Sunday, June 12 - I get up at the ungodly hour of 3.45am and finish my last-minute (increasingly desperate) packing until the taxi arrives at 4.30am. I say goodbye to London and head out to Heathrow T5, where the business class lounge is, I have to say, very nice indeed. Landed at 9am in Geneva. A bonus of flying that ridiculously early on a Sunday would be that there is almost no-one on the plane (probably less of a bonus for the environment, I guess). As we were waiting to disembark, I got chatting to the pilot who was intrigued to hear that I was moving to Geneva that day on my own, and kindly suggested that I meet he and his co-pilot for a beer later that evening. As it happens, I did take him up on his offer, but first there was the small matter of hauling my insane amount of luggage from the airport to the hotel.
It is possible to pre-book a car from Geneva Airport to Ferney-Voltaire (try companies such as GVA Taxi or Coopérative 202 Taxi) but I wouldn't recommend it. I was quoted between EUR 70-80, which seemed like a lot of money. Instead, I took my chances and found a taxi at the airport. You need to go through French customs (essentially a door) and there is one of those posts at the end of the hall with a button to call a taxi. I did have to wait probably twenty minutes but the journey only cost me EUR 20 - the savings definitely outweighing the inconvenience! I can recommend this company, but not until I find the business card from the driver! The driver was very helpful and friendly - he assisted with my multitude of bags and we even had some semblance of a conversation in French (the failure to participate definitely coming from my side not his). It didn't take long before I arrived at my hotel - F1 Hotel Ferney-Voltaire. Looking like a shoebox, set back from the road, it became obvious very quickly that this was an extremely basic, barebones "hotel". This didn't worry me unduly (you get what you pay for!) but anyone intending to stay there should realise that there is no iron available for use, a limited number of toilets and showers, and no left-luggage room. Still, it was fine for my purposes, particularly as the staff member who checked me in obligingly let me have the room from 10am so that I could sleep.. and sleep I did. Coming from a week of farewells and general anxiety about my upcoming move, I could not have been more exhausted, and happily crashed out for several hours.
That evening I went to meet my pilots for a beer and some food. Had my first introduction to the insanity otherwise known as Geneva pricing. We went to a pizza chain restaurant (can't remember the name, starts with an M) and I paid roughly 15 CHF for spinach and ricotta ravioli (no sauce) which admittedly was delectable but was certainly more expensive than London. Had a great evening though and it was definitely a fun start to my Geneva experience.
The Monday was the first day at my new job. It was also a public holiday in Geneva, which means that although there is a "holiday schedule" up for the bus from Ferney, that doesn't actually mean that the bus will run at the specific times it mentions. In fact, I waited at least half an hour for the bus, which meant that I was not early but instead slightly late for my first day - not cool. Thankfully, my employers were awesome about it and apparently its not a rare occurrence - traveller beware.
As part of my job may include ferrying the my manager to and from meetings on occasion, I actually had the opportunity to try driving on the right-hand side of the road for the first time. It was.. confusing and scary. Thankfully I didn't cause any accidents and almost always aimed for the correct lane. Obviously there