with green eyes as round as her cheeks

"Chocolate how could you? I thought we were friends,” I ask while holding my stomach. The trip to the Cailler Chocolate factory left me delusionally speaking to candy. I'm not sure how it all happened to be honest, like a car crash I found myself dazed, with time lapse and confusion of events. Near the end of the tour we followed our noses to the sampling center, which I assumed would mean a few pieces of chocolate an maybe a glass of water, boy was I wrong. The display of several trays filled a twenty-foot stretch with every type of chocolate bar, log and truffle they craft. I went Augustice Gloop on that room and tried every different type. The hazelnut cream and coco Noir truffles covered my hands and filled my mouth with what started as enjoyment and ended as endurance. The further we went down the line the more decadent and rich the pieces became. What started as a simple bar ended with a work of art that unfortunately I can't even say I enjoyed all to much. The remainder of the tour I kept my head down trying not look at the rivers of even more chocolate to keep from making a waterfall of my own. Bear with me now, I know I’ve made better choices than that one. What came over me? Lord only knows. A little girl with green eyes as round as her cheeks leapt forward and with disregard to her consequences said, "I want it all!" and proceeded to have just that. This was of course the second leg of out Tour du rich foods. Earlier that afternoon was spent in Gruyerè, the tiny little Alpine Village that claims the rights to any cheese bearing its name. With cowbells chiming against a picturesque backdrop we hiked back to the town after missing our stop on the train. Parts of me still wonder if that tiny train actually existed. Up the huge hill we hiked while I told my new friends from Ohio the story of Heidi. Well, I told them my version of it which adds comments like "...and with the charm that all Heidi's are born with she totally won grandfather over." or " oh and then her aunt forced her into indentured servitude, yea her aunt was kind of a bitch". My comedic version of the Swiss tale made the 100 steps to the top go by quickly and if it wasn't for the up hill climb than I would know it was the view that took my breath away. For the first time after almost two months I was in the Switzerland I had grown up picturing, one with mountains that peeked above the clouds and houses that resembled cuckoo clocks. With cows an arm reach away we ate lunch at La Maison du Gruyerè (the house of Gruyerè) and it was there that I ate my first Fondue within Swiss boarders. The server gave us lessons on the importance of swirling the bread to make sure that lunch was remembered as an experience. She was a solid women with her hair in a tight bun and varicose veins that showed through her stockings, the type of women you would find in a school cafeteria only with a more jovial attitude. She urged on my nervous French and applauded her self for actually understanding me. It was this delicious cheese that later churned in my stomach and added to my above mentioned over consumption. Some how after all this we raced back to make the train in time to head home for Geneva. Finding the first train that said Geneva on it we quickly realized that we were in fact stowaways aboard a high speed train returning from Milan. "How European" I thought to myself and continued my pleas with chocolate to end its recent vendetta.