Phase 3 of our trip began with about the most luxury we’ve had the entire trip: a 7-hour flight on Emirates Airlines to Geneva. Comfortable seating! Lunch! Cheese! Wine! Hundreds of movies! I’d always heard that Emirates is one of the nicest airlines in the world, but it really lives up to it.

Three movies later—including finally catching Avengers: Infinity War (my take? A good Guardians of the Galaxy movie mixed with a less good Iron Man movie mixed with small sips of Wakanda to make me really miss the Black Panther movie, all in a loud, but entertaining, and confusing package). Hm, I got lost there, where was I? Right! After three movies we landed in Geneva, and it was time for Phase 3, our European adventure, to begin!

Well… not yet. It was late, and it’d been a crazy 36 hours since we left Zanzibar–we were exhausted! Our European adventure would begin after a very good night’s sleep.

European Summer

Originally, Europe wasn’t going to be Phase 3. Our idea to start with was to save Europe for last, so we could go in and just spend whatever remaining money we had down to zero. Phase 3 was going to be Asia. However, with the way our schedule was working out, that was going to mean being in Europe in winter.

Europe in winter can be magical, with the Christmas markets and all. However it can also be… how do you say… colder than shit. And that really wouldn’t work well for some things we wanted to do, like hike in the Alps. Or visit Sweden.

It would have just been a different experience. So we girded ourselves for absorbing those higher costs now, planned for a fast moving, busy couple months, and changed Europe to Phase 3.

A Rare Creature

The next morning, we took our hotel’s shuttle to the airport, so we could catch a train at the station there. On our shuttle with us was one other passenger. I didn’t look closely at first, so I didn’t notice, but then I was stunned when I realized what it was. More unlikely than a Yeti, than Nessie, more unlikely even than the Jersey Devil.

It was a Trump supporter.

He was an older, French-Israeli man. “He’s doing good things for Israel,” he offered–evidently a one-issue… uh, casual observer?–as way of explanation to our shocked faces. To which… okay I’m not even sure that’s true in any real way. But alright, you take him! Oh right, you have an awful leader of your own already.

Over twelve months of travel in, and this is still the only person we’ve ever talked to in any country on earth who likes anything about him. Normally, we get responses more like:

• “Boo Trump!” Simple, but effective
• *Thumbs down*
• “How did that happen?” asked with a look of surprise
• “I liked Obama.”
• “Oh. Trump.” said with a sheepish smile displaying the embarrassment they felt for us
• “Bernie 2020!” said an Argentinian man we met briefly in Vietnam
• “We once had a leader named Silvio Berlusconi…”

You get the picture. It’s pretty universal. We wear our embarrassment gamely, but it’s embarrassment none the less.

Anyway, Sasquatch here loved to hear himself talk, so talk he did. He asked if we read French, and I said I read it fairly well, so he gave us a flyer for some mayoral candidate somewhere he’s affiliated with. Then he suggested I practice my French with him. Alright, sure thing.

“Ça va?” he started.

“Ça va bien, et vous?” I replied.

Then he went off onto his own thing, telling us how much he likes talking to people to practice his English. He definitely likes to talk. We never went back to speaking French.

Fortunately, we were at the airport, so we said au revoir and made our way to the train station.

Lausanne

For our first full day in Switzerland, we were again on the road. Or, on the rails–we were in Europe now! Erika has friends who live in Lausanne, which is just under an hour north of Geneva, so our plan was a day-trip out to see the town and get dinner with them.

Lausanne is calm, beautiful, and easy to walk. You know, Europe. We were there on August 1, which was a holiday–Swiss National Day–so the city was pretty sleepy and closed. Nevertheless, we had a wonderful time being able to walk a city again, and enjoyed walking the narrow, hilly cobbled streets of the old town, and of course walking through a church (you know, Europe).

We found a cafe open for lunch which, while expensive, was delicious. We had gazpacho, as well as salads with goat cheese on toast, and drank tap water.

