Le Weekend: Part I

Saturday farmer's market
(Apparently you can bargain with the vendors, but I didn't know any better.)

In what promises to be my cheapest weekend in Europe, this weekend I occupied myself with happenings around and about Geneva.

On Thursday I watched the Harry Potter movie with a dorm friend (a Californian) and Ehrine and Alvin. It was pretty nice to see a Hollywood movie, and be transported out of francophone territory for a good 2.5 hours. But on to the weekend.

My mentor at the WHO invited me to her town, Ferney-Voltaire, to see the market and have lunch . Louise, my mentor, first showed me where the discount grocery stores were so that I could know the ins and outs of how the swiss get around the expensive prices of Geneva. Then we walked around the Saturday morning market they have which almost identical to a farmers market. With all the fresh, beautiful fruits and veggies I over did it and ended up carrying a really heavy bag all the way back home. (stupid watermelon.) These strawberries were JUST mouth-watering though. Totally worth it.

strawberries from Ferney <3
A WHO co-worker and Louise's partner joined us for lunch at a lovely outside terrace. I got a cream-sauce pasta which ended up being too heavy for the hot day. But they also served bruschetta that looked amazing.
Ferney-Voltaire is right next to Geneva, just across the French border and is the town in which Voltaire lived the last 20 years of his life. Apparently he built a real town our of the marshy village that was Ferney, and he did a lot of good things for the inhabitants, so they made him the patron of their town. He was a very rich and very idealistic man. His mansion is still there, so that was a cool "touristy" thing to go see.

Later that evening, I discovered Geneva has a nightlife! In a town whose grocery stores don't open on Sunday and close at 7pm on regular days, I had assumed nightlife consisted of sitting in your room watching tv. I was astounded. I ventured out with a dorm friend to get some dinner around 10pm. We were worried nothing would be open, but felt secure in knowing there was a 24 hour shop at the train station. To our surprise, all kinds of people were out and about. We made our way through the winding streets of Old Town to find french hip-hop music pumping out of bar/cafes nonstop til midnight! Hurray! Tons of people were sitting outside over drinks and dessert. My friend and I ducked into a charming little restaurant for a pair of salads. Mine was Indian style curry chicken salad. Yum.