Monday, May 2, 2011

Genève, Suisse

I took a train to Geneva and met Brittney at the airport around 11pm and we headed to our hostel on the other side of town and hit the sack! We shared the room with several Spanish girls who gave us Colacao when they left on the second day, a Kenyan girl currently living in London, and a few others who didn't really speak to us much. It was definitely an interesting situation. Sharing a room with 5 girls is not fun! Breakfast provided by the hostel for the four days we were there was Musli, bread with jam and butter, and Colacao. On Sunday we went to the English ward in Geneva and met some pretty cool people. It was strange going to church in English again. We met Afton Beutler who founded the U.N.'s Worldwide Organization for Women. She was a really cool woman! Unfortunately it was Easter so nearly everything was closed on Sunday and Monday so there wasn't much to do. Everything was extremely expensive, and Zurich is supposed to be even more expensive! The cheapest thing you could fine anywhere was an 8 CHF panini. Monday we did some souvenir shopping and that afternoon we met a woman whom I had met on the train to Geneva, and she showed us around the Old City and showed us where the best place to get fondue was. Fondue was 25CHF per person, and she even gave us 30 CHF to help us out. She was amazing! She dropped us off by the Parc des Bastions and we walked along the Wall of the Reformers before walking back to the restaurant to try fondue. Supposedly, fondue season is the winter, but we had to try it anyway! All it was was a boiling pot of more cheese that anyone should eat in a week and a loaf of bread. Sadly, it wasn't that amazing... We actually had to force ourselves to eat enough of it that it looked like we had touched it. And apparently we weren't getting enough cheese on our bread nor stirring it right, so the waitresses were kind enough to stir for us a couple of times and load our bread with the right amount of cheese. We were acting a bit silly afterwards, and decided to look up the ingredients. Sure enough, white wine and kirsch are ingredients. I'd wonder if it cooks out, but based on evidence, I'd think not...

On Tuesday, being science nerds, we went on a tour of CERN! It was pretty sweet! We got lost a bit on the buses afterward and ended up at IKEA and bought some delicious Swedish chocolate. That afternoon we went to and American shop and shared a can of A&W rootbeer and went to the Musée d'art et d'histoire. We met some new elders straight out of the MTC who had been in Geneva for 5 hours. Poor guys.. Britt started speaking in Spanish to them, and I was speaking French. Probably confused the heck out of them! Some of my favorite artists from the museum were Alexandre Calame, Corot, and Diday,  After the museum we went to FHE at the Institute which was pretty much just us and the missionary couple teaching the lesson for the night. But a couple others showed up later. It was pretty fun! I learned how to do S.O.S. in Morse Code!
The fountain!






Accidentally got a bird in the photo, but it turned out kinda cool.

A lighthouse


From Britt's cam

Gold bricks!



Awesome statue



Hotel de Ville






St. Pierre Cathedral








Wall of Reformation

Chess and Checkers! I want one of these! Still need to learn how to play Chess though.

Theater


Knight in the Restaurant

Fondue photo

Love these!

Large Haldron Collider! It's smiling! How cute is that?!



Universe of Particles

ATLAS Control Room

Giant Magnet



The museum






Taking a break from all the walking :) Britt's cam



1 comment:

  1. Gorgeous pics! Looks like a good time! I love you! - mom

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