May 19th, 2024 - Geneva, Switzerland

Switzerland Selfie

I open my eyes and feel unexpectedly drained. The summer sun in Europe could indicate 7 am or noon. Really, it’s 10:30 am. We didn’t have a late night, but something about vacation and walking 10+ miles everyday requires more sleep. Maybe it's simply finally having the time to sleep. Or maybe it’s because our meals the last few days have only consisted of chocolate, bread, cheese, and more chocolate. (Tuesday night we did stumble upon Salmon, but it cost us $30 for one baby piece and three stalks of asparagus…that we split. And to clarify, not a piece of a baby salmon. Which I think is just a tadpole).

It may not look like much, but the fondue was dope

Anyway, we rise out of bed and go through our Switzerland morning routine, which includes cleaning out two litter boxes, refilling the cats’ water, and making sure that once Dobby finishes his food, he doesn’t then eat Xena’s. Our first house sit is going well, though I’m still uncertain about the cats watching me shower. 

One of them is Dobby. The other is Xena.

We hop over to our third coffee shop in the same number of days, order a pastry overfilled with nutella that makes me think about the Priya Parker idea that one of the greatest gifts you can give your guests is to create structure and stick to it (and that the more is not always the merrier). 

Recently we’ve been navigating how to balance planning and letting things happen, and what to do when things don’t go as planned. Beyond doing things you feel you should, there is difficulty in something you want, and maybe even planned, not working out. So how do we manage this disappointment, especially since a trip this long will inevitably accumulate disappointments and missed opportunities? Well, we’re trying to adopt a “how things happen is however they happen” attitude, because otherwise we’d get caught up on what wasn’t rather than the fact that no matter what, we’re incredibly lucky for this to be our life! Which has worked out so far given that many of the things we’ve missed has either opened up other opportunities or merely provided a much needed break in a busy travel schedule.

While eating straight nutella, we check in about what we imagine the day would look like. Each of us takes turns saying בבדמיוני (beh-dim-yo-knee), which directly translates to “in my imagination,” to guide us in sharing our visions while leaving space for the unknown to happe. We're just imagining here.

Now the day begins. We purchased a “Geneva Pass” that allows us free access to a whole set of activities for the three days. Financially, it has been a great decision. It has also helped us with decision fatigue because if something isn’t on the Geneva pass… sorry, we ain’t doing it until Monday. From the pass, we select the Red Cross museum and then pedal boating on Lake Geneva. There is also Stand up Paddle Boarding, but I don’t want to wear a bathing suit all day and get wet, and Pedal Boating avoids needing a change of clothes. 

The Red Cross museum is… interesting. It has an absolutely gorgeous series of photo series (I think that makes sense) in the basement, all focused on witnessing humanity, pain, love, destruction. There is also a lot of history involved for how the Red Cross came to be, where it has proved most beneficial… and where it has failed. It’s hard to ignore the focus on the Red Cross and the Holocaust, but I don’t have energy for that right now, so let’s move on.

It’s time to head to the boats! Though we’re currently on the opposite side of Lake Geneva from where we need to be, they come every 30 minutes. Though we rush and make it just in time, legit twenty seconds into the ride, Savyon looks out the window, lights up, and exclaims “Oh! That’s a free museum on the pass! We should go! Can we can we can we?” With no idea where she’s pointing or to what museum she’s referring, we get off almost as soon as we get on, to do a "quick 30 minutes” in this new museum.

Here’s what I’ll say: The building we enter is beautiful and definitely used to be a palace of sorts. In my mind, it must have been donated as the museum itself displays glassware and ceramics through history. Not really sure that its content and its normally-5-Euro-but-right-now-free entry fees warrant such a big and nice building. This feeling is exacerbated as we walk into the basement and the entire floor is just…a few spread out crumpled paper plates? The paper plates you get when you’re younger and someone orders a whole set of pizzas and the oil starts leaking through the plates almost before the pizza even touches it.

We do our best to hop in hop out, but is it ever possible to actually do anything in 30 minutes? Some say yes. It all depends how fast you move. I say no... which has been a slight source of tension on this trip - I simply cannot get out of the house as fast as Savyon. But! There is often something great that comes from things not going as planned (or so we tell ourselves). And that was missing this next bus, because now the fastest form of transportation is to hop a ferry along the river all the way to our next stop. And isn’t a ferry far more fun?

Except the ferry is a 20 minute walk away and we have only 17 minutes until it comes! With my long legs, I'm not worried. But Savyon is pretty small... so we’re straight up running. We cut across fields that an HOA would tell someone to mow, and run across crosswalks as if the walk sign hadn't turned a long time ago. But we make it! And only get honked at once! As we’re arriving, though, we realize this boat is quite cute. And by cute, I mean small. Fits like 50 people, and we're nowhere close. So, as we’re catching our breath from our impromptu run, we’re also waving goodbye to the adorable little ferry that was supposed to be our exciting impromptu activity.

But! Say it with me this time: There is often something great that comes from things not going as planned. We’re too far from the bus to go back down that road - literally. That said, we are just a 50 minute walk directly to the boat place. We’re walkers in a beautiful city, obviously we should just walk. 

Along our lovely walk, we see a line of bikes lined up beside a storage unit with a food-truck style window and an attendant handing out helmets instead of burgers. Immediately, this intrigues Savyon - she loves biking. The attendant tells us it’s free. Not just free, it is only free today, for the next 2 hours, from this specific location. All we have to do is give 40 Euros as a down payment.

