In Geneva

It’s been a heck-of-a-journey to get here. I should have written this last night, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

I didn’t sleep as much on the plan as I would have liked. I finished seeing “Get Hard” (better than I expected) and saw all of “Home”. After that I tried to sleep a much as you can on an airplane (not much.)

The Geneva airport has a great service: Complimentary transit tickets for all arriving passengers. I knew about this feature, but I had forgotten one critical point; you have to grab the ticket before you leave the departure area. So I had to pay for a train ticket. It wasn’t the money that bothered me so much as the inconvenience. I didn’t have enough CHF coins so I tried to used my Euro coins. The machine didn’t accept that. So I left the line and tried to dig out my CHF notes from my luggage. Then to a new machine because someone just as incompetent as me was now trying to use mine. Line up several times because there are a lot of incompetents at the airport. Press all the buttons and then find out this machine doesn’t accept cash at all. Third time was the charm.

After the train, I walked to my hostel and put my luggage in a locker. (I can only check in after two o’clock.) I changed a bit in the luggage room (don’t judge me!) and then started walking. I got to the lakeside and rested there. Then, since I wasn’t seeing my cousin for another couple of hours I decided to go do some things I missed the last time I was here.

I walked to the old city, got lost a few times (sleep deprivation) before I finally found Maison Tavel. I had read about it in a guidebook three years ago, but wasn’t able to get to it, or find it. It has a lot of artifacts from the history of this city, but I only cared about one: The scale model of Geneva.

I found it on the second floor and it was nice. I took a bunch of pictures, and cursed the people who had put their fat fingerprints all over the glass protecting it. It wasn’t much bigger than a dinner table, but it was nice to see.

It was also all a lie.

On the third floor, there is a staircase to the attic that is very easy to miss. If you go up, you see the real scale model. The first was made in 1815. The big one is from 1850. And it was fantastic! Bigger than my living room. Lot of detail. Showed all the fortifications from long ago, that were never tested. (Good thing because they never actually had a big enough army to defend it.) If you go to Copenhagen, you can see many of their walls and moats around the city still there. In Geneva they have completely obliterated them, filled them in and built more city over them.

How do I know? Because the curators were kind enough to show me their movie about the history of Geneva in English for me. I was running late for meeting my cousin, but it would be rude to leave when they were going to do that. And it was a great film. Chiefly because it was displayed on a topographical screen, so you could see the geography of Geneva as they projected maps on to it.

In case you weren’t aware, I really love maps.

I then rushed off to see my cousin Ida, her husband David, and their two twins born five months ago, Joshua and Aiofe. (Yes, they are only missing a “U” in her name, otherwise they would have all the vowels. “Y” is there in spirit, because it is pronounced “Iffy”.) We went for a pleasant walk through the park systems that is behind all of the World organizations. I was not even aware there was a World Meterological Organization, and we speculated as to what they actually did.

After we parted ways, I went back to the hostel and claimed my room. Roommate is sight unseen. I then had to worry about dinner. I asked the hostel if there was any cheap places they would recommend, and they said there weren’t any. At all. In the entire city. This confirmed what my cousin had said. I ended up wandering to a Kebab place and having something there. Kebabs are similar to Donairs but not as good. I don’t think I will be eating any good food in Geneva, it is far too expensive here.

Then back to the hostel, where I tried to update my blog, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I went to bed.

2015-8-24 10:32