Catchup: Geneva

I woke up the next day ready for the train! It was my first time taking a TGV so I was curious how nice it was going to be. The train station was very easy to find, so we made it on time no problem. It was a little early for me to be awake, but I didn't mind.

The train itself was quite slick looking, as you can see:





Unfortunately Erin forgot her wrist bands for motion sickness buried in her backpack. Things turned out alright though, since the train was so smooth and there were things to do. I had my knitting, so I tried to work on FOX's sweater so he wouldn't get cold in Switzerland:



Out the window things were looking scenic:



Erin was writing stuff:



Here we are on our first international train journey! Woo!



It was tricky to take photos at such a high speed...



As the train slowed down though I was able to get a couple in... Before we knew it we were in Geneva!



It was kinda cloudy so you couldn't really see the mountains behind the city.. but it was still pretty.



Here's Erin looking over at the city... See it's still quite nice!



A lot of the buildings looked like this:


The old part of the city was charming, with thin windy streets and cobblestones. It was a lot of uphill however. We were going to have to have our packs for the whole day, so the uphill climbing was extra tough. Erin was still sick too so we were taking it slow up the hills, looking at all the little alleys. I was slow because I am out of shape. There was a cool bookstore full of super old books that Erin found.









One thing that stood out about Switzerland was the amount of flags everywhere. They were lining streets, bridges, everything! You could tell Geneva has money, too. No litter, no dog crap, just a lot of flags and people in suits. I felt a little out of place.



We weren't sure if we were supposed to go in here at first, but it seemed fine... one lady saw us from inside and didn't give us hassle while we took shots, so I assume it was allowed.



At this point it was time to give our backs a rest. We found an old cannon and leaned our backpacks on it. My back was really happy about this, so we took our time looking at the map and information about the city Erin had cleverly photocopied prior to coming out here:







We decided to climb one more hill so we sucked it up and went for it. It was a church, and I think the view was worth it in the end :) It wasn't the tallest thing, but it was nice up there. I went to use the toilet in the museum next door, then Erin did after me and they refused her for some reason! That was super dumb!





Inside the church was also pleasant:







We came out and Erin had to use a very disturbing toilet. Considering the surroundings, I was surprised the toilet was so shitty (haha bad joke I know)! I mean most stuff looked like this:



I guess everything can't be spotless. Apparently there were needles in there though which is pretty appalling in even the worst of bathrooms. We got the hell outta there and begun the descent towards the water thing. You know, the famous fountain thingy. Well, if you don't you'll see it in around 2.5 seconds.


this thing:




Here is a lovely Hotel!



The streets were very posh, but it was hard to find a supermarket.



We eventually found a supermarket after asking some people. We bought snacks so we could begin our next mission: hitchhiking to Lausanne.

I consider hitching to be a very liberating travel experience, nevermind the fact that it's free. We were, however, pressed for time so we couldn't be bumming around on the side of the road for days while my sister only has six weeks to spend in Europe. Instead, one short journey here was perfect for our mammoth schedule. First, it's in one of the safest countries in the world, and is only 30 km away. There are only two roads to go there so it's very unlikely we would get lost. The spot recommended on Hitchwiki was within the city and a 20 minute walk from the train station. It was foolproof: If we found no ride we could easily walk back and take the train. No chance of getting stuck!

First we had to get those snacks. Can't be hungry doing these things. We bought cereal to make our sign out of the cardboard (and to eat of course). I had some coloured pens from Berlin, so we were set to go! We had acquired a big map from a tourist office upon arrival, although he looked at us weird when I said we were using it to hitchhike. He said nobody does that here (which is total crap I have a few friends in Switzerland that do it there) and we would have to wait a long time. I was not discouraged though, since we weren't really going to get "stuck", just "delayed" if he was right. We started walking along the water towards the park and ended up walking by these things which were actually pretty cool:



We arrived at our lovely cow-painted radar point (which is really smart if you think about it! that will slow them down eh!) and made our sign. Erin turned out to be a perfect hitching buddy since she started dancing up a storm while I held the sign. Within 20 minutes we had a direct lift to Lausanne :D

This saved us a lot of money in the end since our Swiss Passes were not valid until the next day. The train was at least 20 bucks, and for 30km that's really steep. The guy that drove us was really nice too - even pulled over for us to take photos once we reached Lausanne! Erin's French came in super handy. The driver told us about some music festivals he helps set up in Switzerland, and general stuff. We had to go through some traffic, then after that we were in Lausanne!