TiK ToK- Geneva

Remember how I said that my last blog was my final blog from Europe? Well, I lied. But I didn't do it intentionally. I had no idea that I'd still be in Europe today. You see, Continental Airlines and I have an off and on relationship. They give me good deals on flights, and everthing is marvelous. But unfortunately, Continental can't always stay faithful to me, sometimes choosing in favor of the snow, thus abandoning me in foreign places- which is exactly what happened today.  


Monday night I packed my bags and cleaned my room in my house family's house, and went to bed early (I had a 7 am flight from Dusseldorf to Geneva, so I had to wake up at 3:45). Around 9:45 the phone rang- it was my mother, informing me that my flights from Geneva to Newark and from Newark to San Jose had been cancelled. Wonderful. The next two hours were spent on the phone with my mother, who was also on the phone with the airlines, constantly informing them of the stupidity of the situation. Mom, I'm sure they know how stupid it is. But guess what? They can't magically call up air traffic control and kindly ask them to recall the cancelled flights. It doesn't work that way. Nevertheless, my mother was a huge help in this crisis. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have known about my cancelled flights until this morning, which would have been a disaster. So thank you, mother :)


The final solution was for me to fly my regular flight to Geneva on Tuesday morning, and then wait until Wednesday morning for my 9:00 am flight to Newark. This, my friends, means a 25 hour layover in an unfamiliar city. I prayed until 1 am for a different flight to be available once I got to Geneva. It didn't work. But guess what? It was actually a great thing, because Continental took me back (like always). They put me in a five-star hotel, gave me meal vouchers and a public transportation pass. And so, ladies and gentlemen, today I toured Geneva. 


Before today, I knew nothing about Switzerland, except that they were a neutral country and that the Swiss Alps provide wonderful ski trails. The end. After 12 years of school, I realized I never learned (or perhaps just never retained) the following information: the language of Switzerland, their money, their cuisine, their tourist staples, their demographics, their government type, or anything else about the Swiss. To display my ignorance, I will replay a conversation that I had with the concierge:


Gabbie: So, I've never been to Geneva, and I'm here for one day. What are two things I should do?
Concierge: (pulls out a map, and circles the words Bel-Air and Horloge fleurie) Here. You need to go here.
Gabbie: And what are these things?
Concierge: They are Bel Air and Horloge fleurie.
Gabbie: Yes, I can see that. What language is this?
Concierge: The language we speak.
Gabbie: (Sigh) What is so special about these things?
Concierge: You need to see them. Everyone who visits Geneva visits these things.
Gabbie: I see that, but I haven't planned for a trip to Geneva, and I don't read this language. What are these things?


Repeat two times. Finally, I gave up, found a bus, and went into town. I have learned that the Swiss speak French. And they use the Franc for currency. If I had been planning on being in Geneva for more than 45 minutes, I might have bothered to learn that. But I wasn't, so I didn't. There's also a lake in Switzerland. It's called Lake Geneva. I learned that from the map the concierge gave me.


Geneva is a wonderful city. Seriously. I wish I had more time here now that I've had a taste of it. Basically, Geneva (and Switzerland in general) contains three things: clocks, chocolate, and banks. First we'll talk about the clocks. Halfway through my wandering around the city, I decided I'd take a picture of every clock I saw. Here is 1/9th of the pictures (I didn't upload them all because that would take all night, and after a while they all look the same anyway):

So guess what the Horloge fleurie was? The flower clock!

Going digital- GASP!

