Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Ohhh the Swiss...

This past weekend I went to Geneva, Switzerland with two friends. Having been strongly urged by my Mom to book the trip, we sucked up the fact flights were over $100 more than any other we had planned and set out early Friday morning. In my mind, "early" is around 6 or 7am, my alarm went off at 4:30. We hopped in a taxi at 5:15am and got to the airport in time to check in and take a flight from Bilbao to Brussels. Towards the end of the hour layover I took a little stroll, only to find out our gate had been changed without warning and was currently boarding. Barely making it, I was off to Geneva! When I arrived it was a little colder than I had imagined/packed for but I figured if that was my biggest issue of the weekend I was going to be perfectly fine; this turned out to be a prime example of "careful what you say". We tried to buy a train ticket but the machine ate our money and didn't supply change, got lost for 5 hours due to faulty directions/our lack of French speaking skills, and ended up having to pay 45 francs each to be allowed into our room because the reservation was incorrect (not my doing, thank goodness). By this point it was now 5:30pm and getting dark so we had officially lost out on an entire day of touring around. Determined not to let it get us down we went to the grocery store and purchased some bread, meat, and cheese and set off to eat dinner by the lake. Although we couldn't really see where we were, I could already tell I'd love this city; regardless of the stressful day that had just ended.

On Saturday we took a bus to Chamonix to see the town and glacier on Mont Blanc. Again, more lessons were learned; like the fact Chamonix is actually in France not Switzerland so our francs (the only currency we had on us) would not be accepted - we should have done more detailed research, but since the hotel encouraged the trip it would have been a nice detail to slip in. The city is gorgeous! It sort of reminded me of Flagstaff in the sense that it has a small downtown area and is completely surrounded by snowcapped mountains. I found out it was home to the first winter olympics, and there was a farmers market going on so that was fun to wander through. Once it warmed up a bit it was time to take a train ride to the top of the mountain to see the glacier. I had no idea what to expect, but was blown away! After taking time to walk through a crystal cave and have a little model shoot on top of some boulders it was time to head back to Geneva to get our souvenir shopping done, and have a nice dinner in old town.

On Sunday we had to be at the airport by 2pm and since we weren't able to tour the city on Friday we woke up early to get a head start. This was by far my favorite day of the weekend! We saw the United Nations, the flower clock (a garden of flowers arranged in the shape of a clock that actually keeps time!), the Cathedral where John Calvin started the Protestant Reformation, and the lake (we took a boat shuttle too)! It's a tie between the UN and the lake as to what my favorite was; I've gotten really interested in international business while I've been here (and seeing all the flags hanging together was great) but there's something about Lake Geneva that sticks with you after walking around it. It's so vast, lined with gardens and boats cruising it. There was also some sort of military/political march going on but even after researching it online when I got home I have no clue what it could have been for. For those of you who don't know, I'm terrified of birds - geese to be specific. Since I'm not around them on a daily basis (duh/thank goodness) it's just become a joke between family and friends. However, as I was walking the lake my friends and I came across a flock of them and they wanted pictures with the unusually large, feathered creatures. Not knowing my dislike, they encouraged me to get a picture too and I decided it was a good idea to get over the fear. False. Worst idea ever, why I put myself through that is beyond me hahahaha For the next 20 minutes I kept turning around waiting to see one chasing me down, yapping it's beak ready to peck me. Some things never change.

Overall it was a fantastic weekend and regardless of the excessive hit my bank account took, I don't regret any of it! I have three more trips coming up and school is in it's final sprint so it's going to be a very hectic (but exciting) month for me! Hope everyone is doing well :) Here's some pictures -








1 comment:

  1. Great posting Amanda. It was worth whatever it cost your bank totals! That's why you work, to use it on things like travel. Good photos too! Love you, Dad

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