Geneva, Switzerland

Photo credit: lonelyplanet.com

Let me be the first to introduce some of you to Skyscanner — AKA the greatest thing since the invention of study abroad. It's a flight-booking website that will search for the best flight deals from destination to destination. It also has a feature where you can put in your departure point and select "everywhere" as the destination. It will then generate the cheapest flights to various cities within Europe for your specified time period — perfect for spontaneous weekend trips.

A month or so ago, I used that feature and came across a 90€ round-trip flight to Geneva, Switzerland. I then booked it a couple of days later.

Only after booking that relatively inexpensive flight did I realize that everything else — EVERYTHING ELSE — within Switzerland is out-of-this-world expensive.

But I digress.

After sleeping in the Málaga Airport overnight (which I'd rather not have to do again), I boarded my Swiss Airlines flight on Thursday morning. We were served drinks, a napolitana (a pastry filled with chocolate), yogurt and a bar of chocolate on the flight. I appreciated that very much, especially considering I've become accustomed to Ryan Air and Easy Jet flights where you're given zippo to consume. As we neared Geneva, the views of the Alps were breathtaking. Whereas the Sierra Nevadas in Andalucía are wide and tree-less, the Alps have countless peaks that jut into the air at different elevations, and trees add a beautiful effect.

Once we arrived in Geneva, I met a friend that I had met in Budapest a couple of months ago and we headed to our hostel. There hadn't been many hostels to choose from, and we ended up paying six times as much per night for the hostel in Geneva as I paid for at the Art Hole in Prague. There were older adults staying at this hostel too, which told me that even working adults (or the retired dentist we met from Toronto) can't afford regular hotels in Switzerland.

We asked a worker there about places to grab some food, and he sent us to a "great, cheap chicken place." Once we got there and looked at the menu, we realized that to the Swiss, "cheap" is 15 SFr. per plate (which is about equivalent to the euro). It was quickly decided that after that meal, we would be buying all of our food at the grocery store.

Afterward, we walked through the city and I was amazed by how high-end everything was. The people were dressed in extremely nice clothing and all the stores were designer (I did not see a single Zara, H&M or anything affordable). We didn't see any street musicians, no homeless people and the streets were very clean. I'd never been to a city this wealthy, and it actually unsettled me. It seemed like a fantasy world — something that wasn't a representation of "normal" life.

Felipe and me by the Jet d'Eau.

So, the next day we got out of the city center. We loaded up on food from a nearby supermarket (and we were given two chocolate bars with our receipt!) and hopped on a bus with the intention of going hiking. The night before, we met a group of Americans by the Jet d'Eau who were studying abroad in Geneva and they told us to hike in the Jura Mountains. They said they were really easy to get to even though the cable car to the top of the mountain was closed.

Long story short, it probably took us an hour and a half after we got off the bus to find a hiking route on the mountain. Felipe used his limited French to ask around where we were supposed to go, and soon after almost giving up, we rejoiced when we found the route markers for multiple hikes.

Hiking was really the only thing that I had known that I wanted to do in Switzerland, which is funny, considering we actually had to cross the French border to hike in the Jura Mountains. 

But it was an amazing and challenging hike.

The first 45 minutes or so was extremely steep hiking, such that you really had to be careful that you didn't slip. We marveled at runners who were somehow traversing their way down the mountain, even though they looked slightly out of control. At the top, we came across a quaint French town called Monnetier-Mornex, and a ways down the road we found a place for a picnic, where the view overlooked another French town in a valley between mountains with the Alps in the background. Absolutely gorgeous. 

Picnic time! Unfortunately the camera didn't capture much of the Alps in the background.

And I have to mention that while we were walking through another French village, we came across some friendly French bulldogs in the yard of a house. So I pet French bulldogs in France. SCORE.

A village in the French countryside.

Eventually we made it back to the hostel and cooked frozen paella and a pizza in the microwave. (Turned out that the hostel didn't have an oven.) There we met a guy from Tokyo who was doing research for a week at the United Nations on the League of Nations. I really wanted to question him about that since I just finished a book that talked a bit about the League, but his English was a little too limited. Felipe enjoyed a little Japanese lesson with him, however.

The auditorium of CERN.

The next morning was rainy, so we headed to CERN, the world's largest particle physics laboratory. This is the place where the "God particle," or the Higgs boson, was discovered two years ago. We weren't able to see the actual particle accelerator, as it was kilometers under the ground and required a special tour, but there were a lot of interesting free exhibits.

A model of the particle accelerator.

Afterward, we headed to the United Nations building, which is the European U.N. headquarters. We couldn't go inside since the building was closed on Saturday, but it was still cool to see the building and the flags of all the member states.

Soon the rain cleared up and we walked more around the lake, which offered more great views of the Alps, the Jura Mountains and the Jet d'Eau.

Those are the Jura Mountains we hiked!

The next morning we both had super early flights, and I was back in Granada on Sunday afternoon.

Since then, I've been doing a little research to figure out why Switzerland is such a wealthy country. It appears there are many factors that contributed to the country's high standard of living, but an interesting factor pertains to World War II. Due to Switzerland's neutrality during the war, many people invested their money in Swiss banks, and the banks even housed the gold and money confiscated from the Jews by the Nazis, much of which was never reclaimed by the Jews, as many perished in the concentration camps (in the Swiss banks' defense, however, they did donate much of that wealth to charity). Additionally, the exchange rate of the Swiss franc remained stable during both world wars because of Switzerland's neutrality, which countered the hyperinflation that other nations were experiencing.

As beautiful as Geneva was, I do not have an urgent desire to return to Switzerland (unless the opportunity to ski in the Alps comes up!). I like cities with a little grub and with more character and personality. Geneva was prim, proper and quiet.

But for a 90€ round-trip ticket, it was worth it. Thanks, Skyscanner.