Wed, 08 Oct 2003

author Tim	location Genève, Suisse
posted 09:12 CEST 10/10/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Schweiz ( all photos )

Lausanne, into Genève ( No photos )
We got down to breakfast a bit later than initially planned, but so had Matt and Meisha, as we discussed plans for the day. Leaving our bags at the hostel, Matt came with Liz and I as we walked down towards massive Lake Geneva.
The town actually has a "Metro" (railway) system, although it's not much like those of other cities. There are only two or three cars, running up one track climbing the steep hills upon which the town is built. We elected to walk instead.
Once down to the waterfront, the impressive setting of the town became even clearer - across the lake were huge snow-capped peaks, all reflecting in the sunshine that was abound on this much better day.
Our destination for the morning was Musèe Olympique Lausanne, aka the Olympic Museum in the town which is the home of the modern Olympic movement.
When we got there, Matt rightly decided that he didn't have enough time to look through it properly before he had to catch his train to Paris, and as such we bed him farewell.
We hadn't been to keen to make the effort to go there - it was Matt's suggestion actually, but we were very glad it was one he made. First thing on the agenda was reliving the memories of the Sydney 2000 Opening Cemremony in the 3D theatre! Dispite the film being horribly produced and directed, it was quite entertaining to see Victa lawnmowers and the girl in the pink suit everyone said would have a huge career but now seems forgotten (?) coming right at you in 3D. We even wore the silly glasses. Liz reported being very home-sick after that, and I have to admit I probably felt a touch also.
A further couple of hours was spent wandering from exhibit to exhibit, taking in plenty of Olympic history, medals, equipment, and scandals, all presented wonderfully and easy to navigate. They seem genuinely wrapped in the Sydney 2000 Olympics - we feature highly, and even got chills up our spine as we read about Kathy Freeman in the 400m - Liz and I were both there and remember it well.
Only small criticisms can be made - the main one being that the museum is totally dominated by the Summer Olympics. Plenty is given over to the Winter Olympics, though you get the feeling the organising committee almost thinks it a token effort. Even worse is the coverage for the Special Olympics - only one tiny stand about it, compressed in the middle of the room where most people would have walked around the walls, missing it totally. The three should be on even footing, in my humble opinion.
That was enough museum-ing for a while, so we headed back up the steep streets, watching the Metro buzz back and forth under us, taunting us for not wanting to pay the fare. We stopped in the station to grab something to cook for lunch, and ended up cooking a pasta and sauce all-in-one thingy because it was going to be cheap and easy back at the hostel. Fed up for a while, we shouldered the pack and headed back to the station.
We had considered for a while heading up to a chalet hostel in the vaud Alps at Gryon, which there was a poster for in the hostel. The Swiss Alp Retreat boasted friendly Aussie hosts, lots of skiing and cheap prices. However, the train fare there and back was not quite so cheap. We'll put it on the 'next time' list.
Instead, we boarded the next train to Genève. This passed rather un-eventfully, as most transport in Europe seems to do. At least when we had Rosie every day was an adventure of things not working.
Genève (Geneva in English) turned out to be a lovely city. Situated, funnily enough, at the end of Lake Geneva, there are lots of alpine views all around. Plus, the city just has a 'nice' feel to it, something you can't explain, but doesn't exist in every city by a long shot.
We picked a hostel called Centre Masaryk, a little way north of town (and hence not central at all), but within walking distance (just). The building itself was not difficult to locate, but as we arrived half an hour's walk or so later we looked and looked but could not find evidence of a hostel there at all. Once past the denial stage, we looked up another hostel and headed back towards town.
A little lady could tell what were after, and pointed us the last distance towards City Hostel Geneva, an ugly but functional and well-located place. We checked in and dumped our stuff in the three-bed room, quite a let-down after the amazing place in Lausanne.
Totally exhausted after our long walk, we managed to summon the leg-power to walk down the road to an English Pub. These places are funny, because I walk in expecting someone to speak English quite well, but ordering a pint of Kilkenny (which I know is actually Irish) proved a little challenging. Besides, they don't serve pints, you get a half litre. Somehow, that 85mL missing makes a difference and it's just not quite right.
The drink didn't increase our enthusiasm for cooking, so instead we wandered in search of something cheap to eat - quite a challenge in what we worked out was a very expensive city. I've heard Genève described as more belonging to the world than to Switzerland, and this was certainly evident in the variety of food available. We settled for Lebanese kebab and felafel plates for a rather high price in Swiss Francs (which is a mental barrier, because they are worth quite a bit less than Euros, almost the same as the Aussie dollar, actually).
We were waiting until 9pm when we had read that one of the internet cafés near the station had cheap internet access, but by the time we got there, the signs on the wall told us that we could plug the laptop in, no hassles! This has become so rare, that we decided to come back the next day instead with the laptop and communicate with the world.
As such, it was back to the hostel for the evening, where we noted that a third person had joined our room, but she didn't actually sleep there at all. We saw her a couple of times and by the morning, there was no trace of her at all. Very strange.

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