Geneva

Geneva...

Ahhh... when one thinks of Switzerland, many images come to mind... Clocks... Chocolate... Cheese... Banks... and Mountains...

Geneva is the second largest city in Switzerland... Unfortunately for me... its raining outside, so it limits what I can do... simply because most of the tourist/fun awesome stuff to do is outdoors.

Geneva has some UN stuff, as well as a huge jet stream that shoots lake water ridiculously high into the air... apparently it was a swiss secret on how the water got propelled up into the sky... and then Saudi Arabia stole the secret... WATCH OUT EVERYBODY!! SAUDI ARABIA CAN NOW SHOOT US WITH WATER JETS... RUN FOR YOUR LIFE... AHH

Yesterday, when I arrived I was able to see it... apparently when it rains they close the jet stream.

So, what have I done since Ive been in Geneva??

Well, to be perfectly honest, i overestimated the city... I really thought that there would be a bunch of UN and Red Cross stuff to do... (Red cross HQ is in Geneva too)... Both museums are closed on Tuesdays...

I ended up waking up early, and going straight to the beach. Geneva has a gorgeous lake named after the city. From the beach you can see vineyards as well as really cool mansions that jut out from small hills that overlook the lake.

The funniest thing about the view from the lake was that there was a cell phone tower that they tried to hide as a tree... (Just like on the NJ Turnpike)

It was freezing... but I knew I had to go into the lake... I mean, I cant complain about water tempature in one of the most beautiful lakes in the world... I lasted a good hour or so before these pre-teens came and made alot of noise and ruined it for everyone else.

On a total side note, Im starting to realize why adults hate everyone who is younger then them... Teenagers think they run the world, and kept me up all last night running around the hostel... My god... Im turning into my parents.

At one point I almost started yelling at these German kids at the lake... they were indiscriminately throwing rocks into the lake... There was no gain, and someone could have gotten hurt... Jeez... I am my mother... hehe

So, after the lake... I had read about this cool Modern Art Museum in Geneva... So i decided to check it out...

I was looking at the map on the tram, and an older lady asked if i needed help... we started talking and she told me that there are apparently a bunch of chemicals in the lake i had just swam in... I had showered and tried to explain that to her... but i dont think the message was communicated...

She also told me she didnt like the museum....

After my experience there, I totally understood why an old swiss lady wouldnt like the museum.

I loved it.

Swiss artists are absoluetly nuts. It took me about an hour and a half to get through the exhibits.

At the beginning of the museum, the man working there told me that there was an exhibit that they had to warn everyone about... and that he had personally been affected by it... So, I figured it must be crazy if a guy working at a Modern Art Museum had an issue with it... It was.

On a side note:

I always hate modern art museums because im never sure if where I sit is part of an exhibit or not... Especially when you cant read the signs because they are in French, Swiss, and German... three languages I can only pronounce the names of.

There was an exhibit that was a small cave with no lights... one was a pitch black room that had the faint markings of hand prints on all walls. Pretty creepy...

A couple of other exhibits involved neon lights in weird positions, and fat clowns who looked sad.

The exhibit that was disturbed the man who worked there that I had met was NUTS...

I lasted about 2 minutes...

It was photos of a doctor doing really intense brain surgery on something that looked partly human and partly apeish... I cant describe it better then that.

From the museum I went to the UN... I saw the world famous broken chair...but security only let you get about 1000 feet away from the actual entrance... so i spent about 5 more minutes walking around... and then left.

So, now im sitting in the hostel, and looked at the weather for Barcalona... No rain, and a high chance of PARTYING... wooo... yes, im corny

Some other thoughts:

This has been the most expensive place ive ever been. New York City is cheaper. It cost me about 25 Swiss Francs for dinner last night, and ive tried to average about 10 per meal... ridiculous.

The Swiss are proud to be Swiss. They have their own currency, as well as their own electricity outlets.

I expected that the population would be somewhat similar to France, but in essence, Swiss people are a mix of basically every ethnicity... Walking down the street ive seen everything from Italian food to Dutch to Vietnamese, to Chinese, to Sushi, to Mcdonalds.

So far in every city ive been to, there have been three things:

Coke
McDonalds
Turkish kabob places (mostly halal food)

Somewhere, a Turkish guy is making a killing off of his food stands around the world.

There are two types of water, flat and bubbly... Kind of weird to state that I want flat water.

9 hours of trains tomorrow... but, alas! BARCA!!

Till then,

Zac