Why, Yes, I Have Been to Switzerland

Alright, a legitimate update on Geneva, Switzerland and all it's glory. Here is a basic synopsis of how the weekend went, and I promise to keep it as short and sweet as possible. :-)

Day 1, Friday: We left Vichy on the 12:45 train to Lyon, and the train was totally something out of Harry Potter. It was awesome! Then from Lyon we took another train to Geneva, arriving there at about 5. Here's where the excitement begins...somehow we either missed our stop in Geneva or we misunderstood and our train never went there to begin with, because we ended up on the outskirts of town and had to take another train from wherever we were into the city. But I would consider where we were more suburbs...clear on the other side of town from our hotel. Great. So we decided to first walk to the city center and find the main train station, because a local told us it would be about a 10 minute walk. 10 minutes in we realized that was going to be more like another half hour walk. So we find a map and decide to catch tram #6 because it looked like it was heading in the right direction for our hotel. Well, we're riding on it for a while, and we keep getting farther and farther out of Geneva. So one of us asks a woman sitting on the tram who seems to speak English pretty well where exactly our hotel was. She had no idea, but thought we were way off track. So we get off the tram and start walking. We find this random guy covered in tattoos working on what looks like a dishwasher? He gives us directions in French, and we start heading toward the airport. Yes, we were that far out. After walking another 20 minutes or so, we walk into this nice looking building and ask yet another person for directions, while also having a better map. He points us in the right direction, explaining it will be another half hour walk. Awesome. So finally, at 8pm, we arrive at our hotel...needless to say we were tired, hungry, hot, and only slightly irritated. Note to self: mapquest hotel in advance. So after we checked in we went back down to the city center (Taking a bus this time and knowing where to go thanks to the awesome concierge.) and had some too-expensive but equally delicious pizza at the first restaurant we saw. Thus concludes day 1.

Day 2, Saturday: We wake up early that morning, get around, and head back to the city center where we saw the Cathedral of Saint Pierre, Rousseau's house, the tallest fountain in the world, the flower clock, English gardens, and other random sitings. After stopping in a souvenier shop where I purchased a Swiss bell, coffee mug, and postcards, we headed to the train station to exchange some Euros for Swiss Francs, as well as grabbed some lunch. Then we made the extremely long treck to the United Nations headquarters. (It would be very interesting to know just how far we walked total that weekend...oh well). After taking some pictures and sitting on a bench in a daze, we took a bus back toward the city center. And as we were making our way back to the hotel, we stopped at this festival/fundraiser type place in a park. Random place with food, music, and lots of "junk" to buy. (most of it was quite frankly junk) However, I did find a Leonardo da Vinci drawing for 10 swiss francs. (Later realized his name is spelt "Lionardo da Vinci...." oh well, you win some, you lose some.) We then chilled out at the hotel and watched some MTV Movie Awards in French...interesting...and then headed out again to find food and a bar. We stopped in 2 different bars and just chilled out for a while, and finally made it back to the hotel around 11....11:30...and crashed. Good, fun-filled, adventurous day. It's amazing how you can cram one European city into a 48-hour visit. Trust me, it ain't easy.

Day 3, Sunday: Got up late, tried to go to the Art and History museum, realized we didn't have enough time to really enjoy it, and headed to the train station to catch the train back to Vichy. We spent the remainder of the day on a train...but the view was beautiful so it was all good. We made it back to Vichy at around 6:30, where we had time to find food, chill out, and finish our homework. Good day.

Overall it was an awesome trip, and I will definitely be going back to Geneva someday to see all the things I missed this last weekend.

As for Vichy - I'm getting moved up a class this week. I'm excited but also a little nervous. I don't like having to leave my comfort zone, but we'll see how this goes. Then today after class, we bought train tickets for Nice this weekend, and then Katie and I did some much needed French shopping. :-) I bought 2 shirts, a skirt, a scarf, a necklace, and some artwork from this cool little art store. Now I'm just chilling out before going to a movie later tonight. Good times in Vichy.

So yes, this weekend we are all headed to Nice to enjoy some much needed R&R on the beach. :-) The weather is supposed to be upper-70s and sunny all weekend, so it'll be nice to just relax. Gosh I love France.

Peace, Love, and Weekend Trips to Switzerland

PS - I know there aren't any pictures in this post either. My internet here is AWFUL and is being really slow in uploading pictures, so I'll do a separate post today or tomorrow that is strictly pictures. Promise. :-)