Day 13: September 14-15, 2015
We woke up extra early for our 7 am train from Gare de Lyon to Geneva. We took showers at the apartment, finished packing, and then walked the few blocks over to the station. The train that we were taking was on the TGV line, so it was only going to take us about 4 hours to get to Geneva.
Riding on the TGV is like traveling on a spaceship. Even though it’s probably almost 20 years old, it is like riding in a train from the future, compared to the trains that I have ridden in the US. The seats have a futuristic curve to them and the cushions feel like they are covered with red velvet. The front of the train looked like the next stop might be Mars, 20 years into the future.
We woke up extra early for our 7 am train from Gare de Lyon to Geneva. We took showers at the apartment, finished packing, and then walked the few blocks over to the station. The train that we were taking was on the TGV line, so it was only going to take us about 4 hours to get to Geneva.
Riding on the TGV is like traveling on a spaceship. Even though it’s probably almost 20 years old, it is like riding in a train from the future, compared to the trains that I have ridden in the US. The seats have a futuristic curve to them and the cushions feel like they are covered with red velvet. The front of the train looked like the next stop might be Mars, 20 years into the future.
When we arrived in Geneva, we walked across the train station to the rental car desk and picked up our car. We ended up being assigned a 2015 4-door Mini Cooper, that to us felt practically like a race car. It was black with fancy trim and had racing style seats. From what we could tell, every car in Europe had a manual transmission. We had been well trained for this experience, or so I thought, because my last two cars had a manual transmission. Elizabeth’s name was on the rental agreement, so we had her drive out of the parking garage and into the world.
The car had a navigation system built into the dashboard, and it was like we were driving in the future compared to my 1990 Honda Civic. In spite of the technology, it was not a very user-friendly system. There was a dial that you turned to control everything, as opposed to a touch screen. As you turned the dial, it would limit the options as to what you could choose as your destination depending on its presets. This system posed to be pretty difficult at first, because we only generally knew where we were going. I had gotten a really bad headache, so I was in a really irritable mood, and that didn’t improve my navigation experience. We first set the destination to the campsite that we had booked, but then once we got on the road, we decided to go to a tourist stop called the Chateau Chillon.
We drove a few miles down the road and then didn’t see anything outside of downtown Geneva, aside from the lake and trees. When we saw a gas station, I thought it would be the best time to stop and buy me some headache medicine. I went in and picked up some snacks and then asked the person behind the register if they sold headache medicine. It turns out that they didn’t, but the clerk didn’t know what I was saying anyway, so it didn’t really matter. I asked, the clerk if he knew where there was a pharmacy and he pointed down the road, so that’s where we headed next.
I programmed the GPS navigation to guide us to the pharmacy located a few miles down the road. We kept driving straight and then we saw the flashing green plus sign and pulled over to the side of the road. We weren’t parked in a legal space, so I ran down a block to the pharmacy, then went in. The first pharmacist didn’t speak English, but the one who was hiding in the back spoke enough to give me some medicine for my headache. I asked if they knew about the Chateau Chillion and they told me to take the road to Montreux, then pointed to the right.
Between the snacks and the pills, my headache was starting to decimate and I was able to start enjoying our trip through Switzerland. It was our first time driving in Europe and Elizabeth was a pro. She took it pretty slow on the highway. She didn’t get stuck behind too many slow moving trucks that she couldn’t get around. After about an hour of driving through some of the most beautiful terrain in the world, we made it to Montreux. The Swiss countryside is extremely mountainous, but there were lots of farms lining the side of the mountains. We also saw lots of cows roaming around, who were making sure that we were getting only the best Swiss cheese.
Once we arrived in Montreux, the Chateau Chillon wasn’t far off. We followed the signs and then there it was, right on the lake. We learned about this chateau from Jeremie, who had gone there a few years earlier. He is a gifted photographer and had taken some really amazing photos of the chateau, that he put in a book. As soon as we arrived, we knew that we were in the right place, because any place worth seeing has a tour bus filled with a couple hundred Chinese tourists waiting outside.
