beijing without borders: geneva\genf\geneve & bern

Went to switzerland last friday. So one of the other interns John didnt have a train pass for Switzerland, only his DB pass which goes to Basel (on the border of Germany and Switzerland), so even on the train he wasnt quite sure what he wanted to do. Eric and I kind of encouraged him to just come with us, because the distance from the border to Zurich wasnt that great, and then buy a ticket for Zurich to Geneva. He looked into several other options to get to Geneva, like going to Basel first and then Geneva, etc., but it didnt really work out. Emil did some crazy thing where other people can use the wireless from his phone, so Eric could get internet on his itouch and John could get internet on his laptop. The funny thing was that it worked only when the train was going slow enough, and even though the train was slower than an ICE the internet was still really really slow.

So after we crossed the Swiss border John decided to take an extended bathroom break. About 15 or 20 minutes later, the Swiss border control came to check passports. One looked at mine and Eric's passports (both U.S. passports) and another looked at Emil's, which is Canadian. This lasted for about 5 minutes, and they both used flashlights and magnifying glasses to make sure that the passports were real. I dont think I have ever had my passport checked so thoroughly, even by the U.S. border people. They also traded passports just to make sure, I guess. This entire time, I was rambling on to Eric about Inception and he was facing the bathroom where John was. The guy checking tickets knew that somebody had been in the bathroom for awhile, and was trying to get him out and stuff. Eric had texted John to tell him what was going on, but it was probably too late. So Eric told me to 'act natural,' which consisted of me rambling on some more about Inception (we had just seen it the night before), which was difficult because he had this really concerned look, and a few minutes later John came by to get his passport and pay his fine (about 100$ I think) and for his ticket (about $40). I guess the fine would have been less if he weren't hiding in the bathroom, which really really sucks. Looking back, we were all really dumb to not think about the border control coming, but it was just one of those things that you dont realize at the time and later you think 'Oh, duh.' John was actually a pretty good sport about it, he just decided that since he already broke the bank on this one, he would make the rest of the weekend at cheap as possible.

And that's what we did... we each withdrew 100CHF (1CHF or swiss frank = 1 USD) and that lasted us pretty well for the rest of the weekend. We ate at Coop, a grocery store, on Saturday afternoon and just bought like bread, lunch meat, and really delicious cheese. (The price for a pizza was like 20CHF, the price for a happy meal is 11CHF, the price for a döner kebab is 8-10CHF.) But we realized that we still ended up spending about 6-10 CHF, so for dinner we decided it was a better deal just to get döner kebab. In Bern, we picnicked with the stolen bread from the hostel and more cheese and lunch meat that we picked up. John ate pita bread with peanut butter for his lunch.

Saturday we had the CERN tour, which I sadly was still really tired for (despite the fact that we went to bed around 1:30am... the earliest Friday night ive had in Europe so far!). We didnt actually get to see the LHC, but saw various magnets and equipment that have been used.

Saturday afternoon we just walked around the city center of Geneva. The first impression I had of Geneva on Friday night was the life and diversity of the city. But Saturday I just felt like the city was really crowded and touristy, although of course the river was really beautiful.

Sunday was Bern, the underrated capital of Switzerland. Maybe because it was Sunday, or because it was Swiss National Day, or because Bern is just less touristy than Geneva, but there were definitely less people in Bern and it seemed more peaceful. We (finally!) got to do the free bike rentals, and rode to the botanical gardens and then along the river.

Enjoy the photos!

Inside CERN: