I got up and gathered all my belongings for the trip and headed out. Even though I had spent the whole night before trying to figure out how to get a bus to the airport it was useless because I ended up having to catch a cab. I wasn't too happy that I had to grab a taxi but it beat walking around Dublin at 4am in the morning. At the airport, my Deb Heck traveling style kicked - I felt extremely comfortable walking through secruity and the gates. It settled all my nerves. I slept through my first flight and then waited patiently for my second flight. Let me just say that the Newcastle Airport is unexciting and frankly poorly set up. I was grateful when it was finally time for me to hop on the second flight of the day. When the flight had landed I was excited that I was in Switzerland but all my excitement drained away when I looked around the airport and realized everything was in French. I do not speak a lick of French and it scared me that I was in a completely foriegn country and had no way to communicate. At this point I tried to think like my travel-savy mother and have the open attitude and friendliness of my father. After roaming the airport for a while I eventually ended up at the buses. I knew that I had to get to the Jet d'Eau to meet my friends Matt and Nichole (the people I'd be traveling with for the weekend). After a couple of minutes I worked up the nerves to ask a local to help me with the buses. The guy was very nice and spoke English, he helped me find the right bus and the right stop. Thankfully he had to take the same bus so we chatted while we rode to the city center. I got off the bus and looked for another map to see where I was. The nerves of being in a foreign country kicked back in. I knew where I needed to go, and I knew that I was already 2 hours late but I had now idea how to get there. I started in the direstcion of the most touristy section in the hopes of finding a Starbucks. This ended up being on of the smartest moves I could have made since I found one, got some much needed food and wifi. I mapped out the directions to the Jet d'Eau and started on my way. While walking along the streets of Geneva eating my swiss cheese, roasted peppers, and chicken sandwich, I actually started to enjoy the beautiful city.
After about a 15 minute walk I finally ran into Nichole - thank goodness! We walked to the next Starbucks to connect up with Matt. He had left Nichole to see if I had messaged them and to make sure that I was still alive. Once all of us were together we walked around the city soaking up the atmosphere. Hunger set in for Matt and Nichole so we stopped off at a McDonald's to grab a little dinner. After our super cultural dinner we walked around a little more. I noticed that Geneva is not a town for college students since every car was a Mercedes or a Ferrari or a Bentley, and all the shops were Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Fendi, etc. Clearly this city was a little out of my financial league. After roaming the city we finally went to catch our train to Interlaken, it was a shame we were traveling at night because I wanted to see the coutryside of Switzerland. We got into Interlaken and went straight to the hostel in order to catch some sleep before the big skiing day the next day. I found out that hostel, Balmers, was the same hostel Andy had stayed at 7 years ago when he traveled to Interlaken. Small world huh? Hearing that my brother had stayed at the same place gave me a sense of ease. Although traveling to a country where I don't know the language at all was scary beyond all belief, it was a cool experience to make it through the city and it gave me a sense of pride. I think when I feel asleep that night I had a big smile on my face.
Cheers,
Jenny
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