Sabbatical - 8/8 and 8/9: Welcome to Europe
Unsurprisingly, there are no direct flights from Cleveland to Geneva, but there there is one from Washington, D.C. to Geneva, most likely to accommodate diplomatic traffic. As such the first official day of my sabbatical, Saturday, August 8, looked like this:
- Get up unpleasantly early and head to the airport.
- Fly United from Cleveland to Dulles.
- Sit in Dulles for a long time.
- Fly Swiss Air from Dulles to Geneva.
- Arrive early in the morning on Sunday, August 9.
In short, the first day and night of my sabbatical was only exciting if you find air travel to be exciting. Alas, I do not. I will say that Swiss Air is a major step up in quality from domestic carriers (the food was legitimately tasty), but at the end of the day you are still sitting in an airplane for a very long time. I made significant progress on Infinite Jest and slept on and off.
Still, at the end of this time I was on the main European continent for only the second time, following a one hour stop in Hamburg back in 2012. I had managed to get a little sleep so I wasn't too out of it after the red eye. I took the subway from the airport to the train station downtown Geneva. From there it was only a short walk to my hotel, but it was so early in the morning that I couldn't check into my room yet. I walked around the lakefront parks for a few hours until I could check in, then passed out cold from jet lag. I woke up in time for dinner.
The thing about Geneva is that it is crazily expensive due to the many bankers and other high end corporations in the city driving up prices. When I say expensive, think New York or London prices both for the food and the many little shops. However, for all of that it's not a very big place and apparently isn't that much competition, but based on the meals I had there, the food is average at best. That first night I went to a restaurant called "Restaurant Pizza Alfred" which, despite its name, seemed to be more or less Swiss. I had a thoroughly uninspiring meal (the menu said roast beef, which turned out to be deli meat rolled up artistically for about 25 Francs). I was still quite tired so I didn't particularly care, and I went back to the hotel and passed out early.
Thus passed the first two days of my sabbatical. Fortunately, things got a lot more interesting in a hurry.
- Get up unpleasantly early and head to the airport.
- Fly United from Cleveland to Dulles.
- Sit in Dulles for a long time.
- Fly Swiss Air from Dulles to Geneva.
- Arrive early in the morning on Sunday, August 9.
In short, the first day and night of my sabbatical was only exciting if you find air travel to be exciting. Alas, I do not. I will say that Swiss Air is a major step up in quality from domestic carriers (the food was legitimately tasty), but at the end of the day you are still sitting in an airplane for a very long time. I made significant progress on Infinite Jest and slept on and off.
Still, at the end of this time I was on the main European continent for only the second time, following a one hour stop in Hamburg back in 2012. I had managed to get a little sleep so I wasn't too out of it after the red eye. I took the subway from the airport to the train station downtown Geneva. From there it was only a short walk to my hotel, but it was so early in the morning that I couldn't check into my room yet. I walked around the lakefront parks for a few hours until I could check in, then passed out cold from jet lag. I woke up in time for dinner.
The thing about Geneva is that it is crazily expensive due to the many bankers and other high end corporations in the city driving up prices. When I say expensive, think New York or London prices both for the food and the many little shops. However, for all of that it's not a very big place and apparently isn't that much competition, but based on the meals I had there, the food is average at best. That first night I went to a restaurant called "Restaurant Pizza Alfred" which, despite its name, seemed to be more or less Swiss. I had a thoroughly uninspiring meal (the menu said roast beef, which turned out to be deli meat rolled up artistically for about 25 Francs). I was still quite tired so I didn't particularly care, and I went back to the hotel and passed out early.
Thus passed the first two days of my sabbatical. Fortunately, things got a lot more interesting in a hurry.