Honeymoon Day 11 (Bern, Switzerland)

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Katie and I woke up refreshed and ready to go. We knew today was going to be a pretty light sightseeing day, so we slept in a little bit. We roamed the neighborhood and stumbled upon a great Doner Kabob place. It was delicious. We then started the guided map tour. The free map we got from the hotel gave us an efficient walking tour of the city. I thought my planned walk was pretty efficient, but this one was more so. Damn.

We saw the bear park, a variety of different fountains, a few churches, etc. It's a pretty compact town so we were done in a couple of hours, if that. That also included stopping for a beer at the brewery, admiring the views, and resting our feet. We also stopped by at a couple different parks, one of which had guys playing chess with pieces that were about 2-3 ft tall. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to relax. While messing around on the internet, I found out there was a casino in town. In fact, it was only 1 tram stop away from our hotel. After not getting to play at all in Venice, I was determined to go. However, it was a bit early. I hung out with Katie for a few hours. After dinner, we both made our way over to the casino. If you plan on coming to Bern, just make sure to take your passport with you. Luckily, I learned my lesson in Venice. Also, the free tram/bus ticket our hotel gave us also provided us with free entry to the casino. I believe it's normally 10 swiss francs to get in. In addition, we also got a complimentary beer, wine, or soda. Not bad. I think even if you don't get that ticket, you get a drink included with entry.

We played some blackjack for a bit and came out pretty much even. I wanted to play some Texas Hold'em, but Katie wanted to go back to the hotel. I took her back to the hotel to make sure she was safe then headed back to the casino. Unfortunately, I had to wait about an hour or so to get a seat at the poker table. There was only one poker table and a few of the people at the table had quite the chip stacks. However, it was totally worth it. Luckily, I made some good bets and won about 250 swiss francs! I was up a little bit more, but decided to cash out one I had about 450. Towards the end, I had a hand that may have been a winner on the flop, but the guy I was going against bet 200+ francs. Normally, I would have called with this hand, but I thought to myself, "Gio, you can either lock in your profit and leave Switzerland a winner no matter what, you can risk losing it all, or you can win really big." I opted for the leaving a winner no matter what. Something about winning while playing poker in another country/continent is really fun. Well, it's always fun, but it has a little extra je ne sais quoi when it's on an international trip. It's like you're this outsider that comes in and shows the competition what it's all about. Perhaps, I left money on the table, but perhaps I would've lost it all. I'll never know. The guy had about 1500 in front of him, so he would've easily called me all in. The turn was a jack which would have given me two pair, but oh well. I'll just enjoy the fact that I won playing poker in Switzerland. After deciding to cash out and lock in my profit, I went back to the hotel a winner and hung out with Katie for the rest of the night. Bern was relaxing and treated us well. Tomorrow we leave for Zurich. Can't wait!

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