2006-10-24 - 8:58 a.m.
Well, we've left the expense of Switzerland firmly in our wake. In the end it wasn't too bad, and we managed to save enough money in Geneva to get get a genuine Swiss Army Knife, which is pretty cool. I'll be the envy of Jeff with that one.
Geneva was a really cool city, and I liked it much more than Zurich. Granted, this may have something to do with the fact that we didn't go for a overly expensive meal on our first night, but I think I will chalk it up to having more things to do.
We got to Geneva, as previously posted, in the early afternoon, and passed the day doing laundry. This was an unlooked for blessing- managing to combine laundry day and travel day, both of which are traditional time wasters. The laundry wasn't even that expensive! We settled into the hostel, which was quite nice. Our room only had three beds, which is quite a luxury, but we had a Stanley every night. The first night it was a sculpture from Vancouver, and the other two it was a fellow from Montreal. We went for a walk to get a feel for the city, and we managed to pick up the book 'Hannibal' which is, of course, the sequel to 'Silence of the Lambs' which we read earlier. It was an excellent book, and both Jesse and I read it while we were in Geneva.
Our first full day in Geneva, we started out right, with a cooked breakfast. I don't know why it took us so long to clue into this, but if there is a kitchen, we can cook breakfast. A modest outlay of francs got us some eggs, cheese, bread and mushrooms which lasted us for all three days.
We went to see the Red Cross Museum, and the United Nations. The Red Cross was pretty cool. We got in for half price, since our hostel has a deal with them. The museum was about the work of the Red Cross, since it's inception in the 19th century. There was a goofy slide show to start, but the rest was really cool. My favorite parts were the films they had of rescue work in WW1 and the WW1 postcards they had. There were also the POW files from WW1, which filled probably thirty cabinets that were ten feet high, and three feet wide. An impressive amount of data. There was also an exhibit on the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in the seventies. It was really interesting, and really well put together. Did you know that in one prison, out of the thousands that went in, seven came out alive? Oh yes. The Khmer Rouge were terrible, terrible people.
After the Red Cross, we went to try to see the UN. Geneva has the second largest UN base after New York, and several of the major agencies are based from there. Our initial attempts to see the complex met with failure, as we had to wait forty five minutes for the next tour. Once they let us in, we stood in line for ten minutes to go through security. I was a little worried, as I had my knife in my pocket, but they didn't seem to care.
Once through security, we stood in line in a very hot entry for fifteen minutes. In all that time they processed exactly two groups of people to get in. They looked at passports, and gave out security badges. The trouble was that every time the guard would begin to do something the phone would ring, and he would drop everything to answer it. There was another guard, but he was just standing there looking at us. Every couple minutes a guy would run up from downstairs and shout something at the guards, which they would both stop what they were doing and reply to.
After fifteen minutes of this, one of guards asked (in French) who wanted the French tour, and who wanted the English. The trouble was he asked who spoke English in French. Finally he got it sorted out, and made a count. Then the guy from downstairs ran up again and whispered something, whereupon the guard told us all that there was only an English tour after all. After all that, and after issuing passes to some of the people, and making us stand there for fifteen minutes, he just told everyone to go downstairs.
Downstairs, we stood in another line to get tickets, and then went and waited some more for the tour to start. Expensive, bureaucratic, and poorly organized- that's the UN!
The tour itself was ok. We saw the major conference rooms, and some interesting art. The UN in Geneva uses the old League of Nations building, since it really wasn't getting any use. That part is really nice, with high ceilings, marble walls and floors, and feel of elegance. They made an addition in the sixties, which is horrible. Bad lighting, ugly colours, and low ceilings. Also, I think they made it out of marble coloured cement. You can sure tell which was made back when people had taste, let me tell you!
Our last day in Geneva, we only had one mission- find the church where John Calvin, the famous reformer, preached. Well, that took ten minutes. The church was really cool though. It was big, and like a cathedral (it may have once been a cathedral, I don't know) but there was no alter, being a reformed church. It was odd, especially since I'm so used to seeing alters in churches. They also had Calvin's chair there, which was cool.
After the church we went to see Geneva's famous (apparently) waterspout. I've never heard of this, but a city guide we picked up assured me that it was the symbol of the city internationally. Either way it was cool, spouting 450 into the air out of lake Geneva.
That night, while cooking supper we met a girl from Victoria. She went to UVic, and I think I may have taken a couple classes with her. She looked familiar at first, but I thought she just looked like someone, since that it usually the case. Small world I guess.
That was pretty much all we did. A little walking, a little seeing the city.
We left yesterday for Turin, which was a long trip. It took seven hours, and two trains, both of which were crowded and stuffy. We were glad enough to get here. Our hostel turned out to be a signposted two kilometers from the train station. We missed one sign, resulting in going a bit out of our way, but not too much. In the end it turned out to be up a very steep hill. By the time we got here we were exhausted. We went out to try to find something to eat. We were looking for cheap and quick. A supermarket, a McDonalds, we were not particular. After at least a half hour of walking, we had found nothing. Nothing. The city has something against convenient sources of nutrition. Lots of expensive clothes, the odd expensive restaurant, but nothing fast. In the end we found a kebab joint, with really good kebabs. I think we expended more energy getting too and from the place than we got from the food.
In happier news, I heard from Tim this morning. With a little luck and some planning, we're going to meet in Venice two days hence.
