GENEVA AND DAY TRIPS

GENEVA - November/December 2010

Allie had been based in Geneva for about a month before we arrived. When she said that her $60 per diem wasn't enough everyday, I didn't believe her until I got there and a sandwich was $15 and any meal not even at a nice restaurant was at least $40-50. At first, I thought the Swiss Franc must be at least 1/2 the US dollar but nope, they're about 1-1. I didn't do all that much in Geneva since everything was so expensive and the Swiss are not only neutral, but also very closed off and not that friendly. It was more a working/living city than a touristy/visiting city. I did a lot of P90x and ate a lot of Swiss chocolate.

We had fondue one night at Bill Clinton's favorite restaurant, Les Armures...I thought it was alright, a little heavy with just bread, cheese, and potatoes. How do the Swiss stay so thin?

Allie rented a car our first day and then drove us around the entire Lake Geneva. Unfortunately, it was rainy, but it was still a beautiful sight to see! We passed the town of Evian (where the water is from!)

Around Lake Geneva...

Some highlights during my 2 week stay in Geneva:

Gambas a GoGo: all you can eat giant prawns sauteed in garlic and butter...we averaged about 25-30 prawns each

Christmas Market: cute, but pretty weak compared to

Budapest and Frankfurt Xmas Market

Celebrity endorsements everywhere for Swiss watches

Amazing dessert: Fried dough covered in Nutella and powdered sugar

MORNING IN ANNEMASSE, FRANCE TO BUY SKI GEAR

After taking some advice from my sister's Australian friend Trish, I decided to cross the border over to France to a little town called Annemasse to get some skiing gear for our upcoming ski trip to Austria. Since a ski jacket was almost $800 in Geneva, I bought a spacesuit-looking onesie in Budapest and decided to go to a cheap sport store called Decathlon in France for the rest. We were supposed to also go to Brussels later that afternoon so I went early in the morning and needed to make it back by 1pm.

It ended up snowing like crazy that day, and once I reached the border, I hopped on a bus and asked the driver to take me to the "centre commercial" aka. shopping center where this Decathlon was apparently located (the only directions I got from Trish and I figured in a small town, there could only be one right?...wrong). He was actually very friendly and took me to a "centre commercial"...just not the right one. After asking every stranger on the street, I finally made it to the correct shopping center after 30 minutes of walking in the deep snow (it had snowed about 2 feet by now) and wiping out once. After buying some boots, gloves, and undershirts, I found the bus stop of the bus I needed to take to go back to the border. My favorite conversation while asking for directions to the bus stop:

Me: Excusez-moi, ou est l'arrete pour le bus? (pronouncing it "boos")

Girl in front of a store: Le boos?

Me: Oui, une grande voiture? (Yes, a big car)

Girl in front of store: (sooooo confused)....2 minutes later...

Girl in front of store: OHHHHH le boos!!!!

...that's what I said.

Anyway, after finding the right bus stop, I realized that the bus may very well not come at all since it was snowing like crazy and the roads were bad. Luckily for me, I am a little too trusting and got in a car of someone who stopped at the bus stop and picked me up. It ended up that he worked for the transportation company and took me to a working bus that took me back to the border, and he called the snow "un catastrophe!"--really? chill out dude, it's just snow. Anyway, I made it back to Switzerland in time for the flight! Which then got cancelled because of the snow...

Later that day, Allison and I took a snow day and decided to go sledding! We made makeshift sleds from the IKEA table which didn't work out too well. Sledding FAIL :(

LYON

I also decided to get out of Switzerland and take a day trip to Lyon, France which was only a 2 hour train ride (and I still got a discounted ticket for being under 26 woohoo!). There was a really cool Fete de Lumiere ("party of lights"), basically a festival where the whole city lights up and they have different light-related shows around the town. So instead of funnel cake, burgers, etc at the food booths, they had crepes, waffles, and doner kebabs--so amazing! I ate 2 doner kebabs, a nutella crepe, and gelato. Lyon was actually a beautiful city despite it's large size...I walked up a huge hill to get to the cathedral and these two old nuns started following me, thinking I knew the way...bad idea, nuns. Shouldn't nuns have a sixth sense for finding the church? I found my way finally, and even got to sit in on mass! I also made a visit to the Textile Museum to see some beautiful tapestries.

Some highlights from the Fete de Lumiere!

Some crazy Cirque du Soleil action...