Lausanne day one

I'm on the train now from Lausanne to the Geneva airport.
There seems to be a lot of sunflower grown in this part of the country. Just passed some apples too, and of course vines.
<I just realized something that has been underlying my feelings about Europe since I first came; everything seems so tame here. All has been handled and manipulated by man for centuries and it shows.>
There is also a lot of corn here, and ostensibly potatoes as I saw a McDo sign advertising 100% Suisse pommes de terres. There is a ridiculous amount of vine east of Lausanne along the hills next to the lake.
Ok, farm report over.

I'm now on the plane to Rome. I left my fucking hoodie in the terminal at the airport.

I was slightly concerned about what was going to happen when I arrived in Lausanne. I had no SIM card for my phone and I had merely told Eric to text Layi when to meet me at the station, since he would be at work when I came. When I got off the train, Eric was standing right at the door. He'd overslept and decided to skip work. This was fortuitous because right then he got a message from Layi that she was sick and just woke up. Not that it would have been terrible, but definitely rather annoying. As it was, we had a fantastic time.
We walked up the huge hill through town to his apartment. Lausanne is a really nice looking town. There is a medium sized valley which separates two parts of town, although it is filled with neighborhood and there are ways to get down. This valley affords plenty of nice views from the bridges.
<This airline is amazing. I paid 128 francs for Geneva-Rome and they had a nice little seating area at the airport with an easy chair that I totally snagged. On board we got these little fruit juices, then these amazing muffin things with fresh fruit (I scored one of the leftovers), then coffee, then hot face towels. I think the treatment has something to do with them being new though.>
There are a lot of pedestrian streets and cars are very respectful. We climbed up to his place, which is on the top floor of an "East German shoebox." There is the smallest elevator, which doesn't have any internal doors, so I was praying as we went up that nothing on my body would get caught as I was crammed between the bicycle and the moving floors outside. Eric has apparently found the exact angle to turn his handlebars so that nothing drags.
We picked up some picnic food at the nearby shop run by this friendly Sicilian guy and then went for cheaper better beer and some more grub at this huge supermarket way out of the way. We laughed about the fact that they had imported Coors Light for 4 francs per can, more expensive than the imported Miller. They also had Brooklyn Lager, which was kind of shocking.
We climbed way up into this nearby park and hung out on a bench under some trees while we wolfed down our food, us being insanely hungry by then. As we drank our beers we reflected on how nice it is in Europe not to have to worry about such nonsense of not being allowed to have a beer in the park. Turns out though that backwards Rome has passed a law prohibiting public drinking.
Later we hiked up further to this lookout tower. It is constructed with these huge timbers arranged in a spiral for stairs. This makes it so that there are two separate stairways, one on either side of the spiral. The view of the city, lake, and mountains from the top was spectacular. We also saw what must have been the largest helicopter I have ever seen. It was at this tiny airport and was really just way out of proportion.
After coming down we went to this pizzeria with a sweet outdoor space and had cappuccinos and played cards. Somehow Eric had never been even though it is right next to his place.
<We keep flying over these really cool islands off the west coast of Italy.>
After chilling at his place awhile and hitting the email, we went to this nearby bar that allows you to drink out in this public space that overlooks one of the main squares. The square is totally modern and hideous, but still a great place for beers.
<Holy shit! Now we are getting hot chocolate on this plane.>
On the way to the next place I stepped in this huge pile of fresh juicy shit, but didn't get it quite as bad as the previous shmoe who went front and center.
The next place was this nice fondue restaurant where we spent an amazing 48 francs splitting a fondue and a bottle of wine. It was worth it though as the courtyard we were in was really nice and the wine was quite good. Fondue was not my fav, but ok. There were three German girls sitting at the same table and the one who lived there started talking to us after overhearing our discussions of my planned bike trip. She was friendly and impressed by Americans who could "speak" three other languages. She tried to convince me to take my trip on Sat because it sounded really awesome to her but she had to work and her friends would have wanted nothing to do with such a venture. But alas for her I shall be gone. But Eric and her exchanged # and she will get the info.
After dinner we went to two more bars. The first brewed its own beer and Eric and I ended up trading after trying and liking the other's better. The bartender played an entire Ratatat album, which impressed Eric. Eric taught me about 4/4 beat and the difference between Fender guitars because I am pretty much completely ignorant about music.
The second bar was one that Eric thought he hated, but turned out to have really good beer, great sidewalk seating area and not be filled with schmucks. I love the Francophone obsession with outdoor seating. We ordered one too many beers, ending up fairly wasted and not feeling so fantastic in the morning.
I got over it pretty quickly though since I was meeting Layi at 11 to do some biking.
Landing!!