Geneva

Geneva was quite a hassle for me and Krystin, the exchange rate was not kind, and neither was the weather –leaving us with little to do and not much desire to explore.
Our first adventure lead to the waterfront to check out the enormous fountain in the lake that shoots water something like 50-100 feet high. It seems to have no purpose except to say “hey look what we can do!” but might serve some sort of symbolic purpose.
Our walk towards the hostel led us past many stores, the usually assortment of department stores, but prices (I always check prices where ever I go) looked obscene, even the McDonalds we past by was something like 10-12$ after the exchange. Some of the other kids at the hostel did actually buy McDonalds and were quite disappointed with the normal size for such a high price.
The 2nd adventure led us to the middle of the city, where we passed by a clock on a lawn, some churches and cannons… Geneva looks like a small French city, nothing very exciting, actually I think we were rather disappointed with what was saw.
On the way back we passed by a grocery store, which we later relied on for food.
Later (maybe the 2nd day) we went to where the UN building is, and took pictures with the flags, across the street was a protest for peace of some kind, but I couldn’t communicate with the crowd of mostly men (they looked more like laborers in winter coats than what I commonly associate with activists) they had signs in a variety of languages, I think it was a demonstration for a less known situation because I could not recognize the language on the signs…it might have been something like the Kashmir region… ?
We did not go in the UN, I think we weren’t sure how to take a tour, or they weren’t open that day…
So we progressed down the road (I made her walk every where) to the red cross and red crescent museum. Outside the museum did not look very interesting, just a sign or two… but then when you get near the doors they have these statues representing people (prisoners of war?) who are blindfolded and handcuffed. It seemed a fairly inspiring symbolic representation of suffering.
I wasn’t aware necessarily of how or why the red cross was started, so we took a tour of the museum reading all the little information they provided us.
Some sections that were really interesting included, the red cross’s work with letters during war time, the use of the red crescent and the peace agreements that sanctioned the red cross as being an international group respected by all countries despite being a private group. Near the end they had a number of videos displaying current prisoner of war situations, and I watched a number of the interviews which was really hard. In the museum they highlight a number of things, international law regarding humane treatment, the history of the NGO, battlefield medicine, and many other things. I was surprised how little they covered the other accomplishments and pursuits of the group.
They also had a video (I think at the museum) about refugees and people in poverty living in Switzerland, they seemed to present it as if these people were often struggling in other European countries and moved to Switzerland where they found a better life. It is hard to imagine someone in poverty moving to Switzerland considering the prices. If one were to mention a prominent bias in the museum it would be the fact that they paint an image of Switzerland as being a peaceful and wonderful country that is trying to solve all the world’s problems… They do not mention negative things about the country during war time, and praise neutrality.
They had a temporary exhibit on a famous prison in Ireland called the maze or the h blocks, used to torment and demoralize active IRA people (and other criminals or those who were accidentally picked up) it was sort of a strange exhibit because the purpose was to show how confusing and monotonous the prison was.. It gave the prisoners a strange sense of never knowing where they were, because the grounds all looked exactly the same. It was kind of interesting though that the exhibit only displayed pictures and some quotes from prisoners but was basically just photos documenting the existence of the place.


On my own, I walked around certain sections of town. I found another department store that looked very similar to American style, or closer to the El Corte Ingles style in Spain. (later I found similar buildings in many many of the European countries.)

The grocery store was also surprisingly expensive (I guess that’s what you get in a country that is landlocked and rich) I ended up buying pretzels to save money. Even things like milk, water, cheese and bread were expensive. Chocolate (everyone wants Swiss chocolate) was about 2-3 dollars a bar. Swiss knives were something like 18-26$ I think. More than you spend here.

As far as the make up of the city, I saw a lot of different types of people, a lot of different languages. I even though about asking an American businessman to take me out to eat… (decided against it). I guess because the city is so full of international people, diplomats, advisors, NGO representatives, Businesses etc… it makes for a fairly strong mix of people, but it was hard to imagine anyone who did not have a well paying job living in the city.