We parked across the road and walked down a path to the right side of the chateau. We followed the path down to the beach and discovered the best view of the chateau was against Lake Geneva. We took lots of photos of us standing on rocks and goofing around with a swan and some ducks. Eventually, a couple from Southern France came by and started talking to us. We told them about our journey and where we had been and as usual, they told us where we should go next. “Nice (the city in France) is only five hours away, you have to visit there,” they said. “You’ve never been to the UK? Oh, you have to go!” they told us. We mused at the idea of traveling forever to every place that people suggested we go, but we aren’t there yet financially.
We went inside the Chateau de Chillon, which is worth the $5-$10 for the experience. It is a really beautiful castle, which dates back to the late middle ages, even though it had been expanded, renovated, and restored over the years. In its day it was the center of a major kingdom, and a hub for lots of merchants from nearby villages. As we toured the castle, we saw its extensive history and how it was built perfectly for defense against barbarians.
We walked through dungeons and torture chambers, as well as dining halls and armories. It was the perfect setting for a medieval film. There was even cobblestone streets inside the towering walls. It wouldn’t be September in Europe if we weren’t greeted by the rain, so after our tour, we dashed to the car and got back on the road.
We headed back toward Geneva and set the GPS for the campground. I really wanted to drive in Europe, so Elizabeth got in the passenger seat and I got behind the wheel. By this time in our journey, we knew that if we found an actual supermarket, we could make a feast for less than $10, and there was usually a public restroom nearby. As we got closer to Geneva, we set the navigation system to the address of a store nearby. When we arrived, we stopped in for our favorite staples of cheap wine and beer, a package of cheese, a baguette, and a package of prosciutto. The campsite was still about 30 minutes away, so I got back in the drivers seat to complete our journey to St-Cergue.
The Mini Cooper was a manual, but it was also a hybrid, and this was something new to me. Anytime you stopped or stalled out, the engine would shut off. When you put your foot on the gas again, the engine would start back up. Another thing that I found strange, was that the reverse position was on the far left side, on the top, next to the 1st gear slot. If you shifted too far over to the left, you could put the car in reverse instead of first gear.
I did okay driving up the steepest one lane road that I had ever been on, but once we got to the highway exit, my brain sort of broke. At some point I put the car in reverse while driving forward, then again when we stopped at the light on the off ramp. I was starting to panic, because I didn’t understand why I couldn’t find first gear. I was struggling to find the slot and move forward, but I eventually got it in place. There was a strange roundabout and I guess that I shifted the gears in a weird way, because all of a sudden the dashboard went nuts. There were lights flashing and alarms dinging! The car practically shut down!
We were in middle of nowhere surrounded by green fields in all directions, but luckily there was a parking lot ahead at what looked like an abandoned gas station. So I pulled the car to the side and just waited for a second. The display screen said, “The Clutch has overheated, but it isn’t damaged.” I was pretty freaked out and my heart was pounding through my chest. The car smelled like it was burning and there was clouds of smoke billowing from under the hood.
A guy that was driving behind us in his car pulled over to see if we needed any help. He was speaking Swiss-French-German, so I didn’t really know what he was saying, but it seemed like he said that he saw flames coming out of the back of the car when we pulled on the highway exit ramp. He was pretty convinced that I had destroyed the engine, so he gave us the number to a roadside assistance company and then drove off. Our phones were no longer in service, so we decided that we should probably just wait there and see if the car could fix itself. It was practically a new car, so it seems unlikely that I could break it, in just 20 minutes of driving. I thought about just taking it back to the rental car office, but Elizabeth said that we should probably go to the campsite after the car cooled down.
We waited for about an hour, made some sandwiches, then Elizabeth drove us back up the mountain. As we headed up the side of the mountain the roads bended and twisted like they do; and even though I thought that I destroyed the car, it still was fun riding around the curves like we were in a car commercial. We got quite a ways up the mountain before we started seeing signs for the camp site. We followed the navigation system, then turned down a desolate road.
