It's a GORGEOUS day in Leeds, sitting at about the low 70's in temp; it's actually warmer here than in some parts of CA. Who'dve thunk? Oh, and the sun sets at 9:30pm. WILD.
Anyways, I'm sorry for not blogging as much as I thought I would this week; I've been just relaxing before the exam-week to come. Here goes...
So from where we left off in Amsterdam, my friends and I had to get to the airport for a morning flight; this involved leaving the hostel at 5am to get to the train station and eventually the airport. Kind of a pain in the butt since we had no clue of our way around Amsterdam! The city centre is enormous and we'd only been there for a day and a half. In addition, it was there that I learned that if I want to know my way around a place, I've gotta be the one doing the navigating. (Yes, I learn the hard way.) After quite a stressful time, we got to the train station and the airport and took off for a day in Geneva, Switzerland.
So when we booked the trip, my friend Tatiana and I realized that we could either a) spend the night in the Liverpool airport or b) spend a day in Geneva; both options were the same price! Neither of us had been to Geneva, so why not? When we arrived in Geneva, we got off the plane and just on the tarmac we could see gorgeous mountains capped with snow! A massive Swiss flag nearby helped the ambiance as well. In the city centre, a short train ride away, we walked around with the help of city maps planted every few corners.
As we walked out of the train station, I saw a small blond guy with a beard waiting for a cable car that looked oddly familiar. "Hey Jesse," I said incredibly casually as if I'd seen him every day of my life. He turned around rather surprised. Ha! So it WAS my Social Communications TA! He's been a TA at Leeds, and while not British, but Canadian, he's put up with my professor (who constantly takes jabs at North Americans-- both Americans and "fake Americans"/Canadians) for quite some time. Anyways, it turns out he was just touring Switzerland for Easter Break. Cool. For those of you that know me pretty well, it's not unusual for me to run into a teacher/TA/professor in another country.
The highlight of the city for me was Lake Geneva, a lake in the centre that had a massive fountain called Jet d'Eau. Not only was that amazing (spouting at about 450 feet in the air, but the water was beautifully turquoise and clean! If you got close enough and the wind changed direction suddenly, you could end up in the splash zone and look as if you just got off the Log Ride at Six Flags.
It wouldn't really be fair to give you a summation of Geneva based off of what I saw, but it seemed a nice little city. There was a University and a lot of the public transport consisted of cable car and buses. Intercity transport is all trains. The city is a mix of modern buildings and some older-looking buildings. It didn't have a lot of sites, but was a nice place to be.
So apart from feeding the swans, getting ice cream, and just going for a mooch (walk), seeing a clock made out of flowers, we also went to check out St. Pierre's Cathedral and indulged in some Swiss hot chocolate! :)
Next, we took a lovely ride on a train to a trainyard by accident in our attempt to get back to the airport, but luckily we had enough time to get shunted back to the station, catch another train and make our connecting flight. Praise the Lord! And now off to Barcelona!
Fun fact: Switzerland has 4 spoken languages: Swiss-German, German, Italian and French. In Geneva, we got to practice a little French. Lots of 'merci beaucoup's and 'sil vous plait's.
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