genève

When I first arrived, I couldn’t help but compare Geneva with the (few) other European cities that I’ve visited. It doesn’t bustle quite as much as London does. Not as quaint as Cambridge, nor as charming as Bath. Not old enough for Edinburgh. Less scarred than Berlin. Contains too few bicycles and boats to be on par with Amsterdam.

The roads and buildings are fairly modern, with an old church or edifice popping out here and there. It’s slower and quieter. Officially French, but almost everybody understands English. The taxi driver who picked me up from the airport boasted of his fluency in five languages—including Arabic. (This, however, is not the norm for taxi drivers.)

And the people! A small fraction of the population permanently resides in Geneva. The rest are transients: diplomats, tourists, businesspeople, etc. It’s no wonder Switzerland is renown for its hotel industry. It should also come as no surprise that Switzerland is the most expensive country in Europe. (They can easily hike up prices when other governments pick up the bill for their traveling diplomats.)

As it turns out, I have yet to try “traditional” Swiss food. In fact, I’ve seen just about every other type of cuisine except for Swiss food. I’m not even sure what “traditional” stuff is. Meanwhile, I’ve gone Middle Eastern, Italian, Mexican (unwise), French…. The closest I’ve come to eating Swiss is the grocery-bought stash of yogurt and cheese in my fridge. (It’s actually quite good.) I’m saving up the big bucks for a fondue dinner one of these nights. It'll probably set me back 60 dollars at least. But it must be done.

(Aside: I considered inserting a very clever pun about the city being a "melting pot," but I decided to spare you the eye rolling and just tell you about it instead. And besides, the last I heard, it's called a "tossed salad" nowadays.)