We pulled over to the side of the road and looked over at the camper park, the cabins, and the plot that was reserved for tents. It did not look like the paradise holiday camp that was displayed on the photos. It didn’t even look like there was anyone around. It was really too cold (probably around 40 degrees) to pitch our tent and sleep outside. We had already had some cold nights in Paris, so we decided that we should just try to sleep in the car.
It was still light out so we walked in the area around the camp. There was a mini-golf course that looked like it was built in the 70’s, a passenger train car that contained “curiosities”, and not much else. We walked the other way down the road and saw that there was a sign for some hiking trails. We started climbing where we thought the trail might be and there was a herd of cows grazing just ahead. The cows had giant sphere bells, the size of a softball, hanging from their necks, that rang constantly as the cows nodded their heads up and down as they chewed. As you listened, you could hear the bells ringing all around from every direction at different volumes. In Switzerland, instead of keeping their cows in barns and stuffing them full of corn and growth hormones, they let the cows just graze in the mountains all summer and then throw a big festival for them in the autumn.
These cows did not look friendly. We started to walk in their direction and they looked at us to sort of put out the vibe, that this was their trail, and no American tourists were going to get through without some stern looks. So instead of getting trampled, we turned back.
When we got back down to the car, we sat inside for a bit and watched the sun slowly go down behind the hills ahead. After awhile, we decided that we should drive down to the closest town, and see about getting a beer and borrowing their WiFi. The first thing that we saw when we drove in was the visitors center. It had just closed, but it was across the street from a bar called Maison de Ville. We parked in the visitor center parking lot and walked across to the bar.
It was a small “townie” bar, like you would find in any small town. It was pretty empty when we walked in, but there were a few people hanging out at the bar. There was a couple in their 50’s, an older overweight bartender that spoke some English, and a couple of female bartenders, that looked like they were of Italian decent, but didn’t speak or understand English at all.
We asked the bartender who spoke English, what the WiFi password was, then he asked for our phones and typed it in. The bar had pretty spotty WiFi, but we were able to connect for a little while. We each ordered a Guinness, then started to listening to the people around us, and occasionally looking up at the TV.
Instead of a jukebox or a satellite radio soundtrack, this bar had a Swiss version of MTV that still showed music videos. The rotation of the videos was completely random from what I could tell. The song didn’t seem to be ordered by genre, year, or language. When we walked in, Europe’s Final Countdown was playing. Next they would play something like Mambo Number 5, then a song in French. Other memorable videos from the evening were “Say, Say, Say” by Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, “We’re Big in Japan” by Alphaville, and the song that should’ve had the bar jumping and head-banging, Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.
One of the older gentleman and Elizabeth pulled out a tourist map and they started going through all of the different places to visit in Switzerland. He would point something out on the map or in a tour book, then Elizabeth would say, “Oh, we’ve got to go there!” There were probably 2 or 3 places, which were at least 2-3 hours away by car, that she was fired up about driving out to. But because we had to return the rental car in the morning, they were a bit out of our way. The gentleman did show us a path down the road that we could take to get some amazing views of the Mont Blanc.
As they continued to talk, the gentleman mentioned that there was a spa on the other end of the lake. Elizabeth started a list of every natural spa in the world that she wanted to visit. Any time there is a natural hot spring or mineral bath present in a country, any historical monument takes second place. Unfortunately, every spa in Europe is located a few hours out from the capital city, so she was quickly disappointed. At some point, we might have to skip all the museums and then do a European tour of just the natural spas.
The gentleman and his wife seemed really comfortable with us, if we would’ve told them we were sleeping in our car, we probably could’ve slept at their house. However, when they were leaving, they asked where we were staying. We told them that we were camping, and acted as though we would make ourselves comfortable in any circumstances. Which after Paris, we felt we were pretty capable of doing.
Throughout the night, more people filtered in. There was a group of twenty-somethings at the other end of the bar, a middle-aged gentleman that was newly single (his wife just threw him out of the house), and a few other people that looked like they were probably in their late 60’s. The newly single gentleman spoke really good English and was quick to start up a conversation with us. We talked about California and New York and his various travels. Elizabeth and I had only ordered one Guinness each, and then made it last until we became so tired that we could barely stay awake.