I was wondering around the city at 11:59, minding my own business. I was in the shopping district, where every store has a clock. At 12:00 sharp, every clock popped out in some way, and started either ringing, singing, clanging, or making other obnoxious sounds. One clock had little dolls that sang in French. One had a train that went around in circles at 20 km per hour. For exactly one minute, I was in shock. You know that scene from the original How the Grinch Stole Christmas, where it shows the children opening all those obnoxious musical toys, and the Grinch is annoyed by all the Noise, noise, noise, NOISE? I kind of felt like the Grinch right then, and I suddenly felt sorry for the workers in the shops who had to hear that every day. But then I realized something. I think I know why the Swiss are neutral. They are always on time. With all the clocks everywhere, it's impossible not to be. So, in wartime, they were never late for battle. Then, when all the opposing soldiers overslept, the Swiss felt bad for them, because they didn't have accurate, good, Swiss clocks. Of course, it wouldn't make any sense for the Swiss to give their opponents clocks to help them in battle, but rather to simply withdraw from war and battle, just to give the others a fighting chance. Then, they were able to boost their economy by selling clocks to both sides of the war, making sure that both countries could be on time for battle, while the Swiss sat back, ate their chocolate, and watched the rest of the world die in bloody massacres. (If any history buffs are reading this, there is no need to tell me how wrong my theory is. I'm sure one of my college professors will do that in the years to come. But for now, I am content with my ideas).

Honoring the on-time troops in battle- not really. It's just a random statue.

So now we talk about chocolate and banks. They're not as interesting as the clocks, but not a total waste. If you're rich, Switzerland is a good place to have your money. If you like chocolate, Switzerland is a good place to be. End of story. I bought some chocolate as a souvenier, because I didn't think a cuckoo clock would make it safely through the rest of my travels. However, I don't think the chocolate will even make it to tomorrow, but that's another story.

The Swiss chocolate I bought.

Here's what else I did in Geneva:


I went to the St. Pierre Cathedral. That was cool. I realized that in Europe, I've been to 5 different churches. I hope that makes up for the fact that I haven't actually attended church in a habitual fashion while I've been here. 

Unfortunately, the cathedral wouldn't all fit in one picture.

Front of the Cathedral. Or maybe it's the back. I don't really know.

I saw the United Nations building and the Broken Chair sculpture. Is it so sad that I completely forgot these things were in Switzerland until I saw them out of the bus window? 

But guess what else I saw out of the bus window? This awesome mega-sized chess and checkers place at the Place de Neuve! I immediately got off the bus and went to play. I watched some Asians play an intense chess game, then joined some British people in a game of checkers (I lost), and then walked around some more. 

I was going to go see the Jet d' eau, this super huge fountain in the lake. But, it started snowing, and my hands were almost falling off, so I stood on the bridge, zoomed in on my camera, and here's what I got (I don't even think it was running that day due to the low temperatures):

And now I'm finished with my daily adventures thanks to the temperature, wind, and snow, and I have retreated to my hotel room for a wonderful night's sleep. I only got about 3 hours last night, so I'm looking forward to hitting the sack early tonight. But before I do that, here are some more random pictures of my random day in Geneva:

Cuckoo clocks!

Window shopping in the touristy part of town.

Why do the birds always find it necessary to clean themselves when Gabbie wants to take a picture?

Rousseau.

Some big cannon memorial by the Cathedral.

Random statue.

Window shopping- stepping it up a notch.

Um, I can't remember who these people are. But they looked cool.

An important person's head. All the important people in history have these mono-colored heads. How boring.

That thing is a giant music box, and the guy played it for hours.  

The Promenade des Bastions.

Statue on the Promenade.

A pleasant reminder that, although my fingers risked frostbite during the taking of this photo, Costa Rica was soon to come :)

Hopefully my next blog will come from Costa Rica, but I'm not making any promises. As long as Continental stays faithful to me, I'm sure I'll have no problem basking in the sun on Thursday. (Not really, I'll probably be holding orphans somewhere. But that's okay. Jesus told me to.)


Until next time,
Gabbie


*Note: I wrote this blog in Geneva, but didn't have the internet access to post it until I got to Costa Rica. I am now here, but only after multiple cancelled, changed, and delayed flights. I have been awake for over 28 hours, so I think I'm gonna head to bed. Adios!