Squirellican gets neutralized!

This weekend I went to Geneva, Switzerland....and I know you guys claim I love every place I visit and want to move there (not true, I would never want to move permanently to Florence) I am moving to Geneva!

To try to summarize, the whole weekend started out as a little bit of a jumble. Despite our very strategic planning and buying of a 5 day eurorail pass, Sara and I showed up at the train station on Friday and were told we could not get on the train to Milan. This was bad. Because A. My two roommates were already in Geneva waiting for us. B. We had to get to Milan, because from Milan we had to catch the train to Geneva. C. If we missed one of both of these trains, we still had to pay for the hostel. The ticket man told us we needed a reservation and the soonest we could get to Milan would be at 3am in the morning. He did say he could get us out at 7pm (still to late to make it to Geneva) but we would have to pay 56 euro.
This simply was not okay, so we decided to check out the situation on the platform on the train, and in theory try to get up the courage to just sneak on. On the train platform we asked the conductor-man if it was possible for us to get on and showed our eurorail passes, pantomiming necessity for needing to get to Milan. The conductor said of course, only standing room though, 18 euro on board. We almost kissed him.
So we got on and sat, along with many other people, in the luggage compartments/hallways in between the cars. Partly by accident, but mostly on purpose since we still were not totally sure what we were doing was legit, when we saw the conductor coming, we simply got up and walked past him to the cafe car, saving ourselves eighteen euro or if we had misunderstood something, somewhere, being kicked off the train. Why the ticket man told us this was impossible I have no idea.

From Milan, which is the craziest most jam-packed train station I have ever seen, we ran to make our Geneva train. We assumed we should of had reservations for this one as well, but we had no time to worry about petty things like that now so we joined some fellow commuters sitting on the floor in the hallway. The thought of spending six hours like this was a little discouraging, but at least we were on the train. The conductor man for this train came out of nowhere and asked for our tickets, we sheepishly handed him our eurorail passes, lacking in a reservation ticket. He smiled and said oh I see, and then charged us 18 euro for a reservation, allowing us to finally breathe easy and go find seats.
When we made it to Geneva it was late at night but the city was gorgeous. Quaint but still had a bigger city feel, surrounding a beautiful lake and gardens everywhere! You can't walk more than ten feet without seeing green space or flowers. Friday night we went to Geneva's only Brew-pub. This brew pub was our first introduction into just how expensive Geneva is. One beer was about seven Swiss frank, which is directly comparable to the dollar. Lunch is at cheapest 10 franks, coffee is 3, to use the public restrooms is 2. We had the sampler beer platter, only 5 franks each, and got to try the seasonal beer they brew, something with cherry that was amazing.  Our hostel was an old convent right next to the cathedral and was very clean and well kept. It was an all girls dorm with about ten bunk beds and a locker for each person.
Saturday we woke up and walked for a few miles along the lake to the United Nations building, which much much much to my dismay was closed since it was the weekend and tourist season was over! I still spent about fifteen minutes looking through the gate and taking pictures of the sign. Next door was the red cross building and museum which was very interesting. Next we walked around Geneva, saw the flower clock, the giant water jet in the middle of the lake, and saw the old town. Geneva is a lovely mix of French and German influence, especially relevant in the architecture, but it also has its own attitude. The people are so nice and everyone seems very open and cultured since it is such an international city. The sidewalks are full of people from every culture and the restaurants and shops are such a assortment. We were so amazed by the large empty sidewalks and the fact that cars stop for pedestrians in the street. Something that never ever happens in Florence.
Saturday night we went to the best fondue in Geneva (as told to us by various locals). It was a charming unpretentious place that filled us up with enough melted cheese and bread to last a lifetime!
Sunday we checked out this department store called mall, who has half a floor just for the chocolate section! They had chocolate tastings everywhere and sold every kind of chocolate item and flavor you can imagine.
We then rented bikes (for free! hard to imagine in a city so expensive) and rode around the lake for two hours.  We then got a train to Dijon, France and used our five hour layover to do a walking tour of the city (they have something that resembles the freedom trail but is marked with an owl). The city had lots of churches and palaces as well as a lovely park we took a nap in. At nine we got on an overnight train back to Florence! That was quite the experience. The cars are tiny and equipped with tiny cots stacked three high. There were already two people sleeping in ours so we could not even read or anything, we just had to get in our little cots and "sleep" for the eleven hour ride back. Every time the train stopped or started I was pretty sure I was about to fall off my bed, but I did end up sleeping more than I expected.
Overall, love Switzerland! Love the chocolate, love the people, love the scenery. Italy seemed so pushy and dirty compared to it, and not having men make creepy comments at me was such a welcome change! Next up is Perugia for the chocolate festival this weekend and to visit a friend...there seems to be a theme in my travels, where there is food to be had, I will go.