Around midnight, we walked back to the rental car and drove through the dark, up to the country road near the campground. We parked and settled down near where we were parked before, on the street, outside the campground. In spite of its sportiness and great handling, the Mini Cooper’s seats are not comfortable for sleeping in any position. Any heat that we had created due to our prior issue with the clutch was no longer insulated inside the car. Even as we stretched the blanket across the two front seats, we struggled to stay warm. Our previous method of cuddling for warmth was no longer an option in these racing seats, so we spent the whole night shifting and turning, while freezing our butts off.
Day 14: Geneva
Similar to our first night in Paris, we were up around first light, sore and stiff from our lack of sleep and discomfort. We drove back down the hill and stopped to see if the tourist office was open. The gentleman at the bar mentioned that there were a few hiking trails, where you could see a beautiful view of the Mont Blanc, so we wanted obtain a proper trail map. However, we still had about an hour before the office opened. Once again, the Maison De Ville was located across the way.
We walked in to find the same bar staff as the night before and even some of the same clientele. We sat in the same place at the far end of the bar, and looked to the other corner, where we saw 5 older gentlemen drinking pints of beer at 8 am. I dream of a world where I can wake up and have a breakfast of beer with my best friends. Right now, it just isn’t within my comprehension. But for the citizens of St-Cergue, Switzerland, it’s a way of life.
We ordered up more of the same European delicacies, crepes and espresso; and watched the same music video station on the television that we had left the night before. After our breakfast, we went to the tourist office and talked to the gentleman inside. He gave us a map and pointed us down the road. He told us that we would see a sign for the trail near the railroad tracks.
We walked down the road towards the railroad tracks and saw a sign that looked as though we were going to be walking directly next to the tracks. We carried on forward and followed the tracks, hoping that we weren’t going to experience a “Stand By Me” moment. We might be jumping into the woods or getting hit by the train like Ray Brower. Eventually, we saw a sign on the right that was pointing to a trail, so we turned off the tracks and into the woods.
It was great to be back hiking in nature after so long. There are places to hike in San Diego, but there is nothing like hiking on a trail through a forest with brown tree trunks and green leaves. We hadn’t been on a hike through the forest in a few years and we definitely took comfort in feeling like we were one with nature again.
A little way down the path, we saw a sign pointing to the left and up a steep hill. We turned to look and saw a small family of elk. Having spent lots of time in the city, it’s always amazing to see wild animals of any kind, especially animals like elk or deer, that tend to be shy towards humans in the wild. There was three or four adults and two young. As soon as they saw us, they froze. We edged forward for a closer look and instantly they dashed through the forest. We climbed up to see where they had headed. We looked over a huge drop. We couldn’t believe that they were able to jump and land at such a height.
We continued on the trail and anticipated seeing the Mont Blanc. The gentleman at the bar had told us that, “of all the beauty [we] would see on our trip through Europe, nothing would be as beautiful as the Mont Blanc”. We saw an opening ahead and as we walked forward, there it was, the Mont Blanc, the tallest point in the Alps. The view across the valley, over the lake, to the mountains beyond, to the white mountain in the distance, was truly breathtaking.
Sadly, because of the poor quality of our cameras, we weren’t able to get a good photograph of the sight, because there was no contrast between the mountain and the white clouds. Sometimes moments so beautiful have to be captured with the eye and the soul, and cannot be captured with a camera. It was a clear enough day that the lake was not covered in fog; which we were told was typical for that time of year. So even though the white clouds behind the mountain made it difficult to see, we were lucky that it wasn’t obscured completely.
After taking a few moments to enjoy the view, we hiked back to the rental car. Even though, we knew that it would be more fun to take the car on adventures throughout Switzerland, we knew that we needed to get the car back to the location before noon, or we would have to pay for an extra day. The rental for just one day was already close to $250. It sounds crazy that we would spend so much money to rent a car and to drive out in the middle of nowhere. Though, we were able to experience the adventure of me overheating the clutch and eventually try to sleep in the car’s uncomfortable seats; paired with seeing the beautiful views at the Chateau Chillon, Lake Geneva, and the Mont Blanc. In retrospect, it was worth the cost.
