Geneva, Switzerland, Europe

The guys in the dorm room last night “tried” to be really quiet and respectful, but they really weren’t good at it. They came into the room around midnight, to get ready to go out. They finally left the room at 2am, and then one of the guys came back at 6:30am. I woke up at 7am, so I was up when a few more of the guys came back in, but they were all just a mess. It made me realise that I’m way too old for that kind of stuff, and I’m absolutely fine with that.

I left the hostel at 7:30am, got the shuttle to the airport (without being mugged on the way) and arrived at Marseille MP2 airport at 8:10am. Perfect timing. Then came the fun part. I checked in after waiting in a ridiculous queue in a really crappy low-budget terminal, dropped off my bag and got through security. Almost immediately after I got through security it showed that some of the other RyanAir flights were cancelled and mine was delayed by two hours. Only minutes after showing the delay, it changed to Cancelled. It turns out there is a French air traffic control strike and it started yesterday. It’s wreaking havoc with any flights to or from France, so I was screwed.

It turns out that the next RyanAir flight to Edinburgh from Marseille isn’t until Saturday, and there was no way I was going to hang out in Marseille for five more days. I met an English couple, Sarah and Gareth, who live in Edinburgh and were also trying to figure out how to get there. We got the shuttle back into the city center and checked out trains going to Geneva. I was able to check on my phone and saw that there was a pretty cheap flight from Geneva to Edinburgh tomorrow afternoon, so if we could get to Geneva, that would be our best bet.

We found out that the train strike in France finished, just before the air traffic strike started, so that was nice of them to not screw up everyone’s travel plans all at once. The trains to Geneva were going, and it would only take 3.5 hours. We bit the bullet and bought our tickets. We got the flights first at £74 each and then the train tickets were €82. Considering our alternative was to stay in Marseille for five nights, I think we made out alright.

We got the TGV fast train to Geneva and luckily Sarah has a friend named Sali who lives here in Geneva. She was nice enough to let all three of us stay at her flat for tonight (even though she doesn’t know me from Adam!), and it seems to have all worked out really well. Her flat is absolutely beautiful, and right in the city center. She has a great view of the massive water fountain and Lake Geneva from her top floor balcony. It was so nice of her to let us stay, because everything else in Geneva was booked, so if we weren’t staying here, we’d have been on the floor of the airport. Not an ideal situation, so I’m really grateful Sali was so nice.