One of the biggest differences between Europe and North America, is the ability to travel on impulse. With so much nearby, one can simply decide to take a backpack and go. Back home, we can go camping at the drop of a pin, but no traveling. Everything is too far away, and there is no way to buy last minute transportation at a decent price.Not so here! I was having dinner with my colleague Rolf, trying cow’s tongue for the first time, quite tender actually. Somewhat buzzed we are shooting the breeze and I mention how badly I want to get away for the weekend, maybe someplace nearby like Spa. He says he’s driving to Geneva, and offers me a lift! I go home to change briefly, I’m due at a European Parliament stagiaire party down by Avenue Louise. I take a moment though to get on the internet. Rolf is driving down, but he’s not driving back until much later, and I have work on
Monday. So I check the flight prices, they are only for a few days away and so they are predictably way expensive (over 200 euros for a one way ticket). I quickly email Anna and Nikhil, two mates from the LSE who I know are working for the UN down there, asking if they’d be able to put me up, and if they know any cheap ways down. I head out to the party and meet Mads, the NATO interns follow not long after. We’re in a bar themed like its Indochina with old wooden panels and low couches and cushions, its so humid and stuffy one can almost believe that its Saigon. I stay quite late and catch a cab home with Mads and the Dutch intern Arthur.
Standing at the bus stop to NATO the next morning I feel exhausted, I get into work and check my email and see Anna has written me, saying that Brussels airlines will fly me back Sunday for as little as 30 euros, and that it doesn’t get much better than that. I check and to my surprise its true, whatever magical formula determines the fare price has decided to offer up the fares quite cheap, so I book my Sunday return for the evening and tell Rolf I’m game. Using my lunch break to go home and pack a rucksack I get back to NATO in time to wrap up some work and we’re off. Unfortunately we were a little late leaving NATO and so we’ve hit the rush hour jam.
Crawling our way south to Switzerland we start off by heading through the South-East of Belgium and pass through Luxembourg. Rolfs’ father collects the Euro coins from each nation and has every one except the one for Luxembourg, we buy some treats and get the change and find one. We then go on to North-East of France in the region of Alsace and Lorraine, producers of pretty good Riesling wine and historical bone of contention between France and Germany. The total distance is 900km, a very long haul for one afternoon/evening. We make it to the mountainous roads near the alps when sleep finally gets the better of me and I drift off, as I awake we approach the Swiss border. While Switzerland is not part of the EU’s border area, the border stations are seldom manned. We pass the empty hut for the customs officer and proceed onto Geneva. Its now half past one in the morning, and I am certain that all Nikhil and Anna have long gone to sleep. I’m happy to meet them at the train station not only awake, but healthily buzzed and ready to hit the scene. We head off to a club in an old factory called L’Usine (factory in French). Its dirty and the crowd is weird, but the visuals are great and the music’s good too. I haven’t got any Swiss Francs so Nikhil spots me. One of their friends’ is sober and has a car, so we drive off to Nikhil’s place and have a beer before crashing.
The next day we rush down to the train station to catch a train into town. Nikhil lives in a suburb connected on a railway, unfortunately I have no francs and so I can’t buy a ticket. We ride for a few stops but Nikhil thinks he spots the commuting police, and a big fine is the last thing I want. So we get off a stop early near the UN. I walk up past the rear of the UN building, the Palais des Nations, old home of the UN’s predecessor the League of Nations. In front of the main gates are the fountains and a giant sculpture of a three legged chair, one blown off as a symbol for the evils of landmines. We head off to meet Anna and Muhabbat and take a tram to the centre. They do some shoe shopping while Nikhil and I head for the lake.
The lake in Geneva is beautifully clear, something totally exceptional for water in a major city centre. Generally the water that runs into a city is disgusting, but this one is clean and we see many people swimming. In the distance lies the giant Jet d’eau spouting 140 meters into the air, the world’s tallest fountain. We meet some girls Nikhil knows and lie out on the grass, we have some beers and a bottle of Rose Nikhil had brough, just soaking up the sun and enjoying the view of lake/mountains/beautiful buildings/sail ships. Anna and Muhabbat call and tell Nikhil that they had brought lunch, Nikhil omitted to mention that we were in the company of 4-5 other girls and they arrived unimpressed and offended. Anna and Muhabbat head off while I was sleeping on the grass, which is really too bad since I was hoping we could all hang out. The tiff caused by this but a bit of a sour note on things sadly. Nikhil and I head back to his house and have dinner, and though Nikhil does have a few ideas of possible entertainment he’s exhausted and naps, while he does so I get tired and we decide to simply call it a night.
The next morning I wake up early and head on my own to walk the old part of the city, I get on a bus and down to the old city hall, the cobbled streets and old walls. I call Anna up who meets me for a coffee at a park, but she’s quite rushed because she has to meet another friend of hers. I’m due to meet Nikhil at two so I grab a large ham and cheese crepe to eat on the grass, and then head off. Nikhil and I walk the sea wall, and meet Anna and Muhabbat and her friend. Together we wander past the World Trade Organisation and a botanical garden. We come to a wall painted by school children, one of them in the style of comic panels, I get a few laughs by interpreting the story of a scientist getting giant flowers addicted to drugs. We finish off with a beer back at the lake, enjoying what was one of the last really sunny days for Northern Europe. Over 2 months later I don’t think there’s been a day like that yet. I rush off to the train station and catch a train to the airport to return to Brussels.
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