Travel Guide: Spending a Weekend in Geneva, Switzerland.

I awoke from my nap really disorientated, and for a moment completely forgot where I was and had a mild panic – especially when I saw this view out of the window from my bed and wondered where the hell I was!

All was OK though and within half an hour Adam arrived straight from work and the lovely man on the reception downstairs let him up to my suite. After a bit of a catch up and showing him around the suite exclaiming ‘AND LOOK AT THIS!’ at pretty much everything (even though he’d already seen it in the video), we watched the world go by from the balcony for a little bit, and then I finished getting ready while he had a bit of a nap. I only gave him 10mins or so though, then I was pulling the covers off him telling him we had to go as we were already running late!

 

We walked over to Les Terrasses de Geneve, which is an open-air club over the other side of the lake. It sits right on the edge of Lake Geneva and was such an awesome place! After saying a quick hello to Adam’s colleagues, we then went to find Pete and the other guys. We found them at a table raised up opposite the bar and DJ booth, so climbed up and joined them. I hadn’t seen Pete for nearly three months, since that crazy night at Home House, so it was SO good to finally see him again!

 

Les Terrasses was insane. It was so much fun! We spent the night dancing our little socks off, catching up, drinking constantly flowing magnums and jeroboams of rose, and singing along to the music. The night really got going as soon as it got dark, and all of a sudden the atmosphere changed from a laid back bar to a thumping nightclub full of people.

 

I had a blip around midnight when Adam left to go home and get some sleep before showing me around the city the next day (he’d been out for the launch of the club the night before and then had a full day at work), and I got a liiiiiiittle bit unreasonably upset. So Peter and Alex had to sit me down, give me a drink, and tell me to calm down, and all was OK because they were still there and wouldn’t leave me until I was ready to go. To which I just responded “BUT IT’S MIDNIGHT! HE CAN’T LEAVE AT MIDNIGHT!” (Why are my friends still friends with me?! Srsly.)

Then Pete and I had another heart to heart and I got all emosh by what he was saying to me and ended up sobbing on his shoulder again while he just hugged me tightly and let me cry. This guy you guys, he’s a good egg. I can be a total over-emotional bitch at times and even when he’s at the receiving end of me shouting and getting angry at him (to be fair sometimes he does deserve it), he still does everything he can to be the best friend possible and be there for me unconditionally. I know that I can call him at any time of the day or night and he will pick up and do everything he can to help me. Our friendship has taken various forms over the past few years, and despite it taking a while to adapt to a new sort of friendship, I would be completely lost without him and his constant love and support.

 

We then wandered back down the hill to the lake, and tried to find somewhere to eat. By this time it was around 2:30pm, and in Geneva nowhere really serves food outside of their strict eating hours (12-2, and 6pm onwards). Both of us were craving a huge plate of seafood (I ended up getting my octopus fix a few days later at Polpo in London), but sadly we couldn’t really find anywhere.

 

I knew it wasn’t looking great when I asked Adam where is good to eat in Geneva and he responded with ‘nowhere really…I mainly just eat at home because the restaurants in Geneva are awful’. This is coming from the person who gave me some incredible foodie recommendations for Milan, and who can recommend a huge list of restaurants at the drop of a hat for practically every major city in Europe.

We stopped off at about half a dozen restaurants where Adam asked each of them (he speaks fluent French, I definitely don’t) if they were serving food, and all of them said no, or they were only serving snacks (like bar snacks – nuts and olives etc). So we walked around the lake and had a look at the food stalls that were there for the festival. Most of the food was heavy Indian or Middle Eastern. I love that type of food, but on a hot sunny day I just wanted a plate of seafood! Either a big hunk of fish or a ceviche or carpaccio or even just a bowl of prawns coated in garlic butter. But nope, nada.

