Day 127: Genève
Geneva was the only city where I actually spent a few hours out amongst the Swiss people. I had more than five hours until my night train out of Switzerland and I really wanted to check my email to see if there was an update from Benjamin, whom I met around Day 40 of my trip, and whom I was meeting for dinner in Geneva. I had unsuccessfully tried to reach him by SMS (text message) and I really needed to know when and where I was supposed to meet him. So I paid the 6 Francs (~$8) to put my big backpack into a locker and started to wander the city in search of 1) a tourist map, 2) an outlet that I could plug my phone into to recharge it so that I could then use the wifi on it, and 3) a shady or cool place to sit and get away from the heat.
I found a really annoying feature of most Swiss electrical outlets which is that they are inset and hexagonal so that my simple rectangular US-Europe plug adapter would not fit. This made it so that I couldn’t charge my phone, which then meant that I couldn’t use the wifi on it to check my email (assuming I could find free wifi). So I found myself walking into several stores staring at their walls at ankle-level to see if they had an outlet that would work for me. Needless to say, I received many strange looks by walking into bars and restaurants and not looking up past anyone’s knees. I did eventually find an outlet that didn’t have the silly hexagon inset – in an internet cafe of all places. The guy working there was nice enough to just let me sit there in the air-conditioned room while my phone charged so, ironically, I ended up paying to use the internet on one of their computers. It was all for naught since I hadn’t received anything from Benjamin. So I decided to just visit some of the historic points in Geneva that were within walking distance of the train station.
I saw many men in suits leaving work and walking around. I saw many tourists (many of whom were either Korean, Japanese, or Chinese) shopping. I found the old town part of Geneva pleasantly quiet so I spent more time walking around there and listening to the city sounds.
Pete Valkov, a Bulgarian musician, living and working in Switzerland was on one street corner:
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He was fantastic and fit the settings perfectly. I bought his CD.
Cathedral organ:
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Walking down a narrow staircase…
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… onto a street that opened up into a large open square filled with cafe tables of people sitting outdoors, eating and drinking…
… and then onto more deserted narrow streets.
I thoroughly enjoyed the sunset over Geneva from the alleys in its old town. As I was walking back toward the newer part of the city, where most of the cafes and bars were, I received a call from Benjamin so I did get to see him again and enjoy his company for a few hours.
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