La Suisse et Saint Gallen!

So you know...here I am in SWITZERLAND. I didn't really realize that that I was leaving again until yesterday morning when I decided that I should probably pack my suitcase!

The first part of the week was fairly routine -- minus the fact that my class at Catho was cancelled not ONCE but TWICE -- and of course, I didn't find out until after I had gotten there both time. Gotta love the French university system! So that made it a 3 course week -- tant pis...

But yesterday, I made my first trip to the Orly airport -- which is actually quite easy. Just a metro ride to a bus which took me right there! It was about the easiest airport trip ever. And then to make it even better, there was no line at security and I just breezed right through! The slight snag in the whole thing was that our flight was delayed about an hour -- but other than that, everything was fine.

I arrived in Zurich around 7pm and then went to catch the train to Schaffhausen which is a town about 25 minutes north of Zurich -- very close to the Swiss/German border. I met Brendan, who is the son of a family friend, at the train station and then we took the bus to his house which is where I am staying. We ordered a pizza for dinner -- and Swiss pizza is actually pretty good! I was feeling pretty out of it so I turned in on the earlier side.
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TODAY -- was awesome. I made a spur of the moment decision to go to St. Gallen which is abour an hour and a half train ride from Schaffhausen. It was about a 45 minute train ride to Winterthur and then I changed trains to one that took me to St. Gallen. I got there just before 2 and found the tourist information center to grab a map and so I knew what direction to head in.

I went towards the center of the old town which was really charming and then found the cathedral -- which wasn't hard to find at all -- and it truly was one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen -- it was really different than most of the cathedrals that I've seen in Europe, but absolutely stunning.

Inside of the cathedral

From there, I walked around the outside of the abbey to find the library -- which is the famous part! But FIRST, I stopped at the chocolate shop that the information girl recommended -- I got a Dutch hot chocolate to go, which was pretty delicious and definitely gives Paris' Angelina's a run for it's money!

The library is the first place that I've been to where they make you put slippers over your shoes -- it's actually pretty funny. But the library is breathtaking -- it's literally like something out of a movie set. I just wanted to curl up in the corner and read all afternoon. Unfortunately, pictures weren't allowed, but if you look at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BibliothekSG.jpg, you'll get a general idea of where I was!

I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the old town -- and I even climbed up the mountain (or hill?) at the edge of the old part of the city so that I could get a better view of the city. The gorgeous weather only made it even better. I probably looked like a complete nerd -- but I attempted to get a picture of me with the beautiful skyline

I think that about covers it for today! Hard to put into words how beautiful of a place this is.  I took the train back to Schaffhausen and then went to the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner. I've had a great night relaxing withe the two cats and watching some silly movies.

Looking forward to another great today tomorrow!

A bientot!