I controlled my oncoming hangryness with a really delicious (and cheap, for Geneva standards) ice-cream, and then Peter called and told us to meet him at Les Voiles. So off we went on the bus down the road to Les Voiles. Except we got there and it was closed. It didn’t open until 6pm, and I had to be at the airport at 6pm. It was now 4pm, so Adam and I raced back to the hotel and decided to just go to the Kempinski pop-up terrace restaurant I’d been to the day before.

I had the ‘Bella Italia’ pizza this time, which was covered in balsamic vinegar, rocket, thinly sliced beef, and ricotta. It was actually one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had – the combination of flavours was just incredible! Adam had the tuna pizza but wasn’t too impressed with it, although he didn’t have a whole lot of choice to be fair because the meat at the restaurant wasn’t Halal, so he only had a couple of dishes to choose from (margarita pizza, a seafood pasta, and tuna pizza). At least the view was good!

 

Before we knew it, it was 5:30pm and I was in a total panic that I was gonna miss my 7pm flight (I’m the type of person who arrives at an airport 2-3 hours before a flight..I’ve never missed a flight so obvs this works well for me). The service at the restaurant was awful and I couldn’t wave anyone down to get the bill, I asked Adam to call them over in French for me, and he just grinned and goes ‘No you do it’, I whimpered like a child and begged him to just do it (especially after he told me I was saying it slightly wrong the previous day – I mean they sounded exactly the same to me!).

Finally someone came over and he asked for me!They seemed to take forever bringing the bill, and then when we paid I got up and Adam just sat there and teased ‘Nah, I think I’m just gonna sit here and relax’….I can laugh at it now, but at the time my response was ‘That’s not even funny, I’m gonna miss my flight!’, and I think the classic bitch please look on my face made him stand up and realize just how stressed I was.

THEN he made my stress levels even higher by asking if I had any coins left, I dug around and found 4CHF in coins, and then he starts buying an ice-cream!!! AN ICE-CREAM. When my flight was in 1 hour and 20 minutes time! Except he was 1CHF short, so we had to leave minus an ice-cream.We got back to the hotel, picked up my luggage, and then it was time to get in the taxi to the airport (my stress levels couldn’t deal with figuring out the train again). We said our goodbyes and I could finally de-stress. But then I got to the airport and the queue to get through security was insane. And I just about had enough time to run and get my fave French Haribo sweets that you can’t get in the UK (the Orangina ones fyi), and then get to the gate.

Despite spending the entire trip hungover or drunk, and despite the stress of thinking I was gonna miss my flight, I had such an awesome time in Geneva! Even though I didn’t see many of the ‘touristy’ things (see below for a list of what you can do there), I had such a fun two days chilling out at the hotel and by the lake with the guys, and partying hard. It was brilliant to finally see the Festival I’d been hearing about for so many years, and to meet Alex too who I’ve also been hearing about for years from Pete.

Geneva is a bit of a weird place, there isn’t that much to do, but if you did everything on the list below you could comfortably visit for 3 days if you took things slowly and relaxed. If you rushed around you could also easily do everything in 24 hours, just skip the day trip to Chamonix. I also found it very much felt stuck in the past, like it’s trying to cling on to it’s reputation as this big financial luxury hub, when actually many cities in Asia have overtaken it on both counts.

From the hotels to the restaurants, and even the shops, all of it just felt a bit tired. As if the city needs to draw people in with something new. They’ve got such an incredible position on the lake, it seems such a shame that they don’t make full use of it with loads of restaurants and bars that overlook the water!

Other things you could do in Geneva if you’re not hungover the entire time you’re there:

1. A tour of the UN ‘Palais des Nations’ building
2. A tour of CERN (this is outside of the city)
3. Visit the Red Cross Museum
4. See the Reformation Wall
5. Visit the Patek Phillipe Museum
6. Spend time in the parks
7. Explore the museums
8. Eat a fondue (I can’t do this because I’m allergic to the type of cheese they use in it)
9. Go up Mont-Saleve (Adam wanted to do this but I was worried I wouldn’t make my flight in time)
10. Go on a day trip to Chamonix (if you have at least two full days)

 

 

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