An American in Sussex: Geneva to France

After spending a few days in Edinburgh, I flew to Geneva. I arrived late in the afternoon and immediately began enjoying the warm temperatures. It felt like heaven after Edinburgh. A lovely Scottish woman sat next to me on my flight and directed me to a machine where I could get a free train ticket to Geneva city centre, where, after a few confusing false starts, I managed to walk to my hostel. Where my hostel in Edinburgh had been charming, fun, and all around inviting, the "youth" hostel in Geneva was cold, austere, and smelled of weird disinfectant. It was also plainly not a youth hostel, as I saw old men and entire families checking in when I collected my key.
    Since I had arrived so late in the day (4 pm) most museums were already closed. My hostel was only a 5 minute walk from the lake, so I ended up strolling around the lake for a good two hours. It was absolutely gorgeous, as the sun had burned away most of the clouds from the mountains overlooking the Lake Geneva. It was definitely my favorite part of the city. Overall, Geneva failed to impress for me. It's extremely expensive, for one thing. I purchased a bottle of water and it cost me 8 francs. I ended up going out to an Italian restaurant for dinner and paying an exorbitant amount for a small pizza simply because I couldn't find a grocery store, even after wandering about the city for a good half hour. For being such an international city, Geneva also seemed quite dirty and run down, and I don't think I was in a bad area of town, given that my hostel was right behind the Palace Wilson, which is an extremely posh and expensive hotel named in honor of President Woodrow Wilson. I met a few people later in the evening back at my hostel and talked with them for a bit on the patio, but Geneve left me cold. I had such an immediate visceral reaction to Edinburgh, I loved it so much, that Geneva felt like such a let down. Still, the lake was beautiful and I only spent a day there, as I met two of my brothers, Karl and Ryan, at the airport early the next morning.
    Karl & Ryan were in France to do a bike trip through the Alps, but as they got in quite early, we had the day to explore a bit. Our hotel was in Anthy-sur-Leman. I couldn't figure out what Leman was until I realized that it's the French word for Lake Geneva. It's quite funny passing from Switzerland to France- they don't ask for passports or anything. Bruno, the guide, said that Switzerland has an agreement with the countries surrounding it for easier travel between nations.
    We explored Yvoire, a medieval town a bit down from Anthy for most of the morning/afternoon. It was so charming. There were flowers and ivy exploding from every building. The town we stayed in, Anthy, was absolutely tiny. It seemed like the hotel/restuarant (L'Auberge D'Anthy) was literally the center of town. There was a few restaurants and an ice cream stand down by the lake, along with a little library and muncipal center. No grocery store or even petrol station.
    We had a great breakfast in the morning and then Karl and Ryan headed off for their bike trip and Bruno dropped me off at the last tram stop in Geneva to get back to the airport. My French is definitely horrendous, and I wasn't entirely sure I was on the correct tram until I overheard some British women talking about getting off at the train station.
   Even though Geneva was a bit of a fail, France was spectacularly gorgeous and welcoming and it was so so lovely to see and visit with both Karl and Ryan. Another stamp on my passport doesn't hurt either!