Oh Geneva... E.U. and yet not, lovely and yet unaffordable, Switzerland and yet French... Whatever will we do with you?
Well, the answer for any traveler on any sort of a budget is RUN. Run away and don't look back, this place will rob your wallet, mortgage your home, and slap you in the ass with a wet towel on the way out. Geneva is dangerous.
The Swiss Franc is the currency, as the Swiss prefer it to the weaker Euro, so you lose money by exchanging between currencies right off the bat. Then, restrooms cost 2 SwFr (about 1.4 euros for those keeping score, twice what Greece or Italy could get away with), internet use is 2 SwFr for 20 minutes (again, more than Switzerland's neighbors), and our lunch of cheese, a small baguette, some salami, and cheap wine cost the equivalent of 20 Euros, when the same items cost less than 8 euros in France and Italy. Mailing a small package took almost all of the money we had after converting 20 euros, the rest was drained by *gasp* a whopping 30 minutes of internet use.
But yes, Geneva is pretty. We took our mini-picnic (the one that cost more than most of our sit-down meals) down to the water and sat on a bench in the park there, in the sun, until we became too cold and had to run back to the train station, Italian-weather-spoiled tails between our legs.
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