Weekend in Geneva!

This past weekend, a group of 5 other girls and I went to Geneva, Switzerland.  We had a great time exploring a city that was different than anywhere else that we had been.  On Friday, we arrived in Switzerland around 7, then we began our journey to our hostel.  We had a lot of difficulty with the train/tram system and actually took the wrong train, then took the right train the wrong way before finally figuring it out.  Basically, we saw all of Geneva the first night there on our way to our hostel  By the time we were able to get in the area of our hostel, everything was closed....not like Barcelona at all.  Anyways, we ended up having to eat at McDonalds for dinner.  Everyone had warned us that Geneva was very expensive, but seeing a 12 dollar hamburger was shocking, regardless.  After our lovely dinner, we headed to our hostel to find that 1 of the 3 rooms (Daniela's and mine) that we had booked had not shown up on the computer system.  Soooo, we ended up sleeping 3 people to a room (1 double bed).  Daniela and I ended up getting the weekend for free because we didn't have an actual room, but it was fun being all together even though we were cramped.  Before bed, we all hoped for better luck on Saturday!

Luckily, we had an awesome day Saturday and ended up loving the city even after our bad first impression, haha.  We knew the day was going to be good when we noticed all of the Christmas decorations around town.  Barcelona won't turn on its lights for another couple of weeks, so it was really fun to see.  Our first stop was a Christmas Fair at a local Anglican Church that we found on our way to Lake Geneva.  Everyone there was British and a lot of the ladies of the congregation had set up a giant bake sale.  We had a great time looking around and the people were very welcoming. 

We then continued on our way to Lake Geneva to see the Jet d'eau, or water jet that the city is famous for.  It hadn't been turned on yet, but we found the flower clock, another famous site. 

After taking pictures in front of the clock, we found another carnival, complete with a carousal.  Again the people here were extremely friendly and didn't seem to be bothered by a group of tourists. 

We then talked through the old town and saw Saint Peter's Cathedral of Geneva, a really pretty church.  It also had a great view of the city. 

After the cathedral, we noticed that the Jet had been turned on, so we made our way back towards the lake.  It was really cool to see!  I wish that the sky had been clearer so the picture would have turned out better, but we were lucky to see it on a day when the weather was clear enough to turn on at all.

 
After the Jet, we were starting to get hungry for some lunch and wanting a warm place to sit down for a while.  We found a sandwich shop and after lunch, we finished our walking tour of the city, seeing various statues and monuments throughout the city. 

On our way to the Reformation wall, we found a park that offered ice skating.  We all decided to rent a pair of skates and spent the afternoon skating, it was so much fun!  We all agreed this was our favorite part of the weekend.

After skating, we did find the reformation wall and took some pictures.  We then found the building where the original Red Cross was started.  It was decorated with lots of Swiss and Geneva flags. 

We then took a boat tour of the Lake, which was a really fun way to see the city and a great way to see the Alps just behind the cityscape.  It was a relaxing ride and I took tons of pictures of the mountains. 

That night, we decided to utilize the kitchen which was available in our rooms and made a big dinner of pasta with pesto and Swiss chocolate for dessert.  We had a lot of fun cooking and just having a relaxing night.
The next day, we met up with some of my friend, Arielle's, friends from home that were studying in the city.  They took us to an archaeological site underneath the cathedral which we had seen the day before.  It was really interesting to see.

We then has an amazinggg lunch of the famous Swiss cheese fondue...it was delicious!

Next, Arielle's friends took us to see the United Nations and Red Cross buildings before heading to the airport to catch our flight back to Barcelona. 

It was fun to travel in a big group and also to travel to somewhere much less touristy than the places that we have been going.  We all loved the fresh air, as well.