It’s hard to believe Bern isn’t photoshopped.

I’m still far from having been to the almost 200 countries on this planet but at some point some cities do start to look similar and getting wowed is the first feeling I hope to get when arriving at a new destination. I like a little bit of everything, city life, nature, food, the people and so on and I gotta admit having that wow feeling it mostly happens to me when out in the nature, I was born and raised as a city boy but was never very fond of it, all the noise and excessive number of people and safety are things that can bother me when are not under control, and it bothers me a lot.

My first time backpacking in Europe I really had high expectations after all it is Europe, the place everyone (or how I like to think) wants to be during the summer, but anyways all that architecture and history surrounding every single corner of the major cities really impress me, but then again at that point I was just a silly tourist who had never been to Europe so if it the place sucked I probably would be head over heels. Just when I thought I had been wowed  enough I found one of my new favorite countries: Switzerland.

It was a bumpy start by the unfriendly treatment I got from a server inside the train I was on from Frankfurt to Zurich, which kind of made my for a hot second make dumb assumptions about the country in my head but I just let that all go away and try and start my time in Switzerland with a clean sheet and was I happy for doing so. Switzerland couldn’t have been better and more so its capital: Bern.

Old Town

Things I knew about Switzerland before travelling there: they make mean chocolate, great mountains and awesome watches. I know, very basic knowledge but sometimes I like to keep it that way and really absorb the culture and all a place has to offer on the go. Bern has a population of a little over 120,000 people, it has a great size and seeing the Old City of Bern surrounded by the Aare river was breathtaking. What really stood out before my eyes was how clear the water was, and how many cities in the world is the water clean enough to the point that people can actually go swimming in it?

I know the government does a lot for the environment in Switzerland making sure the water is treated (oh yeah, Switzerland also has one of the the purest waters in the world) but you can see how Swiss people are proud for having what they have, a beautiful country. But back to Bern, the city it is indeed beautiful, clean water, beautiful Old City and also getting around is quite easy, train stations, trams, buses. Usually pictures don’t do justice for a place but I hope these will do more justice than my words will, after all I was wowed by Bern?

#NoFilter

I didn’t use to travel much but once I started, I just can’t stop travelling. On Can I Pack? I try to share how I make my travels work out because travelling shouldn’t be hard.