Geneva, Switzerland

I've been kind of a shut in these days. That's probably due to the fact that all of my friends are students and with exams looming, none of them have time to go out. So when I noticed I had the weekend off (a rarity in my line of work) I decided to take advantage and do what it is that I came here to do: travel! Since I only had Saturday and Sunday off, I knew I had to stay relatively close to home but I was itching to get out of France. I found a return train ticket to Geneva online for €36. Without thinking twice I bought it and proceeded to book a night at the Geneva youth hostel. Just like that! I'm in Switzerland.

I arrived early Saturday morning and made my way to the Vielle Ville (Old city). The streets were all lit up in preparation for the holidays and stores were jam packed with people buying Christmas gifts. Every ten steps, I passed a chocolate shop. I was in heaven.In the Vielle Ville I noticed that there were tons of kids running around in 17th century costumes. As I walked a bit more, I saw some adults dressed the same way on horses. I asked a woman in costume what was going on and she tried to explain to me that this weekend was the celebration of L'Escalade. Apparently, something really awesome happenned to the people of Geneva back in 1602, and now they get dressed up every December to commemorate it.As ususal, I did my thing and walked around town; took too many pictures and then tried to justify to myself that it was acceptable to eat nothing but chocolate for lunch.On Sunday morning, I woke up and it was snowing. Only a little bit, but it was still significant, as it was the first snow I had seen all winter. Since on Sunday all the stores were closed (I guess it's a Eurpoean thing and not only the French do it) I decided to learn a bit more about the country and I visitied the International Museum of the Red Cross. Super interesting stuff. On the way there I was surprised to walk by the international headquarters of the United Nations. Crazy! You really never know what's around the corner in Europe.My aftfernoon consisted of even more culture when I visited an exhibit on the sculptor Alberto Giacometti. He made some pretty cool stuff in the 50s and 60s. At 5pm, the bells at Saint Pierre Cathedral were going off like mad so I stuck around the Old Town to see what was up. What was up was a crazy long parade with everyone dressed in their 1602 gear marching around town.Geneva is a beautiful city. I hope to return to Switzerland soon and visit more ofthe country. But I only had two days, so that's how I spent my weekend.