Fance vs. Switzerland?

Friday 16th April

Ahh, Friday. What a day. Today we went back to France to see some glorious mountains. I can’t actually remember the name of the mountain, but we took a cable car to the top, which was super quick and not scary at all. It was quite foggy at the top, so it was difficult to take a decent picture of the view, but I’m still really glad we went up and had a wee look. As none of us were in suitable attire/shoes that weren’t pumps, we couldn’t do much adventuring so we just had some lunch and walked about a bit. (That's the view from the Cable Car as you go up the mountain)



After our trip up the mountain we headed home to get ready – Friday was Fondue night! For six girls I think we managed pretty well in regards to getting ready, not just today but all week. If you think about it, six girls in two rooms with one bathroom (downstairs anyway) and no fist fights is quite an accomplishment, especially with someone as vain as myself always needing the mirror and the hairdryer!

Once we were ready we took the (amazing) bus to Geneva city centre, found our restaurant and ordered dinner. Actually, Emma did all the finding and ordering – clap clap. I was a bit of an epic fail and instead of having Fondue, which seems to be a rite of passage in Switzerland, I went for the steak. On a scale of 1 to Pure Beaut it was right at the top – in fact, it was the best steak I’ve had in ages and at 24 CHF it was pretty much the same price as some bread and cheese. Excellent choice Gina.



I think it’s worth pointing out that Geneva is the place to be, especially on a Friday night. The city is literally full of attractive men in suits! We walked past a banker bar, literally a bar full of bankers and it was a magnificent sight. The next time I go over, I will have learnt French and will spend all my time chillin’ in the banker bars. We didn’t actually go into this banker bar, instead we went to another part of town and went between two bars. The atmosphere and the music of both bars was really good, but they seemed to be full of kids! I know I’m not that old, but in Switzerland the drinking age is 16, so the bars are literally full of teenagers. They aren’t rowdy like us Brits, but they do look very young, which I find really quite strange, but hey, when in Switzerland! I think my drink of the night deserves a mention – an alcohol free Mojito... It was absolutely STANKIN! Emma Joanne Wood said that it would be pure beaut, but she lied – her excuse was that normal Mojitos are full of alcohol, making them taste nicer. If you would like to try an alcohol free Mojito, do this – get some fizzy water, dump a tablespoon of granulated sugar in the glass, randomly place some mint leaves and chunks of lime at the top and charge 8 CHF for it :)



When we were all socialised out we came home – we took a slightly different route that involved walking through an underground tunnel and along a creepy lane. Apparently Switzerland is super duper safe – it didn’t disappoint in that aspect, we all arrived back, safe and sound and in pretty much the same condition we left in. One last thing – the title refers to a very heated debate, which country is better. In relation to Babes (and pretty much everything else) I can say that Switzerland wins. We spent two days in France and I saw four Babes, this is in comparison to Genevan Babes, which are now numbering the hundreds. If you’re ever planning a visit to Europe and aren’t sure which country to visit, this information may sway your decision. That is all.

Xx


Attractive Man Count – 67 (all of which were seen in Switzerland and usually on public transport).

Geneva on a Budget.

Thursday 15th April

After our epic trip to France we were all feeling a little bit tired and a little bit broke, so we decided to stay around Geneva and find some free things to do. Being the economical students that we are, we made lunch – mine didn’t make it out of the kitchen, but I still made something and then we headed to a park just outside the city centre. Temperatures weren’t exactly high and I was a little bit chilly, but we were on and off busses all day so I didn’t really notice it – we even caught a boat across the lake and didn’t have to pay as it was covered by our bus pass. Isn’t that amazing? You can take busses and trams and boats all on the same ticket; Oh Geneva, what don’t you do?

Another free thing to do is visit the UN (that stands for United Nations for anyone who lacks common sense) and the Broken Chair. Basically, it’s a big chair and it’s broken. It has some important meaning and I think it has something to do with the Mine Ban Treaty. Actually I know it has something to do with that. It was commissioned by Handicap International to “urge all countries to sign the Mine Ban Treaty and honour their commitments to help mine victims and to clear mined areas.” What a lovely sentiment. What wasn’t lovely was the stupid splinter that I got from trying to climb the chair leg. Tsk.



One of my favourite things to do in a new country is to visit the museum, so we went to the very good and very free Natural History Museum in Geneva. It was full of wonderful things like a two headed turtle (which isn’t actually that exciting or rare) and lots of stuffed animals. I’ve actually never seen that many dead animals in one place, like ever. It smelt (or is it smelled? I will never know!) like old people. How morbid! But it was fun to have a look around at all the different animals and to do impressions of them – I don’t think those pictures will be uploaded to Facebook, the “Pretending to be a Fish” look doesn’t really work for me! There were also a few wonderful moments when we broke into song. This seems to be happening quite a lot, usually to the Lion King soundtrack (Deception! Disgrace!) ¬There was a point when I thought we would never get out of that museum, but eventually we found an exit and headed back home (I’m aware that Emma’s house isn’t my home, yet, but I’m one of those people who refer to where they’re sleeping as home, be it in a friend’s house, a hostel or even a tent) and Emma made us a beautiful dinner. I was shocked, surprised and very full by the end of it :)





