Congratulations to Christina and Jordan, who earn the honor of being our first visitors! We’re very happy to host friends and family who want to see a little of Europe.
Havi
ng visitors is great; it’s fun to see old friends in new surroundings, and we had a great time. The one thing that first visitors always bring, which I find interesting, is a sense of introspection. That is, you’re forced to approach your situation from where you saw it at a different point in time. For us, the things we’ve grown to really like in Geneva, might not appeal to people who haven’t been here for awhile, and it’s good to get that old perspective back every now and again. While you want to take people to the best places and get them the best foods, you also have to wonder if the places are really even that good, or if you just think they’re great due to the experiences you’ve had. For example – within the Geneva restaurant scene, what we think is great is anything that’s under $20 and fills you up. In the US, this is normal, so our favorite restaurants here are probably merely sub-par for anyone not used to the craziness that is Geneva pricing. That being said, I do think there are some cool places around here regardless of what you consider to be cool, so we went to them. One of the favorites of locals and expats alike is Annecy, a medieval French town on what is considered the cleanest lake in Europe. Annecy is a nice little place with cobble-stoned streets and stone buildings, and it even has a canal running through it. It doesn’t get much cooler than that – I mean, canals are pretty awesome, an
d by awesome I mean "totally sweet". So we did that, had truly perfect weather, and just had a good time.The next big item was Alpine skiing. We all piled into a rental car and drove the precipitous mountain roads to Avoriaz, France, where the fog was as thick as the French accents. So thick, in fact, there were times when we couldn’t see more than five feet ahead of us! That being said, Avoriaz was great for beginner skiing, and Soph really started stepping up her ski game, as she didn’t even have a true fall the entire day. The fog was a bit of a problem, unfortunately, but it cleared right as we left, so we did get to see the beautiful mountain scenery from the car. Hey, better than nothing!
As it happens, Geneva itself also has a couple things worth seeing. This week, the Geneva autoshow (possibly the world’s largest autoshow – I don’t know the true statistics, but apparently it’s a big deal here) was going on. Soph, Christina and Jordan all made the trek, and got to see all sorts of concept cars, as well as regular standby’s such as Ferraris and Lambs and Beamers and whatnot.
A
nd since they were only in Geneva for 4+ days, that’s about all there was time for. One word of warning – don’t fly through Germany. As bad of flight experiences as we’ve had, theirs was worse. Three days without luggage; almost 30 hours of travel due to delays; bad weather following them; but, they took it in stride. They really got hit with the coldest days we’ve had in Geneva all winter! We even got a taste of the thrilling Geneva nightlife and it’s cheap $16 mojitos!So thanks again to Christina and Jordan for visiting – we had a lot of fun, and we hope they did too. And look – you made the blog! It’s almost like being famous, except it’s completely different and not nearly as fulfilling.
Next weekend: Ski weekend cinq!
