HELLO, GENEVA.

March 21st, 2018

A weekend trip.

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The past weekend my friend Giorgia and I met up in Geneva, Switzerland, and visited a city we both had never been to before.

So of course, I brought my compact camera, filmed a few clips, and took some photos. 

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When we were thinking of destinations for our quick trip, we felt that finding a place that is almost equally as far for both would have been idea, especially cause we both would have had to travel on our own.

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Geneva is just about 1 hour and 15 minutes away from both London and Venice, so that made it the perfect location: we got on the early Friday flights, arriving to the hotel in the morning, which gave us plenty of time to look around.

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The weather was holding up – even though we knew it was going to rain for most of the trip – so we opted for a river walk right away,  to see the conjunction between the two rivers, the Rhône and the Arve.

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The water from the Rhône appears much bluer and clearer, compared to the Arve, creating a beautiful contrast of colours as they meet.

I saw some stunning photos of this online, but because of the weather – not being as sunny as it could be – and our viewing point – I wasn’t able to get such a crisp image of it.

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Right after we ventured towards the Old Town, full of cute and historic buildings.

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I believe one of the main things in this area is the Cathedral of Saint Pierre.

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It was free to visit and looked quite grand yet very minimal and muted at the same time.

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Which was interesting as the chapel on the side was so rich in colours and patterns.

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We kept on walking, admiring the buildings, checking out some shops, and reaching the lake.

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We even managed to see the jet d’eau from afar.

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On the second day we checked out the Botanical Gardens.

I don’t think I had ever been to one before, and when I saw Geneva had a few greenhouses, I knew I had to go see them.

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It was a rainy day and nobody was around, so we weren’t sure it was even open.

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We were very surprised when we tried opening a door, to realise all the greenhouses were accessible.

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They were temperate, which gave us a chance to warm up and stay out of the rain.

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The smaller one, out of the 3 greenhouses available, was my personal favourite: not just because of this cactus garden, but because you could go up and admire the beautiful plants from up high.

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This place was magical.

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The gardens didn’t just have greenhouses, but also animals, a villa, and a library. It was overall a lovely area to walk around.

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We then wanted to briefly check out the Broken Chair, right in front of the United Nations building.

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It was a Saturday, and it seems as if that’s the closing day for restaurants over there, so we struggled finding a place to eat. We eventually did, even if it was incredibly packed and stressful.

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Luckily towards the evening there were less people around, and the rain stopped.

I really wanted to see Place Du Molard after sundown as I knew some of the cobblestones would lit up and show a message, written in different languages.

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This was such a cute spot!

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On Sunday we had some time to kill, as our flights were in the evening.

Again, the weather wasn’t the best so we decided to visit a couple museums – the one I was looking forward to the most of the MAMCO.

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I find modern art museums very interesting, so I was curious to see what Geneva had to offer.

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Some areas had a slightly creepy vibe – which I quite enjoyed (I actually kept sounds from the museum on my video so that you could get a sense of what it was like walking through it). I was having a great time till I decided to take this photo and truly angered a guard of the museum. She was not happy with me being that close to the installation and got told off – oops.

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After lunch, we grabbed a bus in Place De Neuve, which had this stunning parc called Parc des Bastions.

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We went to see the Museum of Natural History, which was free to enter, as our final stop.

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And then it was time to go back to the airport.

Even though the city appeared grey and quiet during winter time, I can see it being stunning when it warms up and flowers bloom. The highlight of my trip was being able to catch up with Giorgia, and feel like our friendship is just as strong as it was when we were kids.

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Watch the video here!

Marzia