To finish off the night we watched Notting Hill, which is one of my all time favourite movies! It’s so lovely and I just love Julia Roberts – If I had to be one famous person I think I’d like to be her. Maybe not forever, but maybe just for a day. I think that would be an interesting experience, I think it would be interesting to be anyone else for a day, but it would be ever better to be her because then you could give Richard Gere a ring! But anyway, it was really nice watching Notting Hill, especially after realising that one of the actors not only looks, but acts like one of our friends from University – I now see that character in a completely different light and I can’t help but laugh every time he comes on the screen! We had the traditional late night chat and eventually fell asleep and now I’ll stop writing as nothing else interesting happened!

Attractive Man Count – 49! Geneva is clearly the place to be and I’m very sad I didn’t realise this sooner – they should tell you this during school, I would have excelled at French had I known!

xx

Une Bounty, Si Vous Plait.

Wednesday 14th April 2010

Sorry about the title – it’s a family joke but it seemed fitting as today we went to FRANCE! Many of you will know how I feel about France and the French – it’s a love hate relationship (without the love). This irrational detestation of the French stems from my GCSE French teacher who did not see my potential as an interpreter. In fact, he crushed my self confidence, making me believe that I would never progress to the expert level of ordering a Big Mac with cheese and ketchup only. He was a little jerk and I hated French. I did however, pass my French GCSE, not that you would know – the extent of my French chat today was “Eeeeeenglish???”. But that’s another story.

So anyway, we left pretty early this morning and took a coach to Annecy, France. The drive wasn’t too long and it was really quite scenic (right Emma, full of beautiful buildings? Much nicer than Switzerland?). Once we arrived we took the not-so-scenic long way to the lake and stopped for lunch. I love food. I love talking about food. I love taking pictures of food. I think about food all the time and therefore I have decided that I’m not going to fight it – I will tell you about my lunch and I won’t feel apologetic. I got a Rustic Croque Monsier, with local ham. That means that the pig is local. As in local. As in raised locally. Do you understand that it was local ham, from a local pig? Good. It was like beautifully presented and ridiculously tasty and it was like I was on an episode of Saturday Morning Kitchen.



After my lovely lunch (the other girls weren’t eating because they are sensible and make packed lunches) we walked around the town, took lots of pictures and visited some tourist shops that STUNK (or is it stank?) of cheese! My nostril felt violated.


Speaking of violation, I made a friend. Some old French man started talking to me. As I have trouble with the French language I had no idea what he was saying and I tried to tell him about this predicament (Englisssssh?), but he was a little bit/very creepy, so we swiftly moved along.

After my brief Frenchman encounter we walked along the canals and round to the lake and I can hardly even describe how lovely it was. It was a perfectly sunny day, warm enough for a skirt and t-shirt but not too warm and the town itself is really old fashioned. Everything in Switzerland (and in this case, France) looks like it has been taken right out of a Disney film. I’m useless and describing things – think canals, cobbled streets, beautiful old buildings, coloured shutters, lakes, mountains and sunshine. If you can imagine that, then you’ve got Annecy down. If not, have a look at the picture below – hopefully it’ll do the trick!





When we finished exploring we headed back to Geneva and had a lovely dinner followed by a lovely theological debate. I love Geneva and the anthropologists, especially when they’re combined.



xx

P.S Attractive Man Count was significantly less in France - By the end of the day the count had only risen to 24 - meaning that I only spotted 8 attractive men. I also saw several tiny dogs, I stopped counting at 18. Ahh, the French.

‘Sup Switzerland.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

So today was our first full day in Geneva and it was PURE BEAUT! Geneva is all about public transport and being green and cleanliness and as I am currently all about Geneva, we got some very eco-friendly bus tickets.

I know I said I wouldn’t talk about food, but our lunch deserves a mention/an entire paragraph and maybe even a picture… We went to an Eritrean restaurant and ordered a meal for four, which was actually HUGE! The concept is a large plate, covered in a sticky/moist bread served with lettuce, lentils, sour cream, spinach and a spicy (and ridiculously yummy) meat in the centre. It’s really hard to explain, but basically you tear the bread and scoop up the meat etc. and then try to eat it without getting it all over your face :) We then got some b-e-a-utiful ice-cream which we ate by the lake, in the sun. Should I shut-up? Yes?



Geneva excels at pretty much everything, chocolate, watches, banking, attractive men and also shooting water out of the ground. This is also known as the Jet d’Eau – Wikipedia tells me that the fountain propels five hundred litres of water per second to an altitude of 140 metres. So basically, it’s a big water jet and it looks really quite cool. We spent the rest of the day walking around Geneva and taking hundreds of pictures, or maybe that was just me.

