“I can’t use Francs! I’m not in France!!!”

Fun fact of the post: There are 27 countries in the European Union. I think three of them use their own unique currency: One of those is Switzerland. They use the franc. France on the other hand uses Euros. The quote which entitles this post is from the one and only Natalie, who made this intelligent comment after spending about 2 days in Switzerland and France and being fairly familiar with the way everything was working. This is why we’re friends J

Thursday night we landed in Switzerland. (And then crossed the border to our hotel in France…what what?) Random tidbit: crossing that border is basically like crossing towns in the states…I mean, they had a little booth thing, but half the time no one was there, so anyone really could’ve come or go to Switzerland and France as they pleased…I guess border control isn’t an issue here?

Friday morning we arose bright and early and had croissants in France (okay okay technically we bought them in France and ate them in Switzerland…but hey, French croissants: que guay!!) [side note: other highlights of food origins: we ate French fries in France, and Swiss chocolate in Switzerland…so that was cool] and then we headed into downtown Geneva and walked around to see all the best that Geneva had to offer. We ended up going to a botanical garden (love gardens) and also passed by the UN Headquarters. (that doesn’t look nearly as cool as you would imagine…its basically some big cement buildings, gated off and guarded).

And then in the afternoon we went to Montreaux (which is on the other side of Lake Geneva). That was absolutely amazing! Everything was just soooo beautiful. We took like an hour long walk along the lake over to a castle. During this walk we had the most gorgeous views of the lake with the snow-covered mountains and all kinds of flowers; it was just one of those scenes that looks like it came right from a movie, or a magazine or something. Sigh.

For those who regularly follow the blog...yeah, these are the pants...

Saturday quite possibly was one of the most memorable days of my life. We took a bus to Chamonix (France) where we took a cable lift thing (I don’t know what those guys are called…) up to the top of Mont Blanc (the tallest peak of the Alps, and I think the tallest mountain in all of Europe). The view from up there-sighhhhh- just indescribable. In every direction there were just mountain ranges of snow covered peaks. As far as you could see. It was just awe-inspiring.

Those people that you see are the skiers preparing to descend

All for one...one for all!!

Afterwards, we went to a glacier, and walked around an ice cave! That was so crazy- like, I stood inside a glacier…

Preparing to enter the glacial cave

This is glaciar...I know, it looks like mountain...do not be fooled!

It’s so funny, like I’m here doing these things that are just unbelievable. These are things that I would probably say, “that’d be cool to do someday”, but I’m actually doing them. That’s actually the same reason I started a bucket list…because why let fear or excuses stop us doing from the things we want to do? Speaking of bucket list though: the low of the trip:

All I had to do was touch the little bugger and I could've checked something off my list!! DANGIT!

Anyhow, on Sunday we didn’t have too much time, so we stuck around Geneva. We went and got starbucks (yummm…although I’m not telling you how much we paid for that lovely experience) and went and sat in a gazebo in the park area overlooking the lake and just spent a couple hours chatting and enjoying the scene.

But yeah, so that about sums up the trip to Switzerland. Oh no it doesn’t- I forgot to mention the unfortunate situation, entitled, “my debit card wouldn’t work, and neither would my ATM card”…should have probably checked on card functionability before heading to a new country…Stressful situation- I hate money…But I love my friends who make sure it all works out J (thanks!!)

Welp, time to head off to business class! Hasta pronto!

I love you guys!

Rachel