Geneva, Day 2 – Lolitas in Gruyères

On Wednesday morning we woke up on time, for we were going to Gruyères! At the time I had no idea what it was exactly, except for the fact it was a nice town, great for pictures. We had breakfast and got dressed in basic outfits to get our hair and make-up done. The night before we had coordinated our Lolita outfits for this day. We had decided to wear our Powder Rose jumperskirts, which Emilie has in yellow and I have in black! We coordinated our dresses with pink, flowers and items we had in common, like our wristcuffs. I had also bought Emilie a pink macaron necklace as a gift and because I had bought myself one too to match, we put the necklaces in the outfit too.

Our coords for the day! Mine on the left, Emilie’s on the right.
Emilie had created a beautiful crown braid hairdo and we decided to do (almost) the same for me, but it turned out to be not so easy. ^^’ Apparently my hair is quite difiicult to put into a crown braid. At a certain point both Emilie and her mom were trying to get the braids in place on my head! In the end I managed to do it myself. XD
Emilie and I finally got dressed and we left the apartment (later than planned, ahem). We went downstairs to the parking garage, we sat down in the car and Emilie’s mom drove away.
As the ride would take about one hour and thirty minutes, I just sat down and enjoyed the view. We drove all the way through Geneva, along the lake. Of course now the Jet d’Eau was on! XD
We left Geneva and the longer we drove, the better the weather got. The sun started to shine, but it was quite misty. My ears were popping a lot, indicating we were going higher up into the mountains. After a while we drove on a road and Emilie told me she was really disappointed, because from this place you usually had a beautiful view over the lake and the mountains, but because of the mist there was nothing to see. We were hoping the view would get better later.
The further we drove, the better the view got. The sky had a beautiful shade of blue and the houses we passed were covered in snow. After a long time, Emilie pointed at a snow covered hill. She told me it was Gruyères, a Medieval town! I got even more curious now!
We went right, stopped and got out of the car around 1 pm. We were standing on an empty parking lot, surrounded by snow and beautiful mountains! Before we went to Gruyères, we quickly ate a sandwich first. While I was enjoying the quietness of the snow and mountains, a big Bernese Mountain dog walked up to us and sat down, staring longingly at our sandwiches. He probably lived in one of the houses beyond, but he didn’t want to leave. When Emilie’s mom held out her hand, he patted it with his paw! So cute!

Emilie’s mom with the dog. He was just so sweet!
We finished our sandwiches and crossed the road. I was glad Emilie had told me we had to climb a little so I had put on my boots, because I saw a very steep pathway coming up! While we walked up the hill, the dog followed us for a while. Suddenly he left the path and ran away through the snow, leaving our sight after a while. Such a cute dog. ^^
We started walking up the steep hill, which was quite exhausting, but also really wonderful! Next to the path everything was covered in snow and right in front of us was a castle wall!

The pathway up to Gruyères. Doesn’t it feel.. magical?
We managed to walk up the steep path and I couldn’t believe my eyes. At the end of the path was a big, castle-like gate and castle walls! We walked through the gate and I swear, it was like we went back in time! Wooden houses came out of the wall, giving the vibe of a true Medieval town!

The big gate. Isn’t this picture just wonderful?
We went right, walking between old walls and entering a big, pebbled square surrounded by beautiful, old houses and decorated with garlands of little red flags. I just couldn’t believe my eyes, it was like we had walked right into a fairytale! As if Red Riding Hood could come skipping around the corner any minute! I was so happy we had gone to Gruyères! ♥

The beautiful square, surrounded by cute houses. And full with tourists!
The beautiful town is probably quite a quiet place, but today it was swarming with tourists! A huge group of Asian people, almost all dressed in black with a red scarf, were walking around, taking pictures and also smoking. When they saw Emilie and me, with our pink coats and flowery hairdos, we were almost immediately asked for pictures! We didn’t mind of course, which resulted in us posing with almost every tourist at least twice. XD

We met Psy! No sorry, just joking. XD
While we were posing, Emilie’s mom talked a little with some of the people. They told her they were from Indonesia and on a business trip. They all worked for a cigarette company, which explains all the smoking.
After a while, we were able to walk around again. We took some pictures of the beautiful buildings (there was another big dog, a Newfoundlander, lying in front of the door of one of the houses) and walked uphill. We passed a cute little café with a sign saying ‘Ici, c’est du chocolat’ (which means ‘Here, it’s chocolate’). It made us laugh a bit: it sounded so funny. We took some pictures in front of the café.

In front of the cute café!
We walked uphill some more, went through a gate and walked into a shadowy part (which was not any less beautiful). Suddenly, Emilie pointed to the right. ‘Look, there’s the Alien museum,’ she said. I looked to my right and wondered how I could have overlooked the strange, futuristic-looking entrance to a museum dedicated to the Alien films! I really could not understand why they would make a museum about the Alien movies in a place like Gruyères. Of all places! I was really shocked. XD
We arrived at a square with a beautiful view on the valley. It was a great time to change into my Lolita Tea Party shoes now. I hadn’t brought them for nothing of course! I sat down on a bench, changed footwear and then joined Emilie and her mom. Emilie asked her mother to take some pictures of us walking down the path across from where we were standing. She explained the buttons briefly and then we walked down the path as naturally as possible (haha). After that, we did it again, so Emilie’s mom could film a little too.

Lolitas in the wild. ^^
Then Emilie’s mom joined us and we followed the path, which went all around the castle (!) of Gruyères. We took some pictures with the beautiful view on the valley as background and then walked into the shadow, all around the castle. On the other side, when we got back into the sunlight, we could see beautiful mountains again. I couldn’t help but feel like I was walking in Middle Earth…

I really wish we had mountains in my country.
We walked a bit further and I took some pictures of a little church bathing in the sunlight. I was really happy it was such wonderful weather! Sunlight makes things even more beautiful.

Can you imagine waking up to a view like this every day? *_*
Emilie’s mom took some more pictures of us and then we walked to more flat ground, where we decided to finally take outfit pictures without our coats on! I was afraid it would be really cold, but it turned out to be quite nice after all! First I took pictures of Emilie, then she took pictures of me.

Our outfits! I think we managed to match really well, don’t you think? ^^
We also took some jumping pictures. Sometimes jumping pictures just don’t work out, but Emilie managed to take a wonderful one of me!

Flying Rose~!
After our solo pictures, Emilie’s mom took pictures of us together. When two of the Indonesian tourists walked by, they said we looked very pretty, like princesses! *^^* They asked for a picture too.

I really loved wearing matching outfits with my friend! ♥
We put our coats on again and followed Emilie’s mom, who walked into a dark, crowded café. Emilie told me we were going to eat meringues, a famous Gruyères delicacy. The café was full unfortunately, so we walked back to the with flags decorated square and entered another café, which wasn’t full. We were seated in a back room with beautiful view on the mountains (can you tell I love mountains? I think I’ve said the word a hundred times by now. XD). We ordered meringues with double cream and waited for our order to arrive. I was very curious to what it would be like! I’ve seen and tasted meringues before, but never the original ones!
The waiter arrived with our order and put the plates in front of us. On the plates, there were two meringues in a pretty, wavy pattern and a little wooden cup with something that looked a lot like white paint to me, but was double cream. Of course we immediately pulled out our cameras to take pictures!

Don’t you love the wavy shape of the meringues?
Emilie taught me the proper way of how to eat a meringue (because I had no idea how to eat those things): you put the cream on the meringue and then break off a piece with your spoon. After that you scoop up the piece and eat it. I am glad she told me. I thought the meringues had to be eaten with your hands or something. I put the paint-like cream on my meringue and tried my first bite. I can tell you: it was delicious! The meringues were a bit crunchy and the sweet thick cream created the perfect balance! I loved it so much! ♥ Even though it was quite heavy I was sad when I had finished!
We left the café and browsed some of the cute tourist shops in the old buildings (one shop had an electric sliding door. I thought that was a bit funny). One of the shopkeepers told us she thought we were very beautiful. ^^ I ended up buying a postcard and a cute dog keychain.
We had gotten quite tired and decided to go back to the car. We took some more pictures while we managed to climb down the steep pathway again. I was a bit sad to leave beautiful Gruyères…

Walking down this path felt like closing a book and turning back to reality.
We arrived back at the car and got in. Initially Emilie had planned to go somewhere else after Gruyères, but we were all so tired we decided not to go after all. Maybe next time..?
We drove for less than a minute and arrived at another parking lot, belonging to a super market. Emilie’s mom wanted to buy some meringues, double cream and other things for Emilie’s dad and brother. I bought another post card there, of Gruyères covered in snow. It’s funny: even though Switzerland is not a Euro country, I could pay with Euros anyway, but I often got Swiss Francs in return. ^^
We took a funny picture in front of the super market and then went back to the car. We got in and started on our way back. After driving for a while, Emilie’s mom pulled over and Emilie went to see if the Geneva Lake and the mountains were visible now, but unfortunately the mist hadn’t disappeared yet. Oh well, maybe for next time too. Emilie’s mom turned the car around and we drove back. I looked out of the window and noticed a big, steep rock wall where some construction was going on. It reminded me so much of Helm’s Deep! I swear, Switzerland is Middle Earth!
We drove for a very long time and since I was quite tired, I closed my eyes. To avoid heavy traffic, Emilie’s mom took a different route through a nice town, but other than that I don’t remember much more. I must have slept for quite a while, because when I woke up we just entered Geneva. I felt a bit guilty for sleeping while Emilie’s mom had to drive all the way. ^^’
The sun was setting and Geneva was busy! I thought the city where I live is architecturally challenging, but Geneva wins! Traffic lights that remained green for five seconds, roads that flowed into each other… It was quite chaotic! Emilie and her mom were shouting abuse in French at annoying drivers, it was quite funny. XD
We finally arrived back at the apartment, where Emilie and I took some more coatless outfit pictures before we turned back into our ‘normal’ selves. We had dinner (the same noodle-like pasta as the night before but with egg, so nice), took a shower and got dressed in our pajamas. I skyped with my parents at home and we took a look at our pictures. Then we went to sleep, we were so tired! We fell asleep quickly.

Pictures are either taken by Emilie or by me.