Alp-abet Soup

water rushing down our hiking path

Buying cheese on the mountain

Top of Mt. Saléve

Chacos on the hike

One of several meeting rooms at the UN designed by Spaniards

Our Moroccan-inspired classroom at the UN

Enjoying Raclette at Chantal and David's house

First scooter ride ever with friend David!

Geneva night skyline with the Jet d'Eau (literally, Water jet)

Sewed my own patch on my bag!

 I write this as my group and I speed across the Swiss and German landscape to Munich for the next leg of the European part of our journey. I can hardly believe that we were only in Geneva for 4 days. The last 2 days especially seemed long, which were largely spent in back-to-back presentations from representatives of various UN organizations: OHCHR, WHO, UNDP, OCHA, UNCTAD, UNPK, and ITU, where we learned about other acronyms, namely: MGDs, YPP, MFIs, UNCDF, GDP, UNV, NCDs, UPR, ICC, BRIC, UNOG, and the SG.

Is your head spinning yet? I was never really a fan of alphabet soup, so instead of rehashing our hours of (really interesting, actually) presentations, let me tell you some stories of fun in Geneva.

So, last I wrote, our group had finished a whirlwind day of touring Geneva by bus and a bit of walking whilst we struggled to stay awake. Sunday, our second day, was our free day to explore the area. We had all heard rumors of the grand adventures several global groups before us had endeavored, and we wanted to explore like the best of ‘em. After much planning and map-looking, a group of about a dozen of us (all ladies) headed for the border and into France, determined to climb ourselves an alp.

We navigated the bus routes and used the very little French we had to buy bread, cheese, and wine for lunch á là backpacker. We crossed into France, but sadly no one cared to ask for our passports, so we didn’t get an extra stamp. L We had heard that there were hiking trails near the telephérique (gondola) station at the base of Mt. Saléve, and after confirming directions with a local English-speaking French shop owner, we were on our hiking adventure!

And then it started to rain.

We were prepared; the skies hadn’t exactly looked happy that morning. So we donned our rain jackets and I found myself thankful once again for my waterproof camera once everyone else’s digitals and fancy SLRs had to be stuffed away.

The hike was much steeper than anticipated. Our friend at the base had told us that it was steep for the first half and flat for the rest. I don’t know if we went a different way than he was familiar with, but our trail didn’t flatten out until we got to the top, 1097 meters later.

Despite the rain and mist, we had a great time, stopping at switchback turns to check out the views over the clouds and through them to the little towns and Geneva underneath. The mist made me feel like we were always just moments away from encountering magical creatures of the mountain.

Half way to the top, we found ourselves in a little village, where some of the residents were out selling produce at the tiniest cutest town square market I’d ever seen. Emelia bought some fresh French bread and amazing cheese for fewer than 3 euros total. An elderly woman who spoke some English helped us figure out where to pick up our path again and we were on our way once more.

After three hours of good cardio we reached the Telephérique at 1097m in the sky. We bought some postcards, uncorked our wine for a victory drink, took some pictures, poked around, and headed down on the Telephérique. The driver, Hakim, spoke some English and we found out that his band had toured some major cities in the U.S. last year, though unfortunately they didn’t have a gig scheduled in the area until after we left Geneva.

One of the big highlights for my time in Geneva was meeting up with family friends David and Chantal, who moved to the city from the Chicago area earlier this year. I got to have dinner with them on Monday and Tuesday night! On Monday night I came over to their house for a delicious Swiss meal called Raclette. It’s similar to fondue in that it consists of veggies and cheese, but instead of dipping the veggies into the cheese, you prepare a little plate of a veggie or two topped with a thick slice of gooood cheese and you melt it in the table-top grill/oven before you slather it over a little potato or mushroom or sundried tomato. Serve with local white wine. Yum!!!

Geneva surpassed my expectations, mostly because I had just associated the city with the UN and not with its own culture, which it has plenty of. I really want to go back!