Miss a flight in Europe...check.

Day 35. Well that’s one more experience I can check off my list. Miss a flight whilst backpacking through Europe. Check! I woke up super early and took the bus to the airport and arrived about 45 minutes before my flight was to take off. The queue for checking in was quite long so I went up to the front and asked the guy directing the line if I could jump to the front of the line, he said absolutely not and that there was NO way I was going to get on my flight. He said I needed to have been there at least an hour before departure and to go buy another ticket or change my flight. WHAT!? Noooooo!!!! The guy wouldn’t let me go to any of the counters to check in or get a boarding pass or speak to anyone else. I felt like he was taking advantage of me being a tourist, but there was nothing I could do. I went to the ticket desk and again was presented with lame options. Either I pay 400+ Euros to switch my flight to a later flight that day, or I pay a 75 Euro fee and take the same flight tomorrow. Not much of a choice there… guess who is staying in Portugal one more night? I made my way back to my hostel feeling a bit downtrodden, but I decided I wasn’t going to get upset about it. Life goes on. I was exhausted and just wanted a bed, so after some breakfast I had a nice siesta. When I woke up I decided I wanted to go to a couple parks here, so I ate some lunch and then off I went.  I walked to a nice park overlooking the city and found a nice spot and read my book for a while. Then I walked to another park and listened to some music along the way. I haven’t touched my iPod in quite some time so it was great listening to some of my favorite songs and relaxing in the sun. I got some dinner at the park and explored a little of the city and then made my way back to my hostel, skyped for a bit, updated my blog, drank some delicious iced and hot tea (Polish black tea with cookie crackers brought to me as I was working on my blog. Have I mentioned how great this hostel is?? And the Iced tea was seriously the best iced tea I have ever had in my entire life). Hopefully round 2 of catching my flight to Switzerland will go better than my first attempt. 

Day 36. Phew! I made it! I woke up extra early this morning to be sure I made it to the airport on time. In fact, even one of the hostel workers came and checked to make sure I was out of my bed so I wouldn’t miss my flight, AND he made me pancakes for breakfast (have I mentioned how much I LOVE this hostel?!). Seriously, Goodmorning hostel in Lisbon, stay there, trust me, do it. I got to the airport and checked in and had a little time to kill so I tried to get a stamp in my passport. And failed. Apparently you can’t get a stamp unless you are flying in from a non-something country. So that sucks. The flight to Geneva was quick and I was even served a 75 euro breakfast, haha (I'm not bitter about the stupid fee). Craig connected me with one of his good friends Alvaro who lives in Geneva and Alvaro met me at the airport and is letting me stay at his place. Alvaro is incredibly nice!! He dropped me off at his apartment and then had to run to a meeting at work, but promised to return for lunch. After getting settled in to his house and about an hour or so later he took me out to lunch and showed me around the city. Geneva is a very quaint town, it’s a short 5 minute drive from the city centre to the countryside and it is quite beautiful. The Alps paint a perfect picture with the city’s older buildings and the Geneva Lake. The city has a charm to it and since it is so close to the French border Geneva is practically France, they speak French here and carry themselves like the French do. Actually, I learned that Switzerland is split into 3 parts, a German, French, and Italian area respective to the adjacent borders (and consequently each area doesn’t like the other areas which I found to be ironic, haha). Lunch was lovely and afterwards Alvaro and I walked through the town and the English Gardens. I got to see the famous flower clock that is a giant clock face made entirely out of flowers and really keeps the time (And it changes its flowers every week, wicked!). We got some macaroons for dessert (SO good) and had a nice coffee before he had to return to work. I was pretty tired from waking up so early so Alvaro went back to work and I went back to his house to take a nap. Well the cleaning lady was there and so I did some skyping and got myself cleaned up with a shower and just laid down for a bit, but didn’t actually fall asleep. When Alvaro got back from work I got to call home! I missed my mom by like 45 seconds (Dangit!), but I got to talk to my sister Jayna (Yippee!!)!! It was so great catching up with her and filling her on some of my fun stories. After talking with my sister for a while Alvaro and I went to go pick up one of his friends and went out to dinner. We went to this amazing French beef restaurant that didn’t have a menu, but instead just asked how you liked your beef prepared. We got some excellent red wine to share and then had our salads, then a bread course, then the main course with delicious beef and fries, and then they brought you seconds of the main course, dessert, and finally we finished with tea. It was so filling and SO so good!! It was amazing how the time flew by as we were chatting and getting to know each other. The dinner was lovely and the company even better. After dinner we walked through the old town at night and I got to see a really cool main square that has square shaped grey cobblestone’s all along the ground. Scattered throughout the cobblestones are squares that look like the cobblestones but light up and have greetings on them in all these different languages. It’s really cool and such a good idea! We walked to a bar and had a quick drink before calling it a night. It was a great first day in Geneva and I am so lucky to have met and be staying with Alvaro!