After my rambling tour of the south of France (I should call it 'There and Back Again,' as I went to Biarritz/Bayonne/Seignosse and promptly came back to Provence), I find myself in Geneva, and I'm in love! Absolutely no night life to speak of, (though my Malaysian-via-London friend and I tried to go out on a Sunday night, granted), but it's gorgeous and soooo international! I went to the UN today and jizzed my pants over the assembly rooms, the art, and the totally cute Uruguayan tour guide/Ph.D student in int'l law (he led the English tour, of all crazy things). I can see myself there, on at least an internship, rocking the international scene and brainsolving the solutions to all the world's problems, or something along those lines. As these things go...
I hiked around a 'hill' (we'll call it that, since the Alps were in the background and 1000-something meters just doesn't quite compare) yesterday with Fwi Mee, the Malaysian woman I met at breakfast. She's amazing! Works 9 months in London and then travels 3 months every year, everywhere, a.k.a. living the dream! The hill was technically in France, so we crossed the border, rode the cable car/funicular thing up the side, and at the top saw parasailers taking off and hiked around. We even saw a 4 and a half year old Heidi!
Last night at the dead Irish pub we went to, we met a Thai girl who married a Swiss man. They both said to go to Thailand, so I think SE Asia is my 'next big thing.' I hope I run into Fwi Mee again someday, somewhere...she was too fun not to!
Today I also went to the Red Cross Museum, which they should seriously warn you about. Shit! Did you know that since it was started in 1850-something, not a year has gone by without at least a couple armed conflicts somewhere in the world that resulted in at least 10,000 deaths?!?!?!? Either wars, civil wars, takeovers, genocides, or my favorite, "internal troubles," as it said in French, and that's not to mention any disease outbreaks or natural disasters...there should have been a sign outside saying: "Expect to cry. This is holocaust museum-level shit here."
In brief...
Biarritz: wandered around this 'Nice-of-the-west' as I've christened it, for 8 hours. Beautiful (but too small and crowded) beaches, nice shopping, &c, &c, &c. Saw a sweet Lipschitz exhibit, (he was a sculptor, friend of Picasso, and if you can find pictures of 'The couple' also known as 'The Cry,' look it up and prepare to be blown away!), the best part of which was that I saved a bunch of money saying I was a student and getting the discounted ticket price. I'm continuing with that theme, as I'm A. young enough to be a student, and B. planning on being a student again, someday, C. poorish at the moment, and D. and most importantly, I am and always will be a 'student of life,' as it were.
Sète: little known on-the-Med French town that was breathtakingly gorgeous and boring. The hostel was full of old people or un-fun youngins, and was miles away from the train station...thanks to a nice French woman on the way there and a Belgian guy on the way back, both with cars, I was spared the worst part of the hill with all of my crap.
Pertuis: small typical French town whose best claim to fame is that my good friends Whitney and Jen live there. It's also cool that it's just a half hour bus ride out of Aix-en-Provence, a shishy wanna-be Paris near Marseille.
Avignon: since I was in the neighborhood, I had to make a stop. In less than 24 hours, I saw some of my best friends in France, Sarah and Steve, and another play (festival's still on, you know; this one was Tim Burton-esque). Perfection.
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