We ate salads and drank tap water!

It’s weird being so excited by such simple things but, you know, not having the fear of dysentery is a wonderful thing.

Lac Léman

After lunch, we used the metro to head down the hill to the lakeside, and spend some time walking the lake. We hadn’t gone too far along the lake before we took a break on a bench, and Erika immediately fell asleep. Well, she’d still been recovering from the cold that steamrolled her, and we’d had an exhausting few days.

So I stared at the lake.

I stared at the mountains across the lake.

…sure is a pretty lake.

I watched people walking, biking, running.

Looking at the mountains again, I think to myself oh, that’s France. Cool.

Finally, Erika woke up, somewhat refreshed and ready to continue our walk.

It was extremely hot that day, and we’d wished we’d brought swimsuits in order to swim in the lake, like many people were. Instead, we did the best we could and waded into it up to our knees.

Lakes, rivers, whatever, the Swiss swim in them. That’s because they are incomparably beautiful and extremely clean. The blue of the water is unlike anything in the world, and it really shows why Switzerland loosely translates to “land of the ridiculously beautiful water.” *

We headed back to the main lake-side area, got some ice cream, and sat in the park enjoying it all. It was a perfect lazy afternoon. We probably would have stayed there until it was time to meet our friends for dinner, but unfortunately a thunderstorm blew in and chased us into cover, where we killed time instead.

Celia and Jonas

We took the metro back up the hills and walked to meet Celia and Jonas for dinner. I’d never met them before, but I felt like I was old friends with them. We had such a good time, talking about their life in Switzerland, talking about our life on the road, and everything in between.

After dinner, they walked us slowly back to the train station, taking us through parts of town, and past the apartment they’d recently bought, but hadn’t yet moved into. We dreamed of having our own apartment in Lausanne, of frequent walks along the lake, of more dinners with Celia and Jonas. Something like that would have to wait, we still had a lot more to see on our trip!

We’d wished we could have stayed longer and watched the National Day fireworks with them, but unfortunately our train was pre-booked. On the short ride back to Geneva, we could occasionally see fireworks explode over the lake, and we smiled as we recalled a perfect first day in Europe.

Geneva

To start off our next day in Geneva, I did something I hadn’t been able to do in months: I went for a run.

The clear air. The perfect temperature. The cars stopping to let me cross the road. The mountain views in the background. The airplane loudly taking off overhead? Okay, we were staying near the airport, so it wasn’t all idyllic. But otherwise, it was magnificent.

I got back from my short run full of energy! I took a shower, I hand-washed a few pieces of laundry in the sink (we were in desperate need of laundry, but wouldn’t have time to catch up yet), I made breakfast for myself. Only then did Erika finally wake up.

“Gooood morning my love!” I sang. This is how I imagine mornings going once we’re back into our “real lives.”

A Simple Stroll Through an Achingly Beautiful City

With her awake, and with no real goal, we went into Geneva simply to explore. We took the trams into the center city, and it was wonderful to have robust public transit available again.

And we just simply walked the city, loving the beautiful streets and facades. We took a quick walk through the inside of the cathedral. We let ourselves be captivated by the beauty of the city wrapped around the Rive Rhône, and the lovely way it nestled up against Lac Léman.

Maybe it was because the easy comfort of Europe was such a change from where we’d been, but like we had the previous day in Lausanne, we easily found ourselves fantasizing about living there. About more lazy strolls through the beautiful city. About finally being fluent in French.

Who knows where we’ll end up. It’s fun to picture ourselves in each of the places we visit. And for a couple days, at least, we did live in Geneva. But not for long, and it was time to move again.

What’s Next?

We’re leaving Switzerland briefly, heading up into the Alps and crossing juuuuust over the border into Chamonix, France. Come back next time to read about our time in one of the most beautiful regions on Earth!

*I don’t know why you think I made this up