Was the trip worth it?

The inevitable question - was my trip to Geneva and CERN "worth it?"
For me, oh yeah, the trip was worth the time and money and hassle and sore muscles and whatever else the cost may end up being to my personal life.  I have no doubt at all that this trip was, indeed, "worth it."

I have never, ever taken a trip like this before.  In essence I went to a foreign place and I wondered around.  I had only the barest of plans or schedules - one half of one day scheduled at CERN.  I also pretty much expected one day of jet-lag recovery, so you could say that day was planned as well.  Other than that, though, I had no firm plans at all. 

I made mistakes - a ton of mistakes.  For example a couple days I ate expensive breakfast at my hotel.  Even then, even though it was a buffet, the food was amazing.  I think everything was very fresh, because the scrambled eggs tasted like no eggs I had ever had before.  The same with the cheese.  I'll admit the chocolate was nice, too, but truth be told chocolate is not my 'thing,' which is probably good because I could have gained a lot of weight if chocolate was my thing.

My hotel tax covered free city transportation, meaning buses, trains, trolleys, and even water taxis, and I also got a free shuttle ride to and from the airport whenever I wanted it.  For most trips the airport was my first stop, because the airport had a rail link to the main train station, and the main train station linked to, well, everywhere.  BUT you had to know what you were doing, and I cannot tell you how many times I got on the wrong train or the wrong bus.  But so what?  When I figured out I was going the wrong direction I got off at the next stop,  crossed the street or tracks (looking both ways first),  and I got on the bus or train going back in  the other direction. 

The one time that I did have an absolute 'appointment,' for my tour of CERN, I did not go to the airport first, because that was backtracking.  Instead I set off on foot to catch bus number 56 that the desk clerk said would stop "right over there" and which would go directly to CERN but you know what?  I could not find the bus stop!  That was the only time I met someone who was vaguely rude.  On the road I stopped at a small garage and asked the guy sweeping the steps for the way to the bus stop, and he pointed me to the mechanic, who said, in French, more or less, "buzz off I only speak French!"  Frankly I had expected more of that around the city, but that was the *only* time it happened.  So I went back on the small road and walked farther and saw a small sign that said "bus stop" with an arrow.  I waited a few minutes at the stop, in the middle of nowhere, and realized the sign did not mean that _this_ was the bus stop, the sign was showing the directions to _a_ bus stop!  Bwahahahaha.  I walked that direction and followed a couple more of those signs when I saw a real bus stop with a bunch of twenty-somethings waiting there.  It looked like the areas had modest apartment complexes, and I figured they were probably heading to work.  I was pretty sure I wanted the number 56 bus, which terminated right at CERN, and wouldn't you know it but the number 56 bus showed up, so I got on it. 

We took a windy path and the hour that I had budgeted for my fifteen minute trip to CERN was ticking away, and we stopped at various stops, and when the bus route ended I got off and looked around and - no CERN.  I walked around a bit and, still, no CERN anywhere!  Looking back on it, I suspect that the same bus route may run both directions and I had gotten on the bus headed in the wrong direction!  That is what I think happened, but at the time I looked at my map and it seemed I was way off course.  I caught a bus going the other direction going to an area that I could see on my map, figuring I needed to get back to a known location.  Oh, did I mention that CERN itself was off the edge of my map?  Yes, it was just a tiny bit off the edge of the map, but I had been assured that it was absolutely "in that direction."

By the time I got on the right number 56 bus that actually said CERN on the front (I was learning where to look) it was already time for my tour to start, and the confirmation email from CERN had reminded me that if I was late for my tour time I might miss the tour entirely.  But what could I do?  I got to CERN fifteen minutes late and as it turned everything was okay.  Earlier, a large tour group of students had been late for *their* tour, so the whole schedule was pushed back, and I was fine!!  Whew.

I did try to get a geographical sense of where the buses and trains were taking me, a mental map of the area, but the roads were not laid out in grids, and the terrain was hilly and frequently the road was lower than the countryside, so I could not actually see where I was going much of the time.

Here is one tip I offer to my dear readers for orienting around Geneva - if you have no compass and it is overcast so you cannot see the sun, or even the mountains for that matter, you can still always find South, or close to it.  Do you want to know how?  Look for the small satellite dishes!!  Bless their hearts, those little babies are on many of the buildings and they all point their happy little faces in the same direction, day and night, rain or shine.  Follow the dishes, my readers, follow the dishes.

Back to my trip - besides my CERN tour I spent most of my time wondering around Geneva, and looked, and sketched (WTF?!), and rested, and most of my time I had the oddest feeling.  I do not have the words to describe it, but I think the word "poignancy" may come the closest to it.  I felt that I greatly liked this place, and I felt that they clearly were doing many things right.  Perhaps it is because Switzerland is so old, and, I dunno, mature compared to the US.  Perhaps they have had more time to get things right.  Perhaps Europe is more like a beautiful park and the US is more like a shopping mall.  In addition I felt sad, too,  because I knew after leaving I would greatly miss the place, and I have been so disappointed with so much of America lately.  So many of our problems have solutions and yet we are prevented from seeing and implementing them.  I think we get a HUGE amount of disinformation and we don't even know it, and that makes me sad, too.

And the people around Geneva - the way they behaved.  It is so hard to describe.  Calm, perhaps.  Civilized.  Enjoying life.

I suspect all the walking, up and down hills, helps them be a little more fit than we are just as a matter of course, and they dress smartly because of it.  No bright colors, a lot of grey and black, but I must admit that women my age look damn sharp in a black sweater and grey skirt and black leggings, and black boots too!  I didn't expect to see that.  And people seem to accept their sexuality.  It was like it was okay for men to be men and for women to be women.  And I hope you know I am a feminist from way back, but this was . . . different!  And boy does it kill my macho image to say this, but some of the places were just so . . . I dunno, sweet.  One walking bridge that I used had nice benches on it, and the view was great, and I swear I saw three couples, over the age of 35, kissing gently, right in broad daylight.  I couldn't believe it, and yet - why not?  Why not?

So I was sad, and I got tired, and I got sore muscles, but by the end of the day I slept VERY well, either because of the walking or the fresh air or the mental challenge of seeing novelty and having to figure things out.  I slept well indeed.

And so while this trip was not FUN, as in amusement park fun, and the trip was actually very poignant, I think it was also very rich, for lack of a better word.  I saw few museums, I mostly saw mundane things, and yet they were not mundane to me.

Because of all of that I think this trip was very much worth "it."  Frankly I'm a little surpised more people don't do this kind of thing.  Maybe I just haven't noticed, I dunno.

If anyone has their own travel stories to tell I sure would like to hear them.