Diary Day 1 - Arrival to Geneva

My first ever arrival into Geneva

The first day into a new city is always quite disorientating. Of course you read things to do up on the internet and you plan where to eat and you ask your friends who have already been there what places to recommend, but things are slightly different when you actually arrive. You are completely overwhelmed by the newness and the diversity of a place and everything you read about it slightly fades. The excitement overpowers organization so you begin to wonder aimlessly in order to explore this amazing new city. I remember having taken the flight very early in the morning so I was completely dopey all day. My mother and I arrived at Geneva airport at 10AM and we were so eager to just get to the hotel and lay down the luggage. I had previously read up about getting a free 60 minute ticket from the airport but as I stated I was so dopey we just bought our 3 CHF ticket and hopped on bus 10 in Bel-Air direction. The trip was around 20 minutes long. You also have the possibility to take the train into the city centre train station (Gare Cornavin) and this takes 8-10 minutes.

Our Hotel, Tiffany Hotel, was based in Rue de l'Arquebuse, just off Bel-Air, therefore it was super central and easy to find. We checked into our hotel, leave our bags in our rooms and go and have breakfast in the café "Les Filles Indignes". First shock was the prices of coffee. Being half Italian and a complete coffee lover, being used to 1 euro coffees in Rome, I was completely heartbroken to see that coffees in Geneva cost around 5 CHF. In fact, my coffee intake has decreased significantly and I am going slightly crazy.

Our next destination was walking around and enjoying this new, beautiful city. We walked around Bel-Air, saw some banks and walked up to the Vieille-Ville of Geneva. This is one of the most beautiful parts of the city and I will write a separate blog page about it.

After walking around the old city and admiring the beauty of the medieval looking buildings we started to look for a place to have lunch. Being in a new city it was difficult to know where to go, where was worth spending and where was just expensive for its location. We found ourselves on Rue de Marché, the main shopping street of Geneva and just next to UBS we saw a little café which seemed to have a lot of choice for food. So we entered and had a look at the healthy looking options. We ended up choosing a quiche and a salad, quite light but tasty.

After lunch, we walked down this street until Eaux-Vives where we admired the Horloge Fleurie, walked though the Jardin Anglaise and reached the mesmerizing Jet d'Eau. We consequently took the bus across the Mont Blanc bridge to the Gare Cornavin so I could sort out my travel pass. For a monthly student pass you pay 45 CHF per month. Following this, my mother was intrigued to see where I would spend half of my life so we headed over to Carouge, the Italian quarter and see my accommodation. We took the tram 18 from Bel-Air to Carouge Rondeau. Carouge is a sweet little area of Geneva with very mountainous architecture, houses with coloured shutters, cafés and small boutiques. Yet again stay tuned on my page as i will upload a blog on this amazing little quarter.

It got to about 5PM and after having an early start to the day my mother and I decided to go back to the hotel and relax a little before dinner. However this didn't last long, because we were starving so we headed out again to Place de la Synagogue and found a cute tapas place called Katrépices Sàrl. We enjoyed a light dinner and a glass of wine before heading back for an early night.

What I would do differently:

A first day in a new city is always perplexing. So instead of going in head first i would advise to write down a little to do list of the most important things you should do when moving into somewhere new, and have a little guide. Once you have done all the most important things then you can start exploring without a concrete plan. Secondly, when it gets to food I would suggest doing proper research and really knowing where to go and where to not go, because on my first day here lunch was very average and we paid a high price for a tiny slice of quiche, and the same happened for dinner. Therefore I would advise to read reviews and not rush into eating unless you have some background knowledge first.

Photo Diary:

Photo 1: Breakfast at "Les Filles Indigines".

Photo 2: Horloge Fleurie at Eaux-Vives.

Photo 3 & 4: Pretty architecture in Geneva.

Photo 5: Me enjoying the sun in Bel-Air

Photo 6: View of the Jet d’Eau.

Photo gallery