Trips to the "Beach," the Lake Parade, and Jura Hike v2. (with pictures)

I'm sorry for not having posted anything this week so far, but it was about the same as the previous week except we had a couple different lectures, so you didn't miss much except what I will describe here. 

It rained some this week during the evenings while being sunny during the days for the most time. It reminds me of Montana in the summer when we would get the thunder storms in the afternoons from the mountains for several days in a row. Most of the week was really nice and as a result, I really wanted to go to the beach again. I tried to plan it for Wednesday, but it turned out that by the time we were going to leave, it was cloudy and had started raining. 

The next day, we planned it and actually made it happen, but by the time we got to the beach, it was 6:52 pm, so the sun was just going behind some trees that are right next to the beach. These first tow pictures are of the boat ride across the lake towards the beach. Our tpg transportation passes cover the boat rides too. It really doesn't save much time unless you catch it just right, but it is more of a novelty thing. 

On the way across the lake, I put my hand in the water and noticed that it wasn't as cold at all as the mountain lakes in Montana, which surprised me a little since it is fairly close to the Alps. I guess it gets its energy somewhere else though. Anyway, I was also wearing my Montana Folk Festival shirt, and as I got off, a woman came up to me and asked if I was from Montana. It turns out that she was from Colorado but has lived here for several years... small world. 

Here are some pictures of the beach. There is grass area where lots of people sun bathe, the coarse sand towards the water, and then in the water, there is nice "beachy" sand that feels good on your feet!

Alex Sherman, Zack and I went down first and were there for half an hour or so waiting for Tina. Another group of CERN people came down and then just as we were leaving, Tina arrived. Zack and Tina stayed with the other group, but Alex and I decided to walk around Geneva instead. We headed along the lake for a ways and then up the hill towards the old town (which we never actually made it to).

This is getting closer to the old town part. The streets got quite narrow, as you can see, and there were lots of fancy restaurants and sophisticated music venues.

We ended up at this really cool park where they have giant Checker and Chess sets for anyone to play. It was so cool and a good idea I thought. There were all sorts of people there and of many skill levels. I am terrible and lost to Alex fairly handily, but there were also these old men smoking and doing scenarios with few pieces left on the board. They were sitting in lawn chairs and looking thoughtfully at the board. Most people were speaking French too, which made everything seem fancier for some reason, but the pieces were actually just big and hollow and made of plastic.

This is a lecture given by a professor Ben Allanach from Cambridge. It is in the same main hall where they announced the discovery of the Higgs Boson (I just said it again, because I can't remember if I specified this already). He just used the chalkboard unlike most of the lectures. He is lecturing on quantum field theory and was giving some background information.

On one of our trips to the grocery store, we saw these labels on the different types of Coke. We thought it was funny that they specified who should be drinking each kind.

On Friday, there was a "party" for the CERN summer students. Each person got a type of fundamental particle (a specific type of quartk or lepton) or one of the corresponding antiparticles on a slip of paper when you went in. As an incentive to socialize and meet people, you got a free drink if you found your antiparticle. I stayed there for a total of maybe 15 minutes and then Alex Sherman and I went to Restaurant 1 to play cards. I showed him how to play Cribbage. I beat him the first game, but then lost the next. I did beat him in 2 handed Pinochle though!

After this, he went back to his room, and I went back to the party for a bit. I wandered around inside for a while (it was really humid and warm (like the 100+ people that were in there)). I eventually found Katelyn and talked to her and the group she was standing with for a while. I got tired of the warmth and went outside. There I met this guy, whose name and country of origin now escape me, but I tried to explain American Football to him, since when he watched the Super Bowl, it didn't make sense. I then went to bed pretty late.

On Saturday, I got up at 7 and got ready for the big hike to Le Reculet again. This time, just Alex Sherman and I went. Although we couldn't see the Alps in the morning, this was our view of the Jura, so we knew that we would at least get some good views. We parked our bikes at the top of the houses and then hiked up. It only took us 2.5 hours from the time we left CERN to get to the top. If you follow the tree line going from the left of the picture, it eventually runs into some rocky part and then jumps up (near the top) after the rocks. We hiked in the grassy area just to the left of the rocky part and then up along the ridge to the top point.

Here are some more pictures with my AU shirt for the Chipotle contest and also for the scenery in the back.

Near this spot on the trail, we are walking along a steep slope down to the left and next to a cliff on the right. There were some cows on the trail, and there was a lady by herself that wasn't passing the cows. They didn't look mean, but they did have horns and I suppose they could have been dangerous, but they ended up not being mean. I just walked slowly towards them and they moved away. The lady said some things in French including "merci," and she followed us past them. I was glad that I had grown up by cows and felt just a tiny bit like a hero. Alex may have done the same thing, but I'll take the credit anyway :P

After we arrived home in only 5:10 since leaving CERN, we showered and rested. (My calves were quite sore (and they still are a day later)) Starting at 4 pm was what they call the lake parade in Geneva. It is basically a large drunken festival where they have floats that just play various types of loud music. Everyone walks along the street with the floats and drinks and dances and whatever else they feel like doing. The parade starts to the west of the lake and then goes across a bridge and ends up near the beach that I mentioned earlier. We arrived at about 7pm after most of the parade had gone by, and saw the crazy mess that everyone had left in the street. Then, a little ways behind the last float, there were the street cleaners. First there were the leaf blowers that got things out of the gutters. Then, they had the street sweepers. Once everything was pretty well cleaned, there was a big truck that sprayed the streets down. Just like that, 30 or 40 minutes after the parade had passed by, where there was more confetti, cigarettes, and beer bottles than you could imagine, the road was clean!

A little about the people now... There were so many types of people. There were families (not sure what the little kids were doing there). There were people smoking pot, more people smoking cigarettes, lots lots of alochol. It wasn't all that crazy though. There were lots of costumes of various degrees. Some people just had on mouse ears or funny hats, and lots of people also had face paint and such. There were also many shirtless men and even one shirtless woman... Needless to say, the lake parade was quite the scene. We didn't stay for too long. We thought you would definitely need to be quite intoxicated in order to have a great time down there.

The last group of photos is from this afternoon. Alex Fragapane and I went down to the confluence of the Rhone and Arve rivers. It was really cool. One was super silty (my guess is like the stuff in the lakes at Glacier Park) and the other one that is fed from Lake Geneva is pristine. We walked through Geneva and along Rhone river to the train tracks where we could go above both rivers.

Afterwards, we went to the same beach that we had gone to the last two days and sat in the sun for a while. I studied my vocabulary flash cards for the GRE, so the time wasn't completely wasted. It was nice to be out in the sun. Before walking back to the Tram station, I jumped in for a quick swim. It was still the perfect temperature. I think Geneva would be a perfect place for a vacation, there is a nice (though so tiny compared to the ocean) beach and you are also next to the Alps and Jura mountains. When it is rainy though, I don't imagine it is quite as fun.

Lastly, this is a picture of the Jet d'eau. Here are some facts about it from wikipedia:
It uses two 500 kWatt pumps to shoot 139 gallons of water per second 140 meters in the air. This fountain is visible from the top of the Jura mountains and almost everywhere else around.

Originally, it was a pressure release for some water system and it could shoot about 30 meters in the air. Since it gained popularity as a land mark, they eventually made it a permanent fixture and kthey eep it going most days unless it is too windy.

That is all for now. More to come Next week!

For Carla, since she asked, Amy and I are planning to have our wedding on Saturday the 31st of May! It will be in Butte, hopefully at a church uptown near Walkerville. The reception will most likely be at the Anselmo mine headframe and in one of the buildings near it. Let me know any more questions if you have them.