switzerland!!!!

alright get ready for a LOOONNNNGGG one!

yay! got back from switzerland this morning and it was amazing!

flew into geneva on friday morning and found the hostel where i would be staying that night... turns out geneva is a tiny city so everything is relatively easy to find and to walk to plus when you can't walk there are trams that are free if you are staying in a local hotel so all in all easy city to get around.  walked around the city friday afternoon and bought a great new pair of black boots so that i finally have something else to wear other than my rubber boots in stockholm.

ali's train from leysin got in around 8 and we set out from the hostel for fondue.  we ended up here and if you are in geneva and want to eat a whole lot of great wine and cheese i highly recommend it, the rest... the lonely planet did not lead us astray :) it was the first time that ali had fondue and as you can tell she was pretty excited!

at the restaurant we met two hysterical lebanese by way of england and switzerland guys named george and cyrian.  i would guess that they were about 45 and about half way through dinner decided to strike up a conversation with us... we are pretty sure that george thought that ali was in high school when he started hitting on her, but he later told us that he was only 12 so it was ok... for the rest of the night he called ali "auntie ali" given her old age in comparison to him.  cyrian was definitely embarrassed by his friends behavior, but george definitely spiced the evening up a bit.

we got to hear many stories about how he has his christmas party each year in nyc and his birthday party in monaco... and when he heard that ali was going to paris next weekend he immediately started texting friends in paris trying to find a party for her to go to.  basically he was HILARIOUS!  we went for a drink with them after dinner and george offered to buy ali the bar, and then spent about 10 minutes telling ali and i how much he just loves buying jewels and how sad it is that he doesn't have anyone to buy them for... shortly thereafter cyrian decided it was time to take george home and george gave us both his number and told us to google him - LOVE IT.

we slept at the lovely hostel that night (not so much) and spent saturday walking around geneva.  although it is a lovely city it is definitely a city that you can do in a day... we walked along the waterfront saw a lot of place that sell watches and a LOT of swiss flags.













we walked around the old town - the cathedral was beautiful and had croissant and espresso at this little cafe

after our walk around town we decided to go out to the united nations and the red cross museum.  mostly we just took a picture of the UN and of another beautiful museum down the street... the red cross museum was interesting but very avante garde and very very strange.  mostly it was all these really new age type exhibits and pictures about what the red cross had done over the past few years and what they do now.  but the way they displayed that was ODD rooms full of prosthetic limbs, a padded room with strobe lights to simulate interrogation - WEIRD

saturday afternoon we bought some wine and chocolate for the train ride and headed off for leysin which is where ali is teaching this month at the american school.  the train ride up there was BEAUTIFUL and it is exactly what you would think teeny-tiny little mountain town.  sadly it was dark by the time we got there so no pictures - but we hung out with another girl who worked at the school who went to bates with ali and two of her friends - one of which was from NH - small world!  we also went out to the one bar in leysin which was quite cute and crowded!

sunday morning we went skiing - so pretty... the views were great! the mountain itself actually reminded me of skiing in the andes but the views were so much better and it was sunny which was an excellent change from stockholm.  i got to ski in sunglasses, knit mittens and fleece pants - so i felt a bit silly, but it was well worth it!

we had lunch at a little chalet that was really really cute... and it was so warm that we could eat outside - it was great even if our lunch of salami and butter sandwiches were a bit odd

all in all it was a great ski day and a really great weekend - i have traveled a lot by myself over the past few years and it was so much fun to meet up with ali and see where she is working... i am looking forward to a few more trips this quarter but this was definitely a great start!