At this point, I was no longer confident in driving the Mini, so Elizabeth drove us back to the city of Geneva. We programmed the awkward GPS to the rental car location. As we drove through the lush green hills and mountains of rural Switzerland, we could still sort of smell of the burning odor still working it’s way through the system. We hoped that the fresh, clear air would replace the smell, and none would be the wiser to our little incident.
After stopping for gas just inside the city limits, we arrived at the rental car location around 1:30pm. We parked the car in the garage and hauled our stuff to the main level of the train station. We walked to the rental office and when we got there, the clerk wasn’t inside. While we were concerned about getting the car there 90 minutes late, we felt like if we talked to the clerk, he would tell us that it was fine and everything would be alright.
We ended up camping out at a coffee shop facing the rental office in the train station. We both ordered some coffee and took advantage of some free internet provided by the shop, while we waited for the rental office to open. During this time, we were able to get the address of the guy that Elizabeth had connected with on couchsurfing.com, who was going to let us stay at his place for the night.
After the rental office opened, we turned in the keys to the clerk; not mentioning the issue with the clutch or the burning smell. He said that everything was fine, and sent us on our way. Based on the messages that Elizabeth received from the gentleman on couchsurfing.com, he wasn’t going to be able to meet up with us until 7pm. So, much like the previous early arrivals, where we were standing in a train station with our bags. We went back and forth discussing, what to do with them, for the next 6 hours or so. Eventually, we concluded that we should lock up our packs in the stations lockers, explore the city of Geneva in all of it’s overpriced splendor, and then come back later to take the bus to this gentleman’s apartment.
The rumors that we heard of Geneva were true, Geneva was NOT a good place to visit as a low budget tourist. Perhaps, if you are hanging around while making a deposit in your Swiss bank account, you can shop at your favorite luxury shop. However, if you are a poor artist, who is backpacking on a budget, Geneva is evil billionaire heaven and therefore, you are in hell. Gucci, Rolex, Prada, Tiffany’s…even the grocery stores sold bottles of $200 Cristal on the shelf next to the equivalent Boone’s Farm and not behind lock and key.
One of the grocery stores that we entered had a huge selection of Swiss chocolate, including chocolate covered Jack Daniel’s shots. You literally took your first bite and a half a shot of whiskey dripped down your lips. There was easily one hundred different brands of chocolate (mostly of Swiss production), from 1 Swiss Franc up to 1000 Swiss Francs. Elizabeth found this really large chocolate bar that was around 18 inches long that she decided to buy for our friend Amanda, whom was watching our dog. It only cost about 2 Swiss Francs, but now we had one more thing to carry.
We passed lots of shops that were selling watches, Swiss Army knives, and any other souvenir that you could place a Swiss flag on. We stopped in one of the shops and Elizabeth was set on getting a timepiece in Switzerland, whether it was Swiss or not. I always wanted one of the Swiss Army knives with all the little tools. There was a wall in the shop that had them all on display. I was in awe. I pulled out my camera to take a picture, and as if I was staking this place out for a heist, the clerk walked over and shouted, “No photos of the merchandise!” I was so startled that I put my camera away and walked over to Elizabeth to urge her to conclude her perusing before I do something else to upset the gentleman. Certain that it wasn’t a big deal and mesmerized by all the beautiful watches, Elizabeth scoffed at me and huffed when I told her that I thought that we should leave.
We began walking towards the old town district, and happened to walk past the Favarger Chocolate Factory. A chocolate shop so expensive, that a small box of chocolates would cost you close to $100. The least amount of chocolate that you could buy was six pieces and the minimum cost was about $12. As we walked in, the woman in the store gave us some samples. After placing the most delicious, most mouthwatering piece of chocolate that I had ever tasted into my mouth, we ran for the door before she made us pay for them! It’s hard to decide which chocolate is better, between Swiss chocolate and Beligium chocolate, because they are both so amazing compared to the America brands. While you could buy three Hershey’s bars for the same price as an one inch square of European chocolate, the two aren’t even in the same class when it comes to richness and overall taste.
