Friday 26 November 2010
I woke up early this morning to pack for my weekend in Switzerland. I actually made a list last night of essential things to pack (passport, boarding pass, extra credit card, etc.) so I would not be stressing this morning. I was just too tired to pack last night.
I had creative writing class this morning. The English playwright, Ben Musgrave, taught our class. He wrote the play, “Pretend you Have Big Buildings.” The slightly graying haired man wore a collared polo under a bulky dark blue sweater with dark denim jeans. It was obvious to me that he was a creative writer by the way he talked. All of his words seemed so eloquent and planned like everything he was saying was a masterpiece. He just danced around what he was trying to say so it would sound descriptive and beautiful. I felt like his words were a tiptoe and I just wanted a run; you had to have a lot of patience to listen to his speak. Does that make sense? I had to leave class a little early to catch a train to the airport to leave for Switzerland.
Right now, I am in Switzerland at the airport. I can hear some cheery violin music playing in the café next to me while I wait for Meredith’s plane to arrive at the airport. I should only be waiting a half hour more or so and then we are off in search of our hostel! Meredith did all the research and found one that includes a transportation and breakfast which will be sweet. I thought I would use this time to figure out how to get to the center of Geneva from here and asked the tourist information desk. She was not kind or amiable. She pointed me in the direction of the train, using two words, “that way” and motioned to my left. I don’t like that I can’t speak the language to communicate in other countries and I understand that it is annoying. As part of her job, isn't it her responsibility to at least be somewhat pleasant to visitors.
I like to sit by the window on flights so I can see the skyline as the plane is landing. It was gorgeous tonight. The sun was setting and the lights were on in all the villages. Geneva is on the water so we flew in over the Lake Leman. It reminded me of flying into NYC when you can see the statue of liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge from the air. Both are just so pretty and really cool to see from so far away. This flight was so much smoother than when I have flown with Ryanair. The staff was more friendly and the seats were more comfortable. I'm not going anywhere the rest of the semester but when I come back to Europe (Olympics, anyone?? I think yes!) I will be much more inclined to book with Easy Jet because it was just a much better experience.
As I was walking from my plane to passport control, I knew we were in the land of luxury watches because more than half of the poster sized adverts were for premium watches. After I got through all of that, I withdrew 50 Franks from the ATM and I meandered into a convenience store and bought a couple Swiss chocolate bars. Yummm.
The candy bars weren’t high priced or expensive chocolate but they were so delicious. So much better than the chocolate bars I have tried in Britain. I don’t know if it’s because I have high expectations for the chocolate here (and I planned to enjoy a lot of chocolate this weekend!) or if it really that much tastier. Either way, I enjoyed it.
Meredith finally arrived and we found each other quickly and easily. Her flight was about an hour late but I did not mind because I got to catch up on the blog. Finally. FINALLY. After reuniting with a big, obnoxious friend hug we sorted out how to get to our hostel via train and then via tram. It was a pretty painless process. The city is not big at all, so that’s convenient. I keep comparing everything to London’s size which is just ridiculously huge and no city in the world is even comparable in size. London just engulfs everything remotely close to it, I feel like.
Meredith finally arrived and we found each other quickly and easily. Her flight was about an hour late but I did not mind because I got to catch up on the blog. Finally. FINALLY. After reuniting with a big, obnoxious friend hug we sorted out how to get to our hostel via train and then via tram. It was a pretty painless process. The city is not big at all, so that’s convenient. I keep comparing everything to London’s size which is just ridiculously huge and no city in the world is even comparable in size. London just engulfs everything remotely close to it, I feel like.
I can’t even tell you how much more comfortable that bed was than my bed in Harrow. The mattress is completely foam, which is exceptionally more comfortable than my bed with springs grinding into my sides all night. I can not wait to sleep in my own bed at home in Indy. Twill be a glorious night of sleep.
