Just look at this deliciousness!

This past week was pretty hectic for me. It was another great week in Montpellier. Last Tuesday I discovered a Mexican taquería right in the Place de la Comédie (center part of town). I have been exploring quite a lot, going on walks here and there. I have come to find out that walking is a big part of everyone’s daily life over here. Montpellier is, after all, the biggest pedestrian-friendly city in Europe. Last Thursday I got to go to a really interesting Australian bar, which was really cool since we got to meet a lot of diverse people.

On Friday of last week, I decided to go on a small weekend get-a-way to Geneva, Switzerland. I thought I would have a lot of fun, but little did I know that Geneva is one of the most expensive places to visit in Europe. I ended up leaving Friday morning with two other friends from the program. My host mom, Christiane, had mentioned that there is a website where anyone can go and ride along with different people, very similar to über, but this is for longer trips. So I took Christiane’s word and went to Geneva on a Blablacar (it’s like hitch-hiking, but much more advanced) for just under four hours. We had orginially booked an Airbnb place to stay at, but when we texted our host, he cancelled on us last minute and we had to find a different place to stay. As soon as we found we were absolutely stressed, and even more so because we had no service on our phones. We got dropped off right in the center of Geneva and ended up finding a cheap hotel right by downtown. We soon found out that everything is way overpriced in Geneva, and that the Swiss Franc is even more expensive than the Euro.

On Saturday we woke up early to find our way to a cable car that takes people up to Mont Blanc. The cable car was actually the cheapest out of everything we had to pay for during our trip (11 Swiss Francs). The view from the top was stunning. It was actually really snowy at the top, but we got to see people paragliding, which was quite interesting.

My favorite part was the abundance of chocolate shops. Chocolate is everywhere! I cannot stress how often I passed by a chocolate shop. Like I mentioned before, Switzerland is pretty expensive, and of course so is the chocolate. I spent about 30 Swiss Francs on chocolate in one sitting, not to mention I don’t really like chocolate. So, for those who are real chocoholics, I’m sure you would spend way more.

Saturday night we went to a pub named Lady Godiva and got the chance to meet one of the finalist from the Voice UK, Stephen Cornwell. We also met a fashion designer!

We made some friends at this pub that ended up taking us to an exclusive club that’s actually an art museum during the day. It just so happens that this was a special night, and that a club night is held about every three months (we were lucky!).

Overall if you don’t mind spending lots and lots of money for a good time, I’d recommend Geneva. The view is great here, with the mountains in the background, and I’d definitely recommend the cable car ride to the top of Mont Blanc.

So I came back home (How weird is it that I call Montpellier home?) on Sunday night completely exhausted. On Monday morning I found out that a stash of money I had was stolen, or lost. I have looked everywhere for it, but I have pretty much lost hope so far. I will keep everyone psoted on my situation, but other than that à tout à l’heure! (see you soon)

Location: Genève, Suisse