Me and my friend Theresa are probably one of the worst duos that can ever exist. Basically everything we do is a mistake, whether it’s a simple task of doing laundry or doing something major like traveling the world. Hopefully this blog will teach you something about my mistakes so you don’t have to go through what I went through.

Theresa and I went with our two guy friends and met up with two other girl friends, Maddie and Emily, who are studying abroad in Florence. It was overall a pretty fun trip but there were a number of things that went terribly wrong, making it a trip to remember for sure. Just a little introduction for you guys, Theresa completely forgot her passport and realized as soon as we got to the airport. We spent over 90 euros in cab fares just to get to the airport.

First of all, Geneva was not a place for college kids. If you consider yourself boujee, maybe go for it but I don’t recommend. The main reason for choosing Geneva was because it was the cheapest flight into Switzerland (chosen by me of course). It is also known to be more of a beach town, not really for winter. Geneva is where most people fly into for connecting flights to ski resorts in Zurich or Interlaken. When we get to Geneva, we get into a taxi and automatically start speaking spanish to taxi driver, naturally, who spoke perfect English, French and Italian. As we’re talking to him I realize that I actually have no idea what language they speak in Geneva so I ask, it’s French. The three borders of Switzerland coincide with the language that they speak, so the border of France is French, the border of Germany is German, and the same with Italy. 

Switzerland in general is not in the college budget. One of my other friends that came with us picked the  hotel. She assumed that if it was a little more expensive then it would be a lot nicer. But of course, we were wrong. The location of the hotel was not ideal. It was in a more unsafe area of Geneva where there was a lot of sex shops and public drinking areas. The hotel we stayed at had a very outer space-like theme. It reminded me of the Boomerang show, The Jetson’s, which had a very futuristic vibe. As weird as it was, it was still a place to sleep (and it was clean). Our other friends were staying in an ibis, which was perfectly fine to stay in and a lot cheaper. On the topic of money, food and drinks were also very expensive. When me and Theresa saw the Starbucks next door to our hotel we ran. We assume that the Starbucks was a safe bet because it’s pretty much the coffee version of McDonald’s right? No we were wrong yet again. My venti vanilla latte was almost 9 francs (the currency in Switzerland is francs which was something else I didn’t know arriving there). 

To continue about the food and drinks, and the  ridiculous pricing, we figured out some hacks to save a couple francs.  First, we used the instant coffee and tea in the hotel so we wouldn’t have to go back to a Switzerland Starbucks ever again. For food, we pretty much shared everything. For lunch the first day we went to The Little Kitchen which was a burger place right on the river. Theresa and I shared a salad and their potatoes and got our own drinks. For dinner we got fondue, which Switzerland is supposedly known for. We went to Auberge de Saviese, it had a selection of fondue for individuals or groups. By the end of the dinner we finished about 5 lbs of cheese and 5 loaves of bread, but completely worth it. One of our most successful outings was at Arthur’s. Arthur’s is an upscale restaurant with outdoor seating, but not just any outdoor seating. They had big plastic igloo looking tents with seating inside, so we  just had to go. But here’s the thing, the drinks were all 10 francs and up. This was just not going to cut it, so we had an idea. We told the boys to go to the liquor store and get multiple bottles of wine. We order the cheapest glass on the menu (when I say cheap I mean like 12 francs) and pretend we are drinking the same glass for about 2 to 3 hours. We really pulled it off. So we really saved a lot of money drink wise. Five Guys was also a go to. It’s this great to-go burger place and even has vegetarian options. Have you heard of it? Highly recommend; we spent most of our time there.

Even though Geneva was a little more upscale than we expected, there was still a decent amount to do. We were staying right next to Lake Geneva that separated the sketchy area from the nicer area. We were on the sketchy side, but it was a close walk to get to the nice area which was Old Town Geneva. In the old town there is the St. Pierre Cathedral and you can walk all the way up to the top for a panoramic view of Geneva. In this part of Geneva there was also shopping and chocolate shops, which is a must. The chocolate was really as good as people say.

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To top it all off, we planned to go out on our last night there. Multiple bottles of wine later we head to a bar called Black Sheep. It was a really cool bar in a good area. This is probably the last place my good old friend Theresa remembers. As we are all heading to the club we realize that Theresa and her boyfriend are no longer behind us. We try to get a hold of them, which was a struggle because none of us had service. Because Switzerland isn’t considered part of the European Union it has a lot of differences from the neighboring countries such as currency and cell phone service. So of course we can’t get a hold of them. One of my friends starts to freak out and starts running the Switzerland streets screaming “THERESA” dramatically. After we had a good laugh at the fact that we lost them, we realized that this was just a shit show. We walk back to the hotel to get a hold of them and Theresa calls us crying. She and her boyfriend fell asleep at a table in a hotel… A hotel. So after security escorts them out they get a cab and go back to Theresa’s boyfriend’s hotel. So as I’m sitting in our hotel room by myself I get a Facebook dm from her boyfriend saying that she left her phone in the cab. Poor Theresa. As the story comes to an end, my incompetent self makes it to the airport safe and on time.

Theresa is currently using an iPhone 5s in hopes to get her iPhone 11 back. We look back at Geneva as a mistake as a whole but loaded with memories. So here is a little recap…

1. Don’t go to Geneva. But if you do follow these steps…
2. Stay south of Lake Geneva in Old Town Geneva
3. Share your food even if you think it’s going to be the death of you, you’ll thank me later
4. Bring drinks instead of paying for them
5. Get chocolate
6. Don’t get lost
7. Don’t leave your phone in a cab
8. Don’t forget your passport
9. Don’t fall asleep in a hotel lobby
10. Last but not least, no matter how often you mess up, always make the most of it.

I hope you enjoyed this blog and learned a little but about Geneva and what not to do. As obvious as some of these tips may seem, it could be you one day.

-Briana