In my short stay in Geneva, I decided that despite the incessant rain and grey skies, I could live there.  I began believing this pretty much from the get-go as my flight into Switzerland overlooked the Alps.  The idea became more and more solidified for these top 5 reasons (amongst others):

1.  French!  I can speak the beloved language of French as much I want, and people are nice about it! They actually want to talk to me in French.  This is just glorious news.

2. Instead of a bible in the drawer of my (very swanky and upscale) hotel room is a book on the teachings of Buddha.  This must be an intriguing city.

3. On Thursday, I went to an Irish pub with a Canadian, an Indian, un Francais, a German, a Dane, and an Italian to listen to a Texan woman sing the blues.  Enough said.

4.  It looks like a mini-Paris in which you can literally walk everywhere.  This is good because I am a Washingtonian after all, so the only modes of transportation I know are the public kind and my own 2 feet.  Bonus: whilst walking, you get to stare at the pretty mountains surrounding the city.

5 (and most important).  There are chocolate shops everywhere.  This is every woman’s fantasy.

My mind is on hyper-drive when I wander around a town for the first time. The only problem is that I’m not usually thinking of anything very useful or deep, just ruminating on my observations. The first of thought that grabbed my mind in Geneva was how quiet it was. But here are a couple of other thoughts that hopefully give you a glimpse inside my head.

eeewwwww

I hate overhead wires. While Matthew Yglesias argues that overhead wires are just fine in the historic towns of Europe, I see them as a sign that these towns have become complacent in their ongoing development. I love public transport, but it needs to evolve. Overhead wires strike me as a fairly old technology which should be swapped out for a system of rail cars with on-board clean engines, in ground wiring, or a cable car system (I’m sure the tech must have improved since San Fran put their system in the 19th century). While European cities are likely the last places that need to invest in infrastructure overhauls, I think it would be a very positive development.

I swear, every one is different

All the urinals are different. Hang with me here, I know you’re thinking that the urinal on the left looks like any other out there. Truth is it was slightly different, and unlike any other urinal in other restrooms in Geneva. Admittedly, I’ve only been to 4 or so urinals in Switzerland, but no two have been alike. That’s what’s throwing me off. I might be totally off here, but I feel that generally in a certain area it is common to find most of the urinals, especially in public toilets like museums, train stations, and restaurants, to be largely the same. For example, in Munich public toilets they are the little ones with the fly printed on the them (giving you something to aim at). I have to wonder if there is just a proliferation of urinal manufacturers in Switzerland, or if Geneva’s location at the center of Europe means that they have a plethora of choices for sourcing bathroom hardware.

Of course there are other things on my mind, but these are recurring thoughts that seem to come back every time I turn a corner or duck into the loo. Now if only I could get my mind working to understand quantum logic.

I can’t find anything about it in the news, but apparently Geneva was hit by the plague earlier this week, and only about 40 tourists (myself included) didn’t get the memo. Seriously though, I guess it’s just that it’s a Sunday during winter holidays, but there is no one around and it’s eerie. When it came time for lunch it took me a good 20 minutes to find an open restaurant, though when I did with was worth the wait for the fondue and mulled wine.

Even without people, it is a pretty city. Well laid out around the water. And the people who are here are very nice, people riding past on their bikes say “bonjour” and people speak French back to me when I speak French to them, which I really appreciate as I desperately need the practice. I think I’ll have to give the city another chance sometime in the summer when there are people around to give it a bit more life.

Update: Couple of other pictures from Geneva (including the large versions of the ones above) in this Flickr set.