OK, first thing's first, Han-Sur-Lesse, Dinant and Geneva

As I said I would, I kept a journal over spring break so I wouldn't forget anything, good for me. I can't jump into that right away without telling you about this weekend first though. Alrighty...

Another ISA excursion with the same van from the previous weekend. Sabine's francaphone uncle drove both times. We started at the caves at Han-Sur-Lesse. They were really impressive and there was even a river inside (which we were supposed to have a boat ride on, but didn't). When we arrived in Han-Sur-Lesse it was raining, by the time we went into the caves it had stopped and by the time we came out it was even sunny. Encouraged by this we had lunch outside. I ordered fondu de fromage, but it was not the bowl of hot melty cheese I was expecting but rather 2 blocks of fried cheese which my host family often makes in far more massive quantities. They were good, but not worth the money at all and I really don't understand how restaurants can charge what they do for them. Oh well, another learning experience for me.

After lunch, we headed for Dinant. Driving in was really cool, we went in through this narrow passageway between 2 cliffs, it looked like they'd chopped out a massive chunk of what used to be one cliff just so a road could pass through, that's probably not what actually happened but it looked like it. Fun fact - Dinant was the homtown of Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone, so there was saxophone-themed stuff all over the place. Our destination was the citadel situated on top of a cliff, naturally. On the drive to Dinant it had already rained and become sunny again, that happened another two times that day. The weather was crazy, basically. The citadel tour was pretty cheesy overall, they used manicans to set up displays and didn't seem to really take care of them. After the tour we rode down the cliff in a cable car (in the rain) and had a snack in a cafe (while it was sunny) and returned home.

The next morning I had to get up early for my flight to Geneva. I'd booked the flight in January and wasn't very excited about going anymore, I wouldn't have if easyjet allowed you to cancel your flight. I booked the tickets with Maren but she wanted to do her own thing so it really ended up being another shot at travelling solo. I tried to walk to the Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum, but ended up overshooting it by a lot and then taking another wrong road for a while. My navigation skills are amazing. No big deal, I don't mind walking. I finally found the museum, I learned a lot about the ICRC. For example, I'd never heard of the red crescent but I learned that it started during WWI when muslim Ottoman soldiers were offended by the crosses. I thought that was really interesting. After all my walking I was ready for a nice trip on public transportation to St. Pierre's Cathedral. Besides the steeple, it's not very impressive from the outside nor on the inside either. I did learn that John Calvin preached there though. The cathedral redeemed itself with its tower tourists can climb. It was really windy but the view of the lake and the alps was amazing. This was also during the only sunny part of my trip, it never rained but it was overcast. After St. Pierre's, I wandered into Place du Bourg-de-Four at the heart of Old Town in Geneva and decided to have some REAL fondue for dinner after my previous fiasco. I was in Switzerland, afterall. I wasn't sure what to do after dinner, I wandered down to the lake, looked around a few souvenir shops, there's not a lot to do in Geneva. The grey was really starting to wear on me too. After a while I decided to head back to the Place du Bourg-de-Four because I liked it there, can't argue with cobblestone streets, order a drink in a cafe and read for a while. For the third time that day though, I got seriously turned around for a long time. I accomplished my goal in the end.

Day 2 - I didn't get lost this morning. I started my day at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, they give guided tours. My tour guide was from Mexico and really enthusiastic about the UN. I was in a much better mood than the day before and enjoyed the tour. It was interesting to see all the gifts given to the UN from different countries. After my tour, I headed to the Art and History Museum, however, in planning my day the night before I forgot to take into account that most museums are closed on Mondays, including this one. I walked around for a long time after that trying to find or think of something to do. In the end I decided to ride the bus into France because it was so close. The view of the alps on the ride was amazing and I could now say that I've been to France.

Much more to come soon.

-Lauren :)