Just. My. Luck. What you may not know about me, is that I don’t bike. Now, I’m working on it, but I’ve basically only biked a handful of times in the last 15 years. This isn’t to say I used to be the Tony Hawk of the two-wheeler and abruptly retired at 14. I only learned at 10 - thank you Debbie Sussman, former camp director, for teaching me - and subsequently spent a few years sporadically riding around the local synagogue’s parking lot with my brother. And that’s about it. 

I went 8 years without touching a bike, and did not miss it once. Mostly because I think I’m going to die any time I bike… and that’s without any cars nearby, otherwise I might as well just stand directly in the middle, put my hands up, and wave as the car hits me. Ok, one time I convinced myself that I did miss it and coerced my parents into buying me a bike for my birthday that I never used. (Sorry parents)

So, again, just my luck. Not only do we happen upon bikes, but we happen upon free bikes. Nothing calls to Savyon more than stumbling upon something she wants, except that something being free. And I can see it in her eyes. One way or another, we’re going to be biking, so I try to drag my feet a little on principal.

Savyon: Are you ok biking?

Me: I mean. If left up to me, I would not choose to go biking. But I can go biking if we need - 

Savyon: Great!

Turns to the lady, realizes we don’t have 40 Euro, negotiates to give her 10 Euro, 20 American dollars, and her license as collateral

I guess now we’re going biking. My one stipulation is that I don’t want to bike anywhere near cars, or any complicated turns - a clear path if possible? But, no luck. We’re in the center of the busy tourist part, and though there are clear and beautiful bike paths on both sides of the lake, we have to navigate some dense tourist intersections to get there. It’s kind of like in Atlanta, there are a few main roads with great bike lanes, but none of the roads that lead to these roads have bike lanes or even enough space for bikes. So though there are some great safe bike lanes… you may die trying to get to them.

Spoiler alert, I survive. 

“I knew you could do it” shouts Savyon back to me as I very narrowly avoid biking directly into a concrete barrier. 

“How are you?” Savyon asks, later on.

“Doing swell!” I call back as a three-year old walks directly in the middle of the bike lane with unaware parents and a lack of recognition that the back to back to back dinging sounds might be a sign of danger! I really have to hope I don’t take out this child. 

Kids. Love them. Probably shouldn’t bike in the same city as them.

Once I make it to the clear pathway free of kids or pedestrians at all, I’m breezing through. Since I can’t even itch my face without veering into a bush, I definitely can’t take a picture (which no one should do anyway because it isn’t safe!!), meaning all I have is a mental picture, which, for what it's worth, is beautiful.

On the way back, we drop by the boating place to confirm they have boats because being on the water remains the end goal. Except I don’t see any pedal boats.

Me: “Where are the pedal boats?”

Savyon: “There aren’t any. We’re going Pedal Boating”

Me: “yes. Pedal boating”

Savyon: “No. Paddle Boarding.”

Me: “Fuck.”

I didn’t bring a change of clothes, I have a full backpack with two cameras, I’m wearing pants. Why do they have such similar names! Savyon really wants to go, and she’s willing to go all the way home, drop our stuff off, grab our bathing suits, and come back. I accept. So after returning our bikes, while she goes home, I walk forty minutes to the Paddle Boarding place.

It’s a nice walk. Beautiful area. Lively. A little congested. This feels like the perfect opportunity to call a friend given I feel as though I haven’t spoken to anyone in a few weeks. I take out my airpods, go to put them in my ear, and somehow my right pod is dead. Left one? 100% charged. Right one? More dead than my brother’s cell phone that he dropped 8 stories down an elevator shaft. How is it possible that the left one is charged and the right one is dead when they’ve both been in the same airpod case? How is it possible this is the second set of airpods this has happened to? How does one drop a phone down an elevator shaft? @Apple, this is a call out to you. I’m not the only one!

Anyway, that wasn’t the most relevant part of the story. On the walk, I talk to my friend about our trip in August. It feels super far away - we haven’t even booked next week yet. During a day built on going with the flow, the idea of knowing what I’m going to want to do in four months seems like a foreign concept and antithetical to how I’m trying to travel at this exact second.

Fast forward, Savyon and I both arrive separately and leisurely to the board place, ready for our two-hour free experience. Though apparently we forgot to ask when the place closes because we only have forty-five minutes on the water. Also, Savyon and I are both wrong. These are neither Paddle Boards nor Pedal Boats. These are straight up surfboards they're telling us to stand on. What’s the difference, you might ask? Well, there are a few. The two most important distinctions are that a surfboard is harder to stand on… and a surfboard hurts far more when you fall on it. As I learn. 

After a few painful attempts at standing, Savyon and I decide to just use them as Rose did in the Titanic - a means of staying afloat. As we learned from the James Cameron supported myth busters episode, Jack would not have been able to stay on the board without sinking Rose, so we stay on our separate boards. Although we also both have life jackets, so I guess do we even need the boards?

With only a few minutes remaining, we decide to swim a little since what else is there to do. Except, as I slide into the water, as if in slow motion, I feel my sunglasses slip off my head. I see them hit the water. I reach for them. My hand just misses, lightly grazing them as they slowly sink into the depths of the lake like the necklace at the end of the Titanic. I shouldn’t have brought them out in the water, but I wasn’t really planning on swimming since I was supposed to be able to stand the whole time. Sad. But overall still happy.

We finish the evening with one of the best veggie burgers I’ve ever had, a dope brownie (not a weed brownie, just a really yummy one), and a gorgeous sunset. Actually, lies. As we walk out, we watch our bus drive by - without us. We actually finish the evening with a two-mile walk home through the city. It’s a pleasant walk, and who knows, sometimes the greatest things come when your plans don’t work out.