The hostel was huge. Apparently, it was under construction and only half of the rooms are available. There are 250 rooms now. Wow. Biggest hostel I have ever stayed in. The receptionist recommended an ‘inexpensive’ restaurant upon our request for a good place to eat. Ha. We found it and it was about 20 Franks per person. The Frank is about the same as a dollar; it’s like $.95 for one Frank right now. We decided that restaurant is going to be our splurge restaurant of the trip. Geneva is the most expensive city in Switzerland which is the one of the most expensive countries in Europe. Dandy. It was fine, I’m only going to study abroad once in my life, so I haven’t really been worried about money this entire semester. Why start in Switzerland, right?
Meredith and I walked around a bit more and wondered into the shady part of town. Yikes. We walked by a few gentlemen’s club and saw a woman wearing close to nothing on display staring out a glass window modeling herself for passerbys. Not what you want. The two of us quickly retraced our steps back to our hostel. We decided on a pizzeria a few blocks from where we are staying. We split one so it wasn’t too expensive.
We came back to our hostel and walked around, then got ready for bed. I am looking for tomorrow for more adventures!
Saturday 27 November 2010
Apparently people go to sleep early and wake up extra early here because breakfast in our hostel was served from 6:30am to 9am (from the point of view of a college kids, this is early!). We did not want to miss it since it was included in the price of our hostel. Meredith set our alarm for 7:45am so we would have time to get downstairs before the food was gone. Good choice. I stuffed myself so I could have a small lunch since everything is so expensive here. (More details will come later.. I had cereal, yogurt, three slices of bread and jam, a glass of orange juice and cup of hot chocolate. It was delicious. I could go for another glass of juice right now, actually.
When we finished we lingered in the kitchen for awhile hoping our roommates would be awake so we could turn the light on. We were so wrong. They were all soundly asleep despite their alarms that were set before ours. What’s the deal with that? Anyway, we get back and get ourselves ready for the day in our community bathroom next door. You have to use your room key to enter our bedroom, use our personal lockers and the bathroom. After we get ready, we head downstairs and ask the receptionist for recommended places to visit in Geneva. She was helpful and pointed out some places we needed to see.
We started off our morning at 9:30am; that was early for college kids to be exploring. The receptionist recommended we take the bus to the United Nations building but we weren’t having that. She said it’s about a twenty-five minute walk and we figured we would rather see the city in person that peering through a cloudy bus window.
I'm so glad we decided to walk because the views were gorgeous! It began snowing pretty steadily during breakfast and by the time we started our walk it was already sticking to the ground. We walked through a really nice park, La Perle du Lac (I assume it translates to Park on the Lake....just made that up though) just off Lake Leman. The paths were so even and manicured with the trees covered in a blanket of snow. The perfect desination for a romantic walk with Caleb through this peaceful park in Switzerland. We moseyed through the park and eventually turned left and headed up Avenue de France to get to the UN building. A random bus pulled up and when we approached it, we asked the driver which routes we would take us to our destination. We waited about fifteen minutes and no bus came. Our hands were frozen. I felt like my toes could fall off at any moment and I wouldn’t even notice because they were numb from being so cold. I just wanted to be inside. Meredith urged we walk up the road (a hill) to the UN Building and that was probably the best idea because it wasn’t far of a walk after all. We made it to the top of the hill after fifteen minutes probably.
La Perle du Lac
La Perle du Lac
La Perle du Lac
La Perle du Lac
La Perle du Lac
La Perle du Lac
La Perle du Lac
La Perle du Lac
Love this!
We asked a police officer for directions to the Red Cross Museum and somehow he understood what we were asking even though he obviously spoke French. He pointed us in the right direction for the Red Cross Museum. The international headquarters is in Geneva, Switzerland. Meredith’s sister, Katie had been to Geneva before and recommended we check it out. I’m so glad we did because later in the day when we were in the more "touristy" part of town, cheesy Red Cross souvenirs were everywhere. I guess it’s the thing to do in Geneva.
