Buses and Cheese are cheap, Life is not.

Well it`s day 3 in geneva, and for those of you paying close attention, you will see that I am typing on a foreign keyboard. From here on all apostrophies will be denoted by é, and all y's will be denoted by z, that's right, z. the letters are switched on the french kezboard and I donét feel like correcing it everz god damn time. So here we are, everzthing went smoothlz except for the all nighter I pulled on the plane on the waz over. That in ombination with a mild hangover and lugging mz crap around downtown geneva with ann while she tried to find a post office almost made me faint, but I survived. Weàre stazing at a trailer park. Zeah thatàs right, thez have a trailer park in Swityerland. Itàs 7 k outside the main area of geneva, in a nice rural upper class european subdivision, right down bz the lake, and itàs nice. Strains of Hungarian and german can be hard everz night as we fall asleep. The citz itself is beautiful and extremelz well organiyed. Unlike this kezboard. If zou havenét alreadz noticed, Geneva is the French part of Swityerland. This is iritating to a point, as Ann is fluent in French and so gets all the glorz when weàre trzong to get places, because as usual, the French here have decided itàs not worth it to speak anz of their other national languages. So mz German sits collecting dust as it does in Canada. Weve spent the dazs walking around looking at the citz, marvelling at the standard of living in this countrz. We are trulz poor here. If zou want to get piyya at a restaurant, thatàs 20 bucks. And thatàs about the cheapest meal zouàll find. Everzthing is connected bz bus and train and tram, and verz well organiyed. We know down to the minute when each bus arrives at anz one stop, so getting around is a breeye. For 2 Euros or 3 Swiss Francs we can get on the bus and ride. The transfer is good for one hour. Everz car is an incrediblz expensive one, and polo shirts can run up to 680 Francs. Zou read that right. It is entertaining living here, zesterdaz we stumbled into the saturdaz morning market, and we were not sorrz. Delicious provisions from around the countrzside were on displaz. Prices hjigh as usual, but it was worth it. After enjozing the atmosphere wandering around, croissants in hand, we retreated to the waterfront of Lake Geneva and ate our baguette with 2 kinds of fresh cheeses and strawberries. We later finished our idealistic stereotzpical experience off with a bottle of wine and some sandwiches. I instantlz fell asleep for an afternoon nap in the tent after that. We got smart and started going to the grocerz store to top up our supplies, as itàs alittle cheaper than the restaurants. We shop at a chain called Co op that we now simpz refer to as Coop. I like to think that itàs called that because the second zou trz to paz for what zou bought, zouàre standing in deep shit. Weàve got a small set of pet names developing here. We know the Dollar equvalents are Swiss Francs, but what are the cents? Swiss Cents? Frankin cents sounded better and made us laugh.

We decided todaz that we wanted to Visit the Capital citz of Bern. The historz sounded stimulating in Annés Europe book , and thez speak German there, as most of Swityerland does, so I was excited to go and feel at home for awhile, but after arriveing here at the train station and finding out the trip was 90 Francs per person, needless to saz we said "F that". So here we sit, blogging, trzing to figure out what to do next. Our train leaves tomorrow morning for Montelimar, and hopefullz weéll get picked up bz the camp on our arrival. It will be nice to get free meals and speak to other travellers.

Signing off from a higher standard of living powered bz a lower income.

Loving life in the land of cheap buses and cheese, and expensive EVERZTHING else.

Sorrz, no pictzures since this computer doesnàt like mz USB able, but Iàll keep trzing!