Home of the 14-dollar Big Mac meal

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Geneva is really expensive! In economics, you learn about the Big Mac price comparison. When applied here, it is obvious how pricey things are. And they aren’t on the Euro, which makes things complicated as well. Nevertheless, Geneva is a beautiful city that is mostly comprised of business people and international organizations. It was obvious that Geneva was not going to be a great place for students desiring a fun nightlife when we learned that all the stores close at 7 (it feels as if someone hits a switch and the streets are just abandoned at this time) and the place feels like a ghost town after 10. We got there very late and struggled to find a place open to eat at, as we were really hungry. We ended up finding a Spanish place ironically enough that had a really cheap meal for 15 francs. (other people paid 20 francs just for a salad!).
Perhaps the best thing about Geneva was our hotel. The hotel itself was not that spectacular, but myself and my two roommates lucked out as the recipients of an apartment for our room. This place had three bedrooms (meaning we eat got our own room), two bathrooms, a living room, a full kitchen, and terrace balconies. To top it all off, our breakfast at this hotel was room service delivered at 7:30. Needless to say, we were quite excited at our luck and enjoyed feeling like penthouse kings.

Our company visit here was to Nestle, the worlds largest food company (bet you didn’t know that they own Jenny Craig and Purina…. Talk about diversification!). We went to the Callier Chocolate factory about an hour up Lake Geneva. On our way to this visit, the GPS that our bus driver Benito was using took us down a really small and windy road that was not at all suitable for buses. And of course, we got stuck on a very tight turn on this one lane road. But this didn’t faze Benito one bit… he went outside, lit a cigarette, assessed the situation, tactfully handled an argument a very angry French driver that was mad we were blocking her way, and got back in the drivers seat and backed up the bus for about a quarter of a mile through the very tight and windy road to a place where he made a 22 point turn (we counted) with the help of a nice, less angry French man. Benito really solidified his status as the world’s best bus driver and we gave he a big round of applause.

Once at the factory set in the beautiful Swiss Alps, we took a tour that was like walking through the set of a Disneyland ride with colorful animated rooms and swinging doors that led to more rooms telling the history of the chocolate and how it is made. A chocolate sampling followed this. I recklessly sampled all but two of the different kinds of chocolates and was not feeling that swell going into lunch. The bus ride back to Geneva had most everybody asleep trying to digest the large amounts of chocolate and food. In the city, we took advantage of the free boat ride pass we were given to ride the boats across the lake that divides the city into two. We took three short rides just for fun, as the day was beautiful to be on the water.

As cheap college students, we were not too excited about spending massive amounts of money on food for dinner, so we decided to take advantage of our kitchen and went to buy pasta, bread, and wine at a grocery store one block from our hotel. We then invited whoever wanted to the apartment, where we would cook for them if they just gave us 5 Euros to cover the cost of the food. We had 10 people all together come join and had a really nice meal (and we even made a slight profit on it). It was a fun way to enjoy the apartment and celebrate half way through the trip.

INTERESTING FACT: Geneva is ranked as having the 3rd high quality of life in the world and is the 4th most expensive city.

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Photos

The "Penthouse"
A View from the living room into the kitchen. Down the hall are two bedrooms and a bathroom. Around the corner to left is another bedroom and bathroom. Also not seen is the flat screen t.v.

Pasta Dinner
Some of the guest in the penthouse for cheap pasta dinner

Comments

[Lisa]

fun blog!
Todd, Thanks for sharing this with us. I am going to enjoy following your adventures!