As I was taking pictures in the museum, I really felt like one of my sorority sisters, Katie Day. She studied abroad last semester and she took a bunch of pictures in museums she went to. She love exploring and document every moment of her adventures. Katie, if you are reading this, I hope you are laughing to yourself. :)
We saw this before we went inside. It's across the street from the UN Building. We were unsure of what it was for, but when we were in the museum I saw a poster with this image from a few decades ago, warning kids about landmines.
Millions of files (there was another whole row of cabinents about double this size) of prisoners of war documents from World War I. Meredith found one cabinet with a version of her mother's maiden name on the front.
The gold circle is a replica of the fist Nobel Peace Prize granted to Henry Dunant and Frederic Passy in 1901 for humanitarian works and founding Geneva Convention which later evolved into the Red Cross.
Surgical kit used for amputations in 1870
There were a ton of tapestries that lined the walls. These giants sheets of fabric formed a path to follow around the museum. Each had a picture and a description. It felt like I was walking through a virtual storybook.
We jumped on a tram back to the center of town and got off near the train station. We figured there would be some cheap food for lunch. Wrong. Again. We walked into McDonald’s because it couldn’t be too expensive? Bah. I bought two cheeseburgers for 5 Franks. An order of fries was almost 4 Franks. Not what you want.
Waiting for the tram
$5 worth of food? "I'm not in America" Part 7,654.
We walked around for a bit, popping into a few stores. Mere had to use the bathroom and we tried to go in the train station but it cost 2 Franks. Also, not what you want. We waited for a tram to take us back to our hostel so we could use the toilet for free. Not real life. Waiting for the tram took about an hour.
Also, there was a VERY sketchy woman in our hostel. She was sleeping when we left at about 10am and when we got there about 2pm she was still asleep. We walked in and turned the lights on without knowing she was curled up in her bed. I thought to myself, "C’mon lady! You are in Switzerland…you should be exploring!" She first pulled the covers over her head to shield the light. After a few minutes she scurried out of bed and was wearing no pants! What?! We stayed in the room to warm up a bit more and then left for "Old Town".
Down the street from our hostel where we waited for the tram
Down the street from our hostel where we waited for the tram
This was the more "urban" part of town if that is even possible in this tiny city. It took us well over an hour to get there even though it was not far away at all. We probably could have walked there faster, even in the snow. Public transport was unreliable and waited over 20 minutes for a bus to old town. That wouldn't happen in London, whatsoever. Plus, it was just so cold out. We were frozen and getting on the bus seemed like a great way to avoid that. Once we got on, it was so crowded. I'm talkin' so squished that I was propped up against people on all sides to keep my balanced. Then, when people needed to get out they would just barrel past you knocking over people. The woman behind me was literally resting her shopping bag on my boot. Meredith and I just lost it and were laughing so hard we couldn't breathe! I don't know why it was so hilarious to us, but it was. Maybe it's the kind of screnario when you know you aren't supposed to be laughing so it's so much more difficult to stop. You know?
We somehow made it to Old Town and deboarded the tram and walked around. We headed to Jardin Anglais (tranlates to English Garden). Meredith wanted to see a flower clock that's famous in Geneva. We never found it. I'm convinced it was a ground clock and covered in all the snow. We did get some beautiful pictures (which I was so thrilled about!) and got to play in the snow. After playing, we headed back to the main street and popped into some shops and walked through the market. The market was no competition compared to London's I am proud to say. :)
People were using umbrellas as if was raining....Europeans are weird.
Tram time.
Sweet street lamp, yo.
Chocolate shop. Don't really know what these were exactly, but they were expensive. The smallest was 10 Franks.
Streets of Geneva
Jardin Anglais
Best Friends traveling the world together. So blessed.
Jardin Anglais was on the water so we had a beautiful view of the lake as we walked through the park.
This part of town was designed using as little straight lines as possible...pretty cool, huh?
Grand Rue as the sun goes down (the main street in Old Town).
The toy store we had to go into. For obvious reasons.
Market time.
After dinner, we were pretty tired from the long, cold day so we headed back to the hostel to warm up and fall asleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment