Cora Azalea: A Bizarre European Circus and Poopy Ice Cream Bribes

Besides a bit of rain here and there, we've been enjoying the warmer weather in our funny little Schwarzenburger Land. Cora's adventures continue, from bike riding, to hiking, to working on that crazy potty training skill (which is going pretty well, most days).

Last Wednesday afternoon, we went to the traveling circus when it popped up down the road in our rainy little town. The great carney event, which smelled of stale booze, sawdust and burnt popcorn, was a bit hilarious, a lot creepy and just plain bizarre. The acts were a terrible conglomeration of racism, awful Swiss-hick pride and nightmarish circus weirdness including: a black man in black face dressed as a rastifarian spinning colorful pans on sticks which jutted out from his pants, oriental "twin" boys (I'm pretty sure they were each from different continents) caressing each other oddly and tossing around porcelain vases while also doing poor karate moves, Swiss cows clad with swiss bells and Swiss flags taking center stage and participating in tricks meant for lions (or ANY other exotic animal), a creepy old man clown who pulled a pair of red lacy panties from his mouth before wrapping them around his head while pretending to be Spiderman, and of course, the poor beautiful Eastern European girl on the trapeze who had bruises all over her body but had (sort of) covered them up with make-up and costume. Also, the Dixie Land Band, consisting of washed out tired musicians who played too loud in the background while the dark skinned, evil circus ring leader leered over each show greedily and gave me the creeps each time I saw him appear from the shadows.

Honestly, did I time warp into the 1920's??? I do think Cora liked it a bit though, but it was pretty loud and she could only take the noise and I could only take the creepy atmosphere and dirty slap stick humor for about 45 minutes. I doubt I'll ever go to another one-ring Eurotastic circus again, but it was a 30 CHF experience that I just couldn't resist. I just hope Cora will not remember this one, or not blame me for her inevitable fear of perverted clowns.

On a much happier note, last weekend we had a wonderful afternoon and evening in Grindelwald with Nat's Aunt Mary Beth and the adorable Love family, who were there on vacation. Although the hike up behind the Eiger may have been a bit steep, I think they enjoyed the views of the waterfalls and the entrancing glacier. We had a wonderful dinner afterward, despite a minor missing Kiki catastrophe, and really loved getting to know everyone a little better. Cora loved "her kids" and is still talking about them! I only wish we spent more time with them all!

Below are a few photos of the last week or so. Also, Cora decided to wrap up this post with a few words of wisdom (a.k.a her first typing session):

gjjggggjgjggjgjjjgju u mu,mgumum,u,muddjdhmdhdjsdkksskkj