Geneva

Having done my last exam and handed in my last essay, I've suddenly found myself with time on my hands. Although it's the winter break here in Zurich, a lot of students still have exams to do. Whilst many of them were studying, I thought I'd go and have a look around the city of Geneva.

Geneva is the second largest city in Switzerland after Zurich.

Geneva is located right on the south-western most point of Switzerland, surrounded by France, it's only connected to the rest of the country by a 3 kilometre strip of land along the lake. Being in western Switzerland, it is of course French speaking – making for another opportunity for me to embarrass myself at attempting to get by in French. Although 'French speaking' is maybe a little deceptive as I heard as much English, German or even Russian as I did French. Luckily for me.

The United Nations is based in Geneva.

Geneva is actually quite a nice city, although it doesn't seem like any of the other Swiss cities I've been to. For starters – it actually feels like a city – not just a town, like Basel and Bern seem to feel like. Secondly, if you're lucky, you might even spot the odd piece of litter on the ground – which is quite a noteworthy observation after spending so much time in Swiss cities which are so clean that you can barely believe people live there.

In the beautiful Altstadt of the city.

There's plenty to go and see, and I guess it would also be better in Summer. Certainly worth a visit, and it's only 2 ½ hours away from Zurich by train. I'm still only just getting used to how well everything is connected in continental Europe. Unfortunately it's not quite so easy to spontaneously decide to head to any particular European city from the UK, simply on a whim. I think I'll definitely miss this aspect of living on the continent, when I return home.