Geneva's a great place. It's ranked 3rd for best quality of life in the world - Switzerland, unsurprisingly, has 3 cities in the top ten! There are fountains on every streetcorner with, I swear, pristine Evian water flowing out. It's a nice, clean proper, quiet place. They say the summer here is a bit more lively, and it has been. So far, the European Cup in June definitely kept the city going. Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, and of course Switzerland had massive contingents here, and the Portugese and Spanish fans in particular would honk their car horns and scream and holler until 2am when their team won. Thanks to the games there was always something to do, and having the screening center 3 blocks from my apartement was VERY convenient.
The Fete de la Musique was great too! I don't think I will ever again see that many people in Geneva in one place. There was great music - everything from blues to aretha to jefferson airplane to screamo - and delicious food.
I've gone on several Swiss day trips. First, Montreux.
I went to Montreux the first weekend I was in Geneva, with an intern from work and a friend of his. Montreux is also on Lake Geneva and the view of the mountains is INCREDIBLE. Look!
Actually, I may have taken this picture in Vevey, but that's only 20 minutes away from Montreux. Same diff.
We went to Chateau de Chillon, a beautiful castle right on the lake which was once the home of the Counts of Savoy. It had a neat moat, some funny medieval toiles (just holes in a bench above the water), and a dark dungeon, where a monk, François de Bonivard, was kept, and about whom Lord Byron wrote a poem - The Prisoner of Chillon.
Me and Daniel, an intern from my NGO who left 2 weeks after I arrived.
Montreux has a very famous jazz festival every mid-July, and so when my mom was in town, we took the train to see what it was all about. The free jazz was ok - I'm sure Quincy Jones' 75th Birthday Celebration would have been far more impressive but we were not willing to dole out the 250 francs per person required to get in. Also, it was raining, and the whole shore of Lake Geneva was covered in a sort of fair, or market, with lots of delicious food and cool trinkets but way too many people. So unfortunately, I didn't get the best impression of beautiful Montreux the second time around.
Other things in Montreux - a statue of Freddie Mercury (Queen owned a house here and they recorded a lot of their music there), and gorgeous shutters and house facades. Like this.
My mom and I also went to Neuchatel, though on a Sunday when, as everywhere else in Switzerland, everything is DEAD. CLOSED. SHUT DOWN. I think people just resign themselves to laundry and reading on Sundays. However, even despite the yucky weather (it rained all weekend) the town was extremely cute, with lots of cobblestone streets, bizarre colorful fountains, red rooftops and one really neat flat painted street. Here are some pictures:
that weird flat street
At the chateau up at the top of the hill, overlooking the city.
Mom, in the old town.
I'll be blogging more! I have pictures to post and everything! Now that my parents have visited, I will have lots to write about. I've been so bad at this blog, tsk tsk.
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