Like most European cities, Geneva contains a mix in architecture, which ranges from medieval to modern. As we approached the lake, we found two modern landmarks that seemed a little less than impressive compared to some of the other sites that we’d encountered. There is a giant man-made geyser that shoots water into the air from the lake and a clock that is made out of flowers. While I think that these items are cool in their own way I think that they kind of do that stuff at Disneyland too; and Disney does it better.
As we walked the cobblestone streets of the Old Town district, we kept seeing stores that had the most expensive everything in the world. The most expensive watches, the most expensive suits, and the most expensive colored pencils were all in the same neighborhood. Maybe there are people that get a thrill just in the presence of material items they can’t afford, but I don’t even like to see them in the corner of my eye. When methods of keeping time are worth as much as a car, or to feed a family for a year, I think they are unnecessary.
Beyond commerce, we were able to take some photos of an old gothic church, the town hall, and other government buildings. The charm of the city quickly became lost, when it seemed like so much of the city was branded for the super rich. The highlight, however, was a pizza shop, where we could get free WiFi.
We continued to look through the shop windows. I looked at Swiss Army knives with 125 different functions; Elizabeth looked at watches with multi-faceted faces. Together, we counted down the hours on my Casio watch, until we met up with the couchsurfing host.
Around 6pm we walked back to the train station and picked up our packs. We headed out to the main street and we scoped out the cable cars. Even though the trains were connected to the cables above, they drove like buses in the same lanes as the cars, and wove in and out of the lanes as they went from one lane to two. There were lots of commuters at the train stop, and as Elizabeth and I looked aimless with our huge packs, a few young women offered their help and loaded us on to the right cable car.
As we packed into this narrow cable car, I stood in the aisle next to a heavy-set woman in her twenties. She was outgoing compared to most people that we encountered. She basically told me her life story. She explained that everyday she took this route from Geneva to a city across the border in France, where it was much cheaper to live. She worked for a pharmaceutical event company and traveled around Europe to different places for work. At some point in her life she lived in New York, and from this experience, she didn’t have a French accent, when she spoke English.
She asked me about our trip and I told about our different experiences, both good and bad, and how hard it had been to get a SIM card to work from one place to another. She told me about a company called SIM ONE, whom sold an international SIM card, which can be used in pretty much any country, with no additional roaming fees. She didn’t have a lot of details about it, but the next time we travel outside of the states, we will have to buy one before we travel.
The cable car seemed to barely move and the woman told us that something was strange today. “We probably should have made it to your stop by now, but we have barely moved from where we started,” she explained. The destination, in which we were headed, was only 2 stops away from the train station and given our current situation, we probably could’ve walked faster than the cable car was taking us. We probably talked for 20 minutes or more as we traveled along, but the most memorable thing that the woman said was, “for such a big trip, we packed pretty light…”, which made Elizabeth and I roll our eyes, because our packs were both about 30-40 lbs each.
When we finally made it to our stop, we started walking in the dark to the apartment to which we were going to be “couch surfing”. It was only a right on this street and a left on this street before we arrived at the address, which was like #5 (insert famous dead European).
As we looked up at the fancy looking building, I figured that this guy, whom we were couchsurfing with, had to be rich. We walked up to the automatic glass doors and walked through to the lobby. Just inside, it looked like we were surrounded by gold. We went over to keypad next to mailboxes and looked for the host’s name, Romaine (like the lettuce). We didn’t see his name anywhere. There were a few mailboxes without names so we thought we might be able to guess his apartment number, if we press the right buzzer, by process of elimination. We debated about how many people we would have to buzz, before we found him. Before we started randomly pressing buzzers and asking for Romaine, a guy coming home from the gym was walking in the front door with his bike. It was a long shot, but we asked him, if he knew Romaine.
Elizabeth has a way of trying to get strangers to help her, where she starts asking lots of questions and repeating herself until the person feels so wrapped up in getting her to slow down and stop asking questions, that they give in to what she is asking for. This doesn’t always work, especially if the people don’t speak English as their first language, and rarely if they are in a security position.
