Swiss cheese with a side of Dijon

I don't care what Rick Steves' opinion is (he is bored by Geneva by the way and apparently excludes the whole city from his guidebook), Geneva was amazing and so much fun. Getting there, not so much...

So, to backtrack, Sarah and I, along with her two roommates Ellen and Amanda decided to go to Geneva for the weekend to get our Swiss fix (think cheese and chocolate). Ellen and Amanda left Thursday night because they didn't have Friday classes. After my class on Friday, Sarah and I waited on the ticket line for an hour to activate our eurorail passes (which we thought would allow us on any train, bottom line). The nasty ticket agent informed us that the train that we needed to Milan was sold out and that we wouldn't be able to get to Geneva until Saturday morning. Being that we were only there for the weekend that was not an option. So, we nervously hopped on the train anyway....On the first leg of the trip we successfully evaded the ticket taker by stashing our bags and heading to the cafe car. Then, since we didn't have a "reservation" we spent the next two hours in the luggage storage area between the trains, where I successfully fell asleep on top of everyone's bags.

By now we knew that we needed a reservation for the second train from Milan to Geneva, but didn't have time to wait in line for said reservation. Once again, we got on the train anyway (a little more nervously this time since we were crossing boarders) and sat on the ground awaiting our fate. The ticket taker finally "caught" us, but I was fine paying the 18 euro on-board fee for peace of mind and a seat for our 4 hour trip.

We successfully arrived in Geneva (a little shorter on cash than we thought we'd be), serendipitously met up with the other girls on a bridge to the Old Town where we were staying, and headed straight to the only brew pub in Geneva to reword ourselves for getting there in one piece. I was warned that Geneva was expensive but it really blew my mind just how expensive it was. The bar had awesome 3L, 5L, and 10L barrels of beer starting at a mere 70 swiss francs (more or less equal to the dollar). Umm, we'll pass. Instead we got a few samplers and had all the locally brewed beer in Geneva. Dad, you would be so proud.
Our hostel

Wanting to make the most of this gorgeous city we got up early to start our day. From the first minute we were up on Saturday I noticed so many differences between this city and Florence: there are trees so here so we got to experience autumn foliage, the people are actually helpful and will assist you in getting where you need to go, you can walk on the wide sidewalks and not get side-swiped by anyone, and you can cross the street without fear that the car that is headed towards you won't stop. Such a different city!

We spent the morning walking around Lake Geneva and searching out the UN headquarters. Much to Sarah's dismay the building was closed for the season. We took the opportunity instead to take some photos with a huge chair statue and visit the Red Cross Museum. I was really excited for the museum and it was both informative and moving. From there we took a free tram back to the Old Town area where we stopped in a large department store that had basically a whole floor devoted to chocolate. I was so overwhelmed. We spent a very long time tasting delicious samples and deciding what goods we wanted. We wandered around the gorgeous buildings and quiet streets and eventually sought out the jet d'eau which luckily for us had not yet been turned off for the season. The morning was kind of foggy and chilly but by the afternoon the sun was out and shining and we were very happy girls.
"Broken Chair" Monument

So much chocolate!

Flower clock

Jet d'eau

For dinner we went to a local's only fondue place called "Cafe du Soleil" recommended to me by my cousin Lisa. That meal has to be one of my top 10 and that's saying a lot! We got a huge pot of fondue accompanied by a mound of bread. We took on the challenge and plowed through the food. When we had finished off the bread we thought we had a victory. Much to our groans the waiter brought us more bread, and of course we finished that off too! We were so stuffed afterward that we walked around the Old Town trying to digest the food. It was a struggle staying up to 10 that night after everything we did all day.

Sunday morning was another early morning. We stashed our bags at the train station and Ellen, Sarah, and I took advantage of a free bike rental system that they had. We spent a few hours in the morning riding our bikes around the river. It was so much fun (except for the part where I fell off my bike-of course that would happen to me).

Our original plan for returning home was to leave Geneva around 7, transfer in Dijon, and take an overnight train back to Florence. We found out on Saturday that the train we wanted to Dijon was full so we had to get on earlier train. What a happy accident it turned out to be! We had about 6 hours to kill in Dijon and ended up having so much fun. The city was exactly what you would imagine a cute French town to be like. We found this trail around the city (kind of like the Freedom Trail in Boston) and followed it around for hours seeing all the sites. We also spent some time sunbathing in the Jardin Darcy and, of course, shopping for mustard.
Jardin Darcy


By 7 we were exhausted and hung out in the train station until our overnight train. Boy was that train an experience. The 4 of us were sharing a sleeper car with 2 other people who were already asleep when we got on so we ditched our bags and went to the cafe car (sounds similar to Friday, huh?) where we ended up talking to another guy who was traveling. We eventually decided to try bed, and I truly mean try. I was on the top of 3 bunks and each time the train stopped and started up again I felt like I was going to fall off the bunk! It was a pretty restless night. Oh well! We made up for it with a great weekend!!! Yay for successful traveling!