thitherward

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.

My Japanese train buddy, who was also zipping through Switzerland in a day, and I split up at Interlaken. He was going to take the train trip to the viewing deck on Jungfraujoch, the highest railway station in Europe at 3,454 meters (11,332 ft). Since I wanted to spend more time in Geneva later in the day, I decided to pass on taking a trip up into the Alps and, instead, enjoyed a picnic lunch on the grass in Lauterbrunnen, with the sound of the river running forcefully below me.

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The train trip was from Bern to Interlaken, a small town situated between two lakes.

People are not kidding when they say that Switzerland is expensive. My train ticket there cost three times what I’d paid for the same distance elsewhere in Europe. food costs more. Hostels cost more. I didn’t even see any of the “rappen” Swiss coins (like cents) – the smallest denomination I saw was “1/2 Franc” on a coin. I digress. The point is that, to save some money, I decided to zip through Switzerland without stopping for the night so I took the night train into Zurich from Vienna, stopped in a small town called Interlaken, at the base of the Alps, for lunch, and headed west to Geneva to meet up with a friend for dinner before getting on another night train headed for Spain. Given my race through Switzerland, I had a surprisingly good time and met some very interesting people.

The morning – entering Switzerland via Zurich. The dawn broke to provide some of my first views of the Alpine mountain outlines, grasslands, and Lake Zurich. I met a Japanese student, June, backpacking through Europe on his own. Once again, the Japanese travel books impressed me with their abundance of pictures and tips on what to see, do, and eat.

I met Salome in the hostel in Tallinn. Incidentally, there was another girl, Marina, from the same city as Salome, having breakfast with us that morning so here are their insights into Zurich, Switzerland

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I’ve heard more of Paul’s excellent mini-trumpet playing than actual conversation but he did say this about his hometown of Neuchatel, Switzerland:

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Valentina talking about Oberdiessbach, Switzerland:

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Benjamin from a small town near Evian, on the border between France and Switzerland:

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