Today we went to the land of chocolate...Switzerland! We decided to go up to Geneva with the school instead of going for a weekend because we couldn’t find a hostel on such short notice. In the end though, I’m glad that we were only there for a day because I think we would have run out of things to do! We had to meet at the train station at 8:30 to hop on a bus up to Geneva. Ali, being the smart cookie that she is, forgot her passport. So we all crossed our fingers that they wouldn’t check for passports at the boarder. But don’t worry, our sneak-across the boarder was a success. And now Ali can check “Sneaking into a Country” off of her bucket list. The ride to Geneva was really pretty. The hills were still all misty and foggy and since it has been raining so much they were very green. We passed little farms on our way and out the window looked just how you would imagine Switzerland to be. As soon as we got to Geneva and got off the bus we went on a tour of the city with the school’s guide. We walked across Lake Lomond and then made our way up to the old town.
Along our trek to the old town we made a shortcut through a random park to see statues commemorating Geneva’s history and religious influence in Geneva. Another highlight of this park were the giant chessboards!!! They were huge! It was like being in a movie. After a quick game of chess we continued up the big hill to the old town.
The old town is up on a hill above everything. First, we made our way to Saint Peter’s Cathedral and the Chapel of the Macabees. After that we saw the oldest building in Geneva and then were taken into the Maritime Museum where we were able to see the actual Guillotine of Geneva. It was really cool, but really dull. It was kinda weird to see something that you know actually killed people. You could even still see some of the blood stains on it. Then we headed back outside and saw the house of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a philosopher. And just down the street from that we stumbled upon a bunch of canons, so of course we had to take some pictures and play on them for a bit. After that our guided tour of Geneva came to an end.
At this point we were all starving so we headed back into the modern section of Geneva to find some food. We wandered from café to café trying to find somewhere with decently priced foods. But to no avail, everything was expensive, especially since it was all in Swiss Francs. So we settled for the only cheap thing we could find to eat…McDonalds. After we had our fill of some good ol’ fashioned American food we walked around Geneva to see the sights. Somehow we ended up at a store buying chocolate, but then again…who’s complaining?! WE all gathered around the chocolate as if it were something sacred. Natasha even brought an empty backpack just to stash up on chocolate. I think I was the only person to buy less then 10 bars. Just 1 for me please! Now that our chocolate spree was over we had to head back to our groups meeting point for a tour of the UN.
When we got to the UN we were signed up for tours in French. I just crossed my fingers that this wouldn’t be another Versailles! Fortunately it wasn’t! We got to see some really cool stuff. We were able to see a bunch of the different delegate rooms and assembly rooms. We even saw this room with weird stalactite ceiling designs…
After the UN we were pooped! I fell asleep on the way back to Annecy. We got home kinda late so after getting some ice cream with Ali I headed home, got pictures off my camera, and went to bed!!
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