Genève

I took a train, I took a plane,
(“Ah who cares, you always end up in a city”)
Stranded at the mouth of the Rhône
Looking for something to do.

—apologies to Dan Bejar and the New Pornographers

Geneva!

I didn’t spend much time there, really, so in lieu of a cohesive overview, here are some impressions (in roughly chronological order):

• Geneva is in the French part of Switzerland. I hadn’t realized there was a French part of Switzerland. I suppose looking at a map or something in advance could’ve given me suspicions, but eh.
• And the Swiss Franc, oy. I couldn’t figure out the exchange rate just looking at prices. I found out it was just about one-to-one with the Canadian dollar (94 cents Canuckistani, I think), which in turn made me realize how expensive everything there was. Because it was damn expensive. I still have a hard time believing I spent over three dollars for a bottle of Coke.
• The security at CERN is clearly lacking, since they let me on the premises. :) Not that there was much to do or see, apparently.
• This might be erroneous, but I caught a vaguely anarchist vibe in the city. And a lot more graffiti than I expected.
• Geneva is very beautiful, especially the old town. And the archeological tour at St. Peter’s Cathedral taught me that the history was much older than I expected.
• And all the development along Lake Geneva, and along the Rhone… that was wonderful.

All that said, it didn’t feel like there was really all that much to do for tourists. It might be that I didn’t give myself enough time to get oriented, and a guidebook would’ve been handy.

Anyhoo. It was good. Oh, and one last thing: the chocolate was redunkulous. :)