Bryn, Alps, Chamonix, Geneva

After a workgroup meeting Friday afternoon, I headed to the airport to catch a flight to Switzerland to meet up with my friend Bryn. I know Bryn from Santa Clara, and she works for a company which frequently sends her to Geneva on business. Bryn gets to tell people she builds satellites for work, what a badass answer to "what do you do?"

I landed in Geneva and bussed over to Chamonix, France where Bryn and her friend Cardiff were waiting for me at the hotel. My bus was 2 hours late. The driver met us at the airport, put our random group of travelers in the bus them left for 30 minutes with the car running. One guy in the van was losing it and asked where the driver went, we all had the same information, nobody knew. Another guy said we could sell the van and all take cabs. Our agitated group member didn’t appreciate that, he got out and left. Another passenger was pulling clothes out of his suitcase and putting on more layers. He was from Australia and said he’d never been this cold in his life. When he was done, he was wearing a couple long-sleeved shirts, a couple t-shirts a zip up jacket and a leather jacket with a Burberry scarf. The scarf was my favorite. He thought Burberry was the solution to minus 21 C.

I made it thankfully around 2 am. This driver was a little bit scary on the icy roads, we didn’t skid or anything but if I had stayed awake I would have been nervous and aware of how cold I was, there was ice on the windows…the inside of the windows. We dropped off 6 people before me and thank God we got to my hotel when we did, the agitated passenger had only grown more disgruntled. The bus driver didn’t know where my hotel was and this man yelled for the driver to give him the address so he could plug it into his phone GPS. The driver didn’t respond, but got out of the car to ask someone. Angryman looked up the address and told me it was a couple blocks around the corner. He was suggesting I walk. I wasn’t getting out of the van until the driver said “Erin you’re here.” I do think that this bus company needs to invest in GPS's for their vehicles but to my fellow angry compatriot, get real, if in fact it wasn't right around the corner (which it wasn't!)I would have been walking the streets trying to find an open establishment or an unsecured WIFI connection to email Bryn in the off chance she was awake to find me. Thankfully, the driver opened the door and said this was the place.

There was another guy there who helped me down. I thought it was someone from the hotel, the concierge perhaps, what service! A concierge with an American accent? It was Cardiff!! He'd waited in the lobby from me. What a gentleman!! He walked me to our room and there was Bryn! She was in bed hacking up a lung practically! She’d been in the ER the night before because she’d gotten so sick. Booooo. We went to bed, ready to take on a day of skiing.

Lift tickets, rentals, gondola ride up, then other gondola ride up and we were off.

From 110121-110122

Oh my gosh, I’m in the French Alps.

The views made up for the crap day of snowboarding I had. I’ve gone snowboarding just about once every 3.5 seasons or something stupid. I'm a chicken when it comes to skiing/snowboarding. My MO is to have terrible first few goes then I gradually get more comfortable with turning and by the end (of the day) I’m usually having a lot of fun out there. We went to the very top of the mountain, gorgeous. But I was literally sliding down the mountain. In most cases, when I’d fall, it was steep and there was no friction to stop me. I tried to dig the board in the snow, use my hands, and turn to stop. After one slide, Bryn skied over and said “that’s one way to do it” she was right, I was at least making progress down? I told her I should really ask someone how to stop yourself when that happens, because some of the runs were cliffs. I easily could have spent equal time going down this run on the snowboard, my stomach or my back. It was about half way down when Bryn or Cardiff said we shouldn’t have started with a "black diamond." Knowing it was a black diamond made me feel better. I told Cardiff the next time I fall, Bryn would probably have enough time to pull her camera out and take a video of me sliding. That could be funny.

I needed to start on a bunny slope. I separated from the group and hit the easier slopes. Not easier. They were icy and I was still falling every time I was attempting to get my turns back. I had a pound of snow up my jacket and in my pockets, down my pants. It was minus 21 on the top of the mountain. When Cardiff said his knees hurt too I said we could compare bruises, he clarified, “Oh I didn’t fall,” his knees hurt from other injuries. Thank you for that Cardiff. During my last run, falling in the powder, when there was powder, was a welcomed relief, like icing my knees. We wrapped it up and headed home, ready for the sauna, pool, a bottle of wine and dinner.

Suana, amazing.
Pool, amazing.
Wine, amazing.

We walk into downtown Chamonix for dinner at Le Monchu. We enjoyed, escargot, frog legs, “French” onion soup and fondue!! We headed to another bar for drinks. We were wiped and after drinks, we walked back through the town on the path by the lake which offered nice scenery alongside an icy path.

From 110121-110122

Erin, Cardiff and Bryn

We woke up the next morning at 5:30 am, finished packed and went out for the bus. Good morning, it was my same driver, “awesome.” We departed at the airport after Bryn gave me the what and where for Geneva. My flight was about two hours after theirs so I figured I’d train into the city and walk around.

Bryn and Cardiff were off and I headed to the train station.

Geneva was quiet and peaceful. It was cool to walk around without the distraction of others on the streets, it felt like the city was mine a little bit. I walked across the river and through the streets. Bryn had said there was a church that was on the mountain. You could see if from the river. I found the cathedral and went it. I feel like you could map out my time abroad through the churches that I visit.

I saw a few historic buildings from the outside and read the history of several martyrs from the city. It was a beautiful place but on a Sunday at 10 in the morning, nothing was really open. I had what was probably the most expensive coffee I’ve ordered to date. I changed 10 euro bill into 8.20 franks (commission was 4 franks, complete crap, but I had to eat something) all I could afford was coffee, at 8 franks…so I just paid 10 euro for a coffee in Geneva. No bueno. Back to the airport and headed to Madrid. It's so nice to see and spend time with familiar faces, and it's so hard to leave them.