Geneva Winery Weekend

Every year the local transportation authority in Geneva offers free transportation to and from the local wineries in and around Geneva. Luckily we happened to find out about this one-time event the day before. Also, seeing that we are poor grad students seeking free entertainment, myself and others decided to take advantage of the free alcohol and transportation. We all drank a little too fast (and our low cal diets didn't help) so we only made it to two wineries, which were both quite nice. All in all I think we tasted more than 20 wines, so let's just say we all felt good. After the wine tour we decided to split and then regroup later in the evening for din din. The wine made us all very sleepy. However, because our apartment is located in Bellevue and the train only runs once an hour on the weekends, Nina and I decided to stay in Geneva and tour the "Old Town."

Compared to most European cities, Geneva is not rich in history. I'm not quite sure why, but there isn't much. Anyhoo, Old Town is the oldest part of the city, with hilly, cobblestone streets and lots of churches. We meandered through Old Town then took a stroll by Lake Geneva until the weather decided to punish us and downpour cold rain drops and small pieces of hail. On another note, the weather in Geneva has been terrible. Cloudy and 60 everyday, yuck. After our stroll we rejoined the group at the main train station (the central meeting place for everyone) and set off for Planpalais (a neighborhood/district in Geneva that's not as touristy). --Unrelated , I paid 2 francs to use the toilets at the train station, remember Geneva is the 7th most expensive city in the world--

Originally our mission was to find Raclette, which is a traditional Swiss food featuring none other than Swiss cheese. Here's a better definition courtesy of Wikipedia.

Raclette is also a dish indigenous to parts of Switzerland, Wallonia and France. The Raclette cheese round is heated, either in front of a fire or by a special machine, then scraped onto diners' plates; the term raclette derives from the French racler, meaning "to scrape". Traditionally, it is accompanied by small firm potatoes (Bintje, Charlotte or Raclette varieties), gherkins, pickled onions, dried meat, such as prosciutto and viande des Grisons, sliced peppers, tomato, onion, mushrooms, pears, and dusted with paprika and fresh-ground black pepper.

However, the price of raclette for one person was quite expensive. Although I've found that I'm not as price sensitive as my peers (probably because my bank, Bank of Mom and Dad, is a very generous one). Nonetheless the others encountered sticker shock so we opted for pizza instead. After a delicious margherita pizza that cost me 13 francs I headed back to Bellevue for some zzzs.

Today, like everyday, it was cloudy and cool so I decided to stay inside and plan my European adventures for the rest of the summer. I opened Excel (Nick would be so proud of my planning strategies) and started searching the web for must-sees while I'm here. Recently I purchased a half fare card for the train, a special promo for the UE Soccer Tournament that's being held in Switzerland and Austria. This handy dandy half fare card let's me buy train tickets to anywhere in Switzerland and Austria for half price but it's only valid for the month of June. Thus, June is my 'discover Suisse' month of travels. I've already booked my hotel rooms for the upcoming weekend in Luzern (or Lucerne for you Yankees). Luzern is located in the Swiss German part of the country. I was thinking earlier today and realized that I do not know any German words or phrases. None. Nada. That's probably something I should look into. Anyhoo. Lucerne, Interlaken/Lauterbrunnen, Zermatt, someplace over in eastern Switzerland and finally Vienna, Austria, are all on my list of places to visit in June.

The weekend is not over but I'm already praying for next weekend to arrive (since my internship sucks A LOT.)

Finally, to round out the weekend, I bought my plane ticket home. It was triple what I paid to fly to Geneva. A one-way ticket from Geneva to Louisville was going to cost me around $2100. One freaking way. Yeah right I'm not paying that. So instead I'm flying to London (for which my plane ticket cost a total of $60, not too shabby, eh?), staying a night in a super luxurious hotel (I wanted to treat myself since my internship is so horrible), then flying to Louisville just in time to go to the My Morning Jacket show on the waterfront with my honey.

Geneva is growing on me, but I'm still looking forward to my journey home and eating tons of Mexican food and chips and queso and cuddling with my two kitties. Oh yeah and smooching Nick.