Strasbourg

It was a good opportunity to visit France when one of my French-speaking friends (Marc) from the Berlin language course asked if I wanted to go to Strasbourg. This was the second weekend in a row traveling to a country where I know even less of the language than I know German. Next week will be the third in a row (Rome).
Strasbourg is a medium sized town on the Rhine river, just across the border from Kehl. It was about an 1:15 busride from Freiburg.
Strasbourg was very beautiful. I enjoyed the cathedral and the old-style buildings that surround the center of the city.

22nd Birthday at the Kastaniengarten

The biergarten is located in the woods surrounding Freiburg, and offers a great view of the city! It was packed because it was student night: buy one get one free. The beer was delicious and I had a lot of fun talking with my lab partners :)

Lugano, Locarno, and Ascona

We went on a student-tour to Lugano, Locarno, and Ascona, which are in southern Switzerland, almost in Italy. In the Ticino region of Switzerland, Italian is the spoken language. We were in an Italian speaking region with a German tour guide! There are large tunnels that go through the mountains. One is so large that on one side German is spoken, and on the other, Italian.

Switzerland is a very wealthy country. We saw lots of fancy cars, buildings, and restaurants. It was inconvenient that the country uses the Swiss Franc instead of the Euro. The three cities we went to were on lakes and near mountains, which made for some very pretty landscape. Elegant Catholic churches are very very common in Ticino.

Inside of Santa Maria degli Angioli

Madonna del Sasso

Almost everyone riding a scooter was smoking a cigarette

Expensive, I told you!

There are way too many small, fluffy, white dogs in Switzerland for my liking.