This weekend, my roommate and I went to Geneva, since it's just two hours away by train. On Saturday, we got up early to get to the train station, but for some reason we were delayed several times and got off the tram at Part-Dieu only 5 minutes before the train was leaving! We made it, however, just in time to get on the TER (regional train, sadly not a TGV) to Switzerland. Once on the train, we could relax a bit and I did some of my french homework which I hadn't finished the day before. 

In Geneva we were welcomed in the tourist office, which is a camping van just next to the train office, by a nice guide who gave us a map and explained some sightseeing locations. This way, we weren't as lost as we would have been, since Switzerland isn't part of the EU and therefore I couldn't use the internet. We had just about one and a half hours until we had to leave for our visit to CERN (which I'm going to talk about in a new post later today since it was so awesome) so we decided to visit the cathedral in the old part of town, where one can go up the tower and see the whole city. 

On the way there, we went by the lake which had a giant fountain just next to the righthand shore. Apparently they built that fountain to celebrate their "victory" over the river, which up until that point in the 19th century had caused some flooding. Since the shops in Switzerland aren't open on a Sunday, we made sure to buy some chocolate (it's divine) and then made our way to the church, where we had to pay about 5 Euros to go to the tower. It was definitely worth it, since there are two towers and you get a 360-view of the whole town. 

After that, we went back to the train station to get some lunch, and as we would find out later that day, food is really expensive in Geneva (even though almost all museums are free). We had our lunch in the tram to CERN and at about 5:30 we returned to the city to get to our hostel, where they gave us a free transport card. For dinner, we went to the lakeside to have cheese fondue (23€ per person, and it was one of the cheaper places to eat). The restaurant was on an "island" almost in the middle of the lake, which you could bathe at and access by bridge. Afterwards, we stayed for some drinks and ice cream, since the view was great and they had a band playing. At around ten, we went back to our hostel (and almost didn't find it in the dark), where we fell into our beds dead tired!

Coming up: visit to CERN!