT UNDER TIME PRESSURE TO EAT..............SO, WE CAUGHT OUR TRAIN BACK HOME THINKING THE MISADVENTURE WAS OVER....NAY...... THERE WERE EIGHT "PIECES" OF CHILDREN SCREAMING THEIR ASSES OFF ON THE TRAIN.. I SWEAR TO GOD I WANT TO WRITE A PETITION TO ALL PUBLIC TRANSPORTATIONS OPERATORS TO SEDATE CHILDREN BEFORE THEY'RE ALLOWED TO TRAVEL....SO WHEN THE KIDS GOT OFF WITH THEIR MILDLY HARRASSED FATHER/CHAPPERONE/DICKHEAD, WE WERE AT PEACE...CONTEMPLATING ON THE MEMORY OF THE FALSLY ADVERTISED CITY OF BIEL... A CITY WITH A NOT SO PULSATING NEW TOWN (MORE OF GHETTO), AND A NOT SO CHARMING (MORE OF ABANDONED) OLD TOWN....
WE ARRIVED IN MONTREUX FILLED WITH SO MUCH LOVE FOR OUR BEAUTIFUL HOME...A PLACE WHERE THERE ACTUALLY IS LIFE AND WHERE YOUR VOICE DOESNT ECHO AT 5PM.... I GOT OFF THE TRAIN RENEWED...LOVING EVERY CORNER AND CREVICE OF MONTREUX....I COULDN'T HELP BUT SHED A TEAR AND KISS THE HOLY GROUNDS OF OUR BELOVED MONTREUX....! AMEN!!!!


*No Stress. Life is Good.*