Swiss Miss

A trip of many firsts:

(Pont de Mont-Blanc)

First time in Switzerland.

Sally, Jackie, and I arrived at Gare Cornavin around 9AM after a two hour train ride from Grenoble. We stepped off the train and immediately were shocked by how cold the wind felt. I was wearing my thin leather jacket, ill-prepared as usual. So instead of setting out to see all the places on our checklist, we spent the first half of the day going into all the shopping centers and stores we passed on our way to the hostel. We did make it to the Lake Geneva boardwalk, but the winds were so brutal that we couldn't even bring ourselves to walk along it for more than five minutes. If it had been just a little bit warmer, we would've been able to walk around everywhere. Geneva is a lot smaller than I expected, but the problem for us was that everything is across the lake, whereas the train station and hostel are on the northern side of the lake. This is a picture of the bridge that connects the two sides of Geneva.

(Auberge de Jeunesse de Genève)

 First time staying in a hostel.

I was a little skeptical at first about hostels, but this one was really clean, and it seemed very secure with its card-access system and locker storage units. We were in a room with six beds, and the hostel was fully booked for the night, so we knew other roommates were coming. I was afraid some creepy older man traveling alone would be put with us, and I was going to have to sleep with one eye open, but two other girls ended up staying in the room. The hostel gave us free transportation passes to use for all the buses and tram lines, which is exactly what we needed so we didn't have to walk everywhere.

(Cathédrale Saint-Pierre - John Calvin and the Reformation)

First time in a Protestant church.

After trying to read the crazy tram line maps, we decided to just wing it and attempt to get over to the other side of the lake. I knew that Place Neuve is close to the Reformation Wall, and line 36 ended there, so we took that line. It worked out perfectly because its route ran along the smaller streets of the Old City, and it ended up taking us to the St. Pierre Cathedral. Geneva was one of the centers of the Protestant Reformation, back in the day when the Catholic Church dominated Europe. One of the main Reformation leaders, John Calvin, based his work out of this church.

(Parc des Bastions)

First life-sized chess game.

Bastions Park ended up being my favorite place in Geneva, although I'm sure I would've loved the boardwalk and Jet d'Eau water fountain had it not been so cold and the fountain was actually turned on. Some beautiful buildings belonging to the University of Geneva spanned along the center of the park, and the Reformation Wall stood across from the school. There were intricate sculptures scattered around the park, and at the northern gate, there was a whole area of giant chess boards that you could play on (definitely Sally's favorite part).

 (Confédération Centre)

First time eating real chocolate.

Milk, dark, white, truffles, nougat, mousse, almonds, mocha, ganache, hazelnut, marzipan, caramel...every kind of chocolate you could ever dream of.