Day Trip to Genève

Since Geneva is only about an hour and half from Grenoble, we decided that would be a good first trip to kind of test out the trains and our dynamic and everything without API. It being so close also allowed us to see the city without having to get a hostel for a night, which probably saved us a lot of money in a city as expensive as Geneva. Shana, Sarah, Cecilia, and I bought our tickets from the SNCF office Friday afternoon for about 30 euros roundtrip. Our bus was leaving at 6 am the next morning, and since Grenoble's public transportation doesn't start running until about that time, Sarah and I wouldn't have been able to get into the city before our bus left. Luckily, Shana and Cecilia could put us up in their host homes for the night. We met up around 5:45 and walked to the train station (since it was close and walking was faster than waiting for the tram would have been). Jack was supposed to come with us, but when he was trying to work out his tickets, they tried to charge him like 60 euros for a day trip to Geneva so he understandably didn't want to pay that much. I was still pretty excited, so I talked poor Shana's ear off for a little while before we all went to sleep haha both the bus ride there and back were mostly in the dark because of the time of day, so I didn't feel guilty sleeping through it. Overall my impression of Geneva is that it's a beautiful city, but it's both expensive and confusing. The expense for us personally was because we had only euros, and they still use their Swiss Francs because they haven't joined the EU; so we would pay with Euros, which was fine, but we would always lose some money if we got change (which we didn't with some of the stupid machines) because it was in Francs, which are about the same as the American dollar. It was confusing even to navigate the train station and certainly to find the office of tourism, which was our first stop to plan things to do for the day. Also, the weather was less than ideal; somehow we all underestimated how cold it would be (it snowed on us all morning) so that quickly influenced our plans toward something indoors. Since we only were there for a day, we wanted to see as much of the city as possible; we opted for a bus tour that would take us to all the big sights (UN, WHO, the lake, etc.) and was in a warm bus. I hadn't planned on paying for much once we got there (we even packed lunches and stuff to not have to buy food), so I was a little mad about paying 30 Francs for it, but I really do think it was the best decision. Our tour didn't start until 1:30, so we walked around and went to a watch museum (when in Switzerland, you know lol), which was really interesting, but again we had to pay for it. Then we stumbled upon a market, where we looked at some of the stands and talked with some guys our age about a music festival they're trying to bring to Geneva. We ate lunch in a Starbucks (oops) and headed out to meet our bus. The tour was exactly what we needed to see the city; it wasn't the best circumstances for taking pictures, but it was definitely a lot better for seeing the city as a whole. And it was warm. My favorite things to see were the United Nations building, the World Health Organization building, and the UNICEF building; that's definitely my favorite part of Geneva. We also saw a lot of other buildings that I don't have time to talk about right now but will come back to. The tour ended at 3:30 and our bus didn't leave until 6, so we went in some gift stores and chocolate stores :) and just killed time until the bus driver would let us back on the bus (not until 15 minutes before we left and it was super cold outside). We slept on the bus ride home since we were all somewhat delirious from fatigue and cold, but again, it was dark so we didn't miss any scenery. Overall, it was a beautiful city in terms of the architecture and the lake and everything, and we had been forewarned about the expense, so that wasn't a bad surprise. It was really cool because everyone spoke French, un-accented English, and probably German too; in fact, some percentage of the population of Geneva (I want to say it's like 25%) is comprised of people from other countries. I don't think I would want to live in Geneva (unless I somehow swing a job with the UN or WHO), but it's definitely a nice place to visit. Despite the cold and some frustration, it was a really good day, and I can't wait for our next trips :)