She cornered the guy with the bike and somehow convinced him to give her his cell phone to get on the couchsurfing website and get Romaine’s number. The guy with the bike was so nice that he called up Romaine and told him that we were waiting outside the building for him. Even though we expected to meet him at 7pm and it was a few minutes after, Romaine said that he wasn’t too far away and he would meet us in about 15 minutes. So, it was good news, considering part of me thought that this whole thing was all a hoax.
The guy with the bike said that he was in trouble with his girlfriend and didn’t feel much like going back upstairs. He said that he would wait with us until Romaine arrived to make sure we got in. Once again, we had someone new that we could share our trip with. We kept it short and told him that we had just come from Paris. He mentioned that he used to live in Paris, but he moved because the taxes were lower in Geneva. He said in Paris, your income tax rate is 40% of your salary. I don’t remember what he said the percentage was in Geneva, but I assumed it was better.
Romaine soon arrived and let us into the building. He was under six feet, thin, and had short hair. We mention that we didn’t see his name on the list of mailboxes. He told us that the name is under the person that he is renting from, whose name is Gonzalez. Even as we were walking in the main hall, we felt like we were going to be walking into the most luxurious apartment of our trip. After going up a short flight of 5 or 6 steps, he opened the door to a cramped studio apartment. To the left was a computer table, straight ahead there was a futon against the sliding glass door and to the right, there was a small table with a tv placed on top.
“So where are you going to sleep?” we asked. “On the floor with the other two people that are couch surfing tonight,”He said. “So, there are going to be five of us here tonight?” I said curiously. “Yeah, I just don’t know how to say no,” He said.
The room was clearly going to be cozy with five people, but as long as we were going to be sleeping on the futon, I figured that we’d be fine. Romaine informed us that he still had to go back to work to finish up a few things before he came back to entertain us in the meantime, we could use the indoor pool in the building.
We grabbed our trunks and swimsuit, and he lead us down to the pool. He told us that he would be back in an hour or so, but left us with a key, in case we decided that we wanted to come back up to the room sooner. The indoor pool looked very luxurious and we couldn’t wait for a bit of luxury, after we’d been roughing it for the last week. After we changed into our swimsuits, we stuck our toes in the water and it was like ice. While we assumed that we would be diving into a heated pool, there was no way that we were going to be participating in this chilly luxury. So we just participated in a hot shower in the pool’s changing room instead.
Soon after, we went back upstairs to the studio apartment, plugged in our electronics, and waited for our host to return. About an hour later, he came back with two girls that had arrived from Madrid. One looked like she was Asian in origin and the other looked Spanish. They were both in their early twenties, while we all got acquainted, we realized we were practically twice the age of these girls. Once again, Romaine told us that he had to step out and go to a meeting. I thought that it was crazy that he was letting four strangers stay in his studio apartment with all of his stuff. He said, he would be back in a few hours, and left us to our own devices.
While we knew that we could pretty much party it up, we just talked to the Spanish girls until they got bored of us and started talking to each other in Spanish. We had barely slept the night before, so Elizabeth and I spooned on the futon and eventually fell asleep. Our bus to Milan was leaving at 7am. We needed to get to the bus station around 6:15, according to the ticket, to secure our seat on the bus. A few hours later, Romaine came back in, and put pillows and blankets on the floor for him and the girls to sleep on. With Romaine’s help, I turned the futon into a bed. I made extra sure that I set our alarms, then went back to sleep.
After the alarms went off, we woke up and walked over the bodies on the floor in the dark. We had already pack our bags, so after we brushed our teeth and put a comb through our hair, we were off. We walked the few blocks back over to the cable car station, and then took the cable car to the Geneva train station. From there, we walked over to a parking lot a few blocks down, where we saw all the charter buses lined up and ready for departure.
The bus that we were looking for was called the Ouibus , but it didn’t look like it had started boarding.
We hadn’t eaten or bought food, and we were hoping that there was going to be a food stand or cafe open near the buses, but we saw nothing. This early in the morning, both Elizabeth and I are prone to irritability, so like most travel days, we started bickering about whatever the other one was doing.
We walked into the station to see if there was something that we could eat, but after I only saw some vending machines. I came out of the station and went over to the only shop open in a one block radius. It was a small convenience store which only took Swiss Francs. None of the items on the shelves were marked, but since I could usually buy a small bag of chips, a few sandwiches, a candy bar, and a drink for under $10 at 7-Eleven, I couldn’t have anticipate the cost to coming out close to $40. Even though I came back with food and drinks for Elizabeth, she was pissed that I didn’t tell her exactly where I was going. We didn’t say anything to each other, we just sat there. Then minutes later, she stormed out of the bus station without telling me where she was going!
Our anger fizzled and in no time, the time to board the bus had arrived. To our surprise, we ended up with tickets for the front row. The seats on the bus were raised above the driver and looked straight on through the extended height of the windshield. Instead of being cramped in like sardines, our voyage from Geneva to Milan was going to feel like we were watching a road trip movie through the Alps. The bus ride was five hours long but the landscape was so beautiful, that it made the time pass quickly. The mountains that had been across the lake from us the day before were now the ones that we were tunneling through and winding around. It was amazing seeing these snow covered mountains and whispering waterfalls pass by like pictures in a postcard.
As we entered Italy, traffic started to back up. Our once quick moving bus was now stuck in gridlock on an Italian highway. We had planned the departure time from Milan to Florence to be about forty-five minutes later than our arrival time in Milan, giving us ample time to make mistakes. With this traffic delay, our buffer time was getting shorter and shorter by the minute. The bus was getting to be close to thirty minutes late, and unless we transferred on the metro, from the bus station to Milan Central Station with perfect timing, we might not make our train to Florence.
We arrived at the bus terminal thirty-five minutes late and as soon as the bus stopped, Elizabeth and I were on our feet. We quickly got our bags from the luggage compartments under the bus. We ran to the metro entrance, down the steps, then found that there were two trains that we needed to take to get to Central Station. Within five minutes the first metro train arrived and we were on our way.
I looked down at my watch and it was getting near 1pm. I looked around to the people on the train and I was surrounded by a bunch of children in school uniforms. What time does school let out in Italy? Aren’t Europeans supposed to be superior in education? When I was still in school, we started at 7am and ended at 4pm.
We switched trains, then arrived at the central station in less than ten minutes. I looked at my watch and we had seven minutes to get on the train. We power walked across the central station, then hopped on the train with plenty of time to find our seats and get settled in.
Places We Bought Food and Drinks
Maison de Ville Route d’Arzier 2, 1264 Saint-Cergue, Switzerland Maison de Ville is one of two dining establishments in Saint-Cerge, and the only one that was open for late-night drinks and breakfast. This local bar has all the charm that you would expect for an establishment located thirty miles outside of Geneva. While Geneva is one of the most expensive cities in the world, Maison de Ville is a great place to spend your Swiss Francs. The constant entertainment of obscure music videos and the promise of a cold pint, paired with sugar crepes for breakfast, is all the argument that you need to head up the mountain to this pub.
Favarger Chocolate Factory Quai des Bergues 19, 1201 Genève, Switzerland While it seems like you can get great chocolate everywhere, in Switzerland, Favarger is the best. While a handful of chocolates there can cost as much as a week’s salary for the common man and if you can afford it’s richness, your tastebuds will be in heaven for as long as it takes for a piece to melt in your mouth. If you are just walking in for a peek or sneaking in to take a deep inhale of the intoxicating aroma, you may be lucky enough to get a sample from the staff member on duty. That sample will knock your socks off and you will never think of chocolate the same way again.
Le Flore Rue de la Fontaine 9, 1204 Genève, Switzerland This pizzaria and Italian restaurant is located in the Old Town district of Geneva near the carousel. While the prices of the entrees are fair for Geneva prices, the pizza appeared to be a much greater value. If you are lost and are looking to map your way back to your hotel or B&B, there is free WiFi available.