The InterNations members in Bern met for a delicious sunday brunch at the Garden Restaurant Marzilibrücke and vsisted the “Zentrum Paul Klee” afterwards.

Special thanks to our Local Ambassador Anita Hermecz for taking the photos. To see more pictures of this event, please visit the InterNations photo album.

The InterNations Bern Community celebrated carnival on the streets of Bern with a lot of fun and amazing costumes! Special thanks to our Local Ambassador Anita Hermecz for taking the photos. To see more pictures of this event, please visit the InterNations photo album.

The InterNations Bern Community met last friday for a sportive evening full of fun, strikes and drinks!

Many thanks to our Local Ambassador Anita Hermecz for taking the photos and organizing the event.
To see more pictures of this event, please visit the InterNations photo album

Special thanks for the suggestion of the event and the volunteer help at organising to Milka Kossanova.

The latest event in Bern (and the last one for 2008) was one of the very cosy December Get-Togethers with a very ‘seasonal’ atmosphere, despite of (or because of?) the unsually high turnout with regard to the number of guests. Before the meeting started at the Lorenzini Bar, our Ambassador Anita Hermecz got off the tram earlier to admire the beautiful Christmas decorations all over the town (some of which you can see below).

Gathering for casual conversation and drinks, the InterNations members could be found in every nook and cranny of the bar — carefree, relaxed and dressed up for the occasion (see our second Ambassador Haider Al-Rashed‘s dashing red suit on the pictures…). After the initial round of drinks and a few small gift exchanges, they headed over to the after-work party at Du Théatre, another, more boisterous part of the venue, where they enjoyed the elegant ambience, the great music and making plans for New Year’s Eve.

(You can see many more images in this InterNations album.)

For their early December drinks, the InterNations Bern Community and Ambassador Anita Hermecz returned to one of the usual ‘haunts’ in the historical town centre — the beautiful 18th-century vault of the Kornhauskeller. The members from Brazil, Poland, Germany, Slovakia, Switzerland, Italy, Bulgaria, Venezuela, Philippines, and Hungary started out discussing some of the more tedious and problematical aspects of life as foreigners in Switzerland, but they soon switched topics in favour of more pleasant ones. Their reminiscences of world tours, the tips for special pre-Christmas events in Bern, and their search for ice-skating fans put them in an agreeable holiday spirit — exactly the right mood for anticipating their upcoming InterNations X-Mas Party.

(You can see more photos here.)

The combination of a laidback dinner and an energetic Salsa party at Schwellenmätteli has become a local tradition of the Bern InterNations Community by now. Last night, our team of Ambassadors, Anita Hermecz and Haider Al-Rashed, invited members from Italy, Ireland, Venezuela, the Philippines, Germany, Iraq, Finnland, Switzerland, Korea, and Hungary to a delicious meal (with a special InterNations menu) in a cozy corner of the restaurant, from where they had a splendid view of the river Aare and the citylights. After indulging in the tasty food as well as some relaxed conversations about Christmas specialities and Christmas traditions all over the world, the most dynamic participants went on to take the dancefloor by storm and burn a few of those pesky calories…

(To see all the photos from this lovely evening, please go here.)

A small crowd of InterNations members with an avid interest in Bern’s cultural scene, our Ambassador Haider Al-Rashed included, joined a guided tour for the Bern Theatre Walk on the night of Monday, November 17. After an explanatory trip through the beautiful streets of the town centre, passing by many lovely old buildings and the cathedral, they started their tour at the Slaughterhouse Theatre — a small avantgarde fringe venue without its own troupe of actors, but with a budget of 1 mio. francs to invite performances from others cities and countries.

Then they visited the Stadttheater, the sophisticated high-budget location in Bern’s theatre scene, with a long tradition of catering to the local nobility. After the third venue on the agenda, the Casino Konzerthaus, they enjoyed an apero with wine as well as a lively discussion about how to get young people interested in classical music and learning to play an instrument.

InterNations member Ruben Chirino (by the way, thanks for the pictures, Ruben!) explained that Venezuela had a distinct advantage in this regard, due to a school project that heavily fosters children’s and teenagers’ investment in classical music. The manager of the Konzerthaus himself was very interested in this information and, of course, delighted to hear it.

All in all, this trip proved to be an exceptional experience as they even had the chance to witness early rehearsals of various plays and performances at the different venues. So, who’d dare to claim that high-brown culture can’t be fun?

(You can see more of Ruben’s pictures in this event photo album.)

Despite this year’s first snowfall in Bern and the flu making its round among the InterNations members, some guests were nonetheless determined not to miss the monthly Salsaare event — a dinner and a subsequent Salsa party at the Schwellenmätteli Restaurant by the banks of the River Aare. The expats from Germany, Hungary, South Africa, Bulgaria, and Italy — including InterNations Ambassador Anita Hermecz — were enjoying the hot ritmo caliente inside while occcasionally glancing at the whirl of cold flakes outside the large windows. And those who were still fighting off a nasty virus could cure themselves with a glass of Gespritzte Süsse, i.e. apple wine with mineral water, to eradicate the germs…

(You can see more of Anita’s pictures in the event photo gallery.)

A small but fine group of InterNations members from Bern crawled out of bed at an ungodly hour on a Saturday morning, to join our Ambassadors Anita Hermecz and Haider al-Rashed on their trip from Bern, Interlaken and Lauterbrunnen to the Jungfraujoch last week-end. Slowly but surely, the mountain train allowed them to leave the blanket of clouds and morning mist behind, taking them up into the sun. When they’d arrived at the Swiss flag that marks the summit, everybody was euphoric, as you can see from the pictures below. (Rumour has it that Haider even took off his t-shirt and braved the freezing cold, but you had to be there to witness that…)

After sipping Prosecco from the cans they’d brought with them in order to have a toast on InterNations Bern and the wonderful day, the mountaineers — who were half-frozen by then — decided to go for lunch in the self-service restaurant. As chilling and some sun-bathing seemed the best thing to do after an ample meal, they climbed up to the Sphinx at 3571 m and were relaxing there for about one and a half hours. As soon as their batteries had recharged a little, though, they set out to the Ice Palace to admire the glacial sculptures in the cave.

Since everybody was in the mood for a spontaneous hiking tour from Kleine Scheidegg to Wengen, they refuelled their energy with an early dinner at Scheidegg first, where Anita was introduced to the famous “Jägertee” — the perfect drink to accompany a raclette. On the hiking track, stunning sceneries were rising around the wanderers during the sunset hours when the twilight of dusk was slowly falling over the mountain range.

With blistered feet, but in excellent spirits, they returned to Bern around 10pm, over twelve hours after leaving, tired, exhausted, and very, very happy.

You can see more of Anita’s lovely pictures in the photo gallery on InterNations…

Although the crowd gathering around our Bern Ambassadors Anita Hermecz and Haider al-Rashed was smaller than usual this time, all those guests who’d made a successful escape from their work-related obligations on a Thursday night enjoyed the occasion nonetheless. The InterNations members from Ireland, Germany, Nigeria, Korea, South Africa, Iraq, Austria, and Hungary used their time together at the Kornhauskeller for relaxed discussions over their drinks: From more serious topics like solar energy and solar technology over their community activities such as a planned trip to the mountains and the upcoming Salsa party to football news, everything was fair game. Even the happy couples among the ‘InterNations family’ weren’t secure from some good-natured teasing when the Ambassadors jokingly proposed to create a new match-making service for expatriates…

(Here are more of Anita’s photos…!)