Geneva (Shopping, Red Cross & UN) & Snow

The cell phone from my Australian roommate ringed this morning at 5.00, unfortunate she didn’t awake. So the phone ringed an other two times, till the Mexican girl decided to wake her up. Two hours later I woke up again and get my first bath here. I was a little bit nervous because today we’re travelling to Geneva to the United Nations. They told us to wear something which shows that we’re scouts, so I got my blouse on. Then when having breakfast we need to prepare our lunch. And at 8.00 sharp we must get our bus. We need to walk down the mountain because the bus wasn’t able to drive up the mountain. Because it had snowed a lot that night everything was very glad.

In the bus it was a three hour drive to Geneva. The video recorder didn’t work so we couldn’t watch television. A few girls felt a sleep because the had a very short sleep, because they came back very early this morning. We travelled through Frutigen, Thun and Bern. There were a lot of tunnels and differences, so was on one side of a tunnel it very snowy and on the other side there wasn’t any. I also played for tolk when a girl wanted to know what kind of city Ausfahrt was…When we’re about twenty minutes away from Geneva and we could already see the Lake Geneva we had a little stop to go to the toilet (we couldn’t use the bus toilet, because the water was frozen). And then finally we arrived at Geneva. The bus driver drove us to the other side of the lake. I took a picture of the large fountain in the middle of the lake, and when we arrived the fountain was set off.

Then we could choose between a tourist trip through Geneva or free time. With the Canadian and Norway girl we decided to have shopping time. We visited all kinds of chocolate stores, but they were very expensive. We also went to a toy store and a jewellery shop. When we walked back to the bus we find a shop with all kind of swiss tourist gifts. A part of them are also sold in the Our Chalet shop, but they had a lot of swiss army knifes. But after all I had presents for everybody.

The bus brought us to the United Nations Headquarter were we first went to the International Red Cross Museum. There we could have a non-guided tour of guided tour, who we need to pay for. It was amazing how the red cross had developed their organisation through time and what they had accompanied. Also some displays made you thanking for not living in a war. It made you very small. I also lost my national scarf, but a little while later I found it in the sleeve of my cote.

After the red cross we went to the UN. We had a guided tour through the office. We started in the old building by a display explaining what the UN is, and what kind of things they do. Then we went to one of the large conference rooms, were we could ask questions. She also told about what kind of conference they organise and what they do about mutual aid. Then we walked through the bridge with displays of all Nobel Price winners to the new part of the building. We also went to the largest room, which is mostly seen on television debates. After finishing the tour we went to the UN-shop, where the sold UN badges and pins.

Then we walked back to the bus. In the bus Sol told us that she had made a reservation to have dinner in Adelboden. So we drove three hours back. And close to Adelboden it was very snowy, in Adelboden there seemed to be 14 cm of snow. In the Italian restaurant we had salad (with to much vinegar) tagliatelli (with mushrooms or fish) with sparkling water and dessert. After diner we had a little snowball fight while waiting for the car, because of the snow we may not walk back. Then we went to bed.