Geneva is such a beautiful city, as in the old town and the cathedral, St Pierre, is absolutely amazing! It is 100% worth the visit and the stairs to the North tower must be climbed, even if it takes a while and your heart begins to race and you think that you might fall down all the stairs and take out numerous tourists. When you finally reach the top you have a perfect view of the city and the lake – defiantly a Kodak moment (and an opportunity to take some ridiculous pictures of yourself).



After scaling the cathedral we walked through a big park with a huge wall and some statues – can you tell it’s late and I want to go to sleep? One thing I really liked was watching the old men playing chess in the park. They were everywhere and it’s so nice to see oldies out socialising and having a good time. I hope I can still move when I’m that old – I’ll probably never be able to play chess, but movement would be desirable.

But anyway, I digress – well done Geneva; you’ve managed to win me over!

xx

P.S - Attractive Man Total - 16

I'm Leaving, on a Jet Plane...

Monday 12 April 2010

Today I will be starting this Blog with a question; can you guess where I currently am?
I am sitting in seat 16F, flying over France on my way to Geneva. I like window seats because you can see a wideeeee variety of wonderful things. You can see great big things like mountains and lake and really little things, like houses and cars. However, tonight I can’t see a thing, because it is nighttime and nighttime usually results in darkness (usually because this is not always the case, see Alaska for further information).

The flight was due to leave at 5.05pm but when we boarded the plane we found out that there was a screw missing (I’m sure that was the simplified version) and we couldn’t fly on that particular plane. While the whole having to change planes thing is really annoying, I would much rather be on a later plane that is full of screws and general safety-ness. So after a few terminals changes and a lot of waiting around we got on another plane and set off for Geneva. Instead of giving you all the details, I’ll just skip to the good part – our plane didn’t crash, not even close, it was a very uneventful and turbulence free flight.

Once we arrived in Geneva we did the usual things; collected our luggage and saw lots of advertisements for watches and banks. We arrived at Emma’s house, got organized/cosy, had a little catch up, laughed a whole bunch and then went to bed.

I should probably mention that I didn’t just rock up to Geneva on my own – I’m visiting a girl from my Anthropology class who is originally from England but who lives in Geneva and personally identifies with the French. In fact, some people (i.e me) may describe her as French. There are five of us anthropologists in total – Lucy from London, Becca from Brampton, Katie from Huddersfield and Alison and I are from Sunny Bangor. For some strange reason Emma wanted us to come and invade her beautiful hometown, so that is exactly what we did. I hope Geneva is ready for us and our anthropological banter :)

xx

A slightly overdue post.

Good People of the Internet,

I have decided, against my better judgement, to start Blogging again. I don’t know all the official terms, but I think this can be described as “re-entering the Blogesphere”... I would actually describe it as the pointless indulgence of my narcissistic tendencies due to extreme boredom. But whatever. It’s happening. Maybe.

I thought about changing the name – “Tiny Netbook. Big Adventure” began and should probably end with my time in New Zealand. However, I don’t think I’ll ever come up with another decent title and I also had a little epiphany. Our entire life is an adventure. It might not be as exciting as skydiving or swimming with Dolphins, but these everyday adventures are the moments that matter the most. Clearly I am a complete genius. I’m thinking about giving Hallmark a ring; inspirational messages are exactly what the people need during these hard times. Well, that and a cuddle. And maybe a job and a house and a few other bits and pieces. My plan may not be as flawless as I initially though...

Anywaaaaay, the name stays. For now. Maybe, at some point in my life I will think of something infinitely superior, but until then it’s not going anywhere. I’ve also decided to keep this Blog short.short.short. ish. I plan on making it a little more interesting – I think I’ve finally mastered Blog related technology, so expect some pictures and maybe even a background change (but only if I really feel like living on the wild side).

Now, I said I was going to keep this Blog short, but quite a lot has happened in the past year – Instead of writing about every single thing that has happened, I’ll do a little “Greatest Hits” montage, that will include life changing moments like “I spent an entire summer sunbathing”. On your marks, get set, go.

I spent an entire summer sunbathing.

I started Queen’s University Belfast.

I study Social Anthropology and Modern History.

There are a bunch of great people in my course, who I am really quite fond of, even though they’re English.

My sister got married – I was a bridesmaid.

Christmas – this involved presents, family, snow, food and the Jonathan Creek Box Set. (And also the celebration of the birth of Christ, but that's a given)

My teenage years came to a close – I am now officially a real life adult. Sort of.

My appreciation of Babes (and the use of the word Babes) escalated beyond comprehension.

Surf Club has become my absolute favourite. I hear you asking “favourite what?”... Well, my favourite everything. My favourite club. My favourite weekend activity. My favourite group of people. My favourite. You should join, then it could be your favourite too.

This list might seem a little short; but never fear, lots of other stuff happened. I went on a few mini holidays, actually managed to do some university work, attended a significant number of church related activities, ate, slept, thought, moved... I’ve been, you know, chillin’.

So there you go. A brief summary of the past year! Hopefully my next post will be a little bit better! Stay tuned, or not. Whatever you want really. I’m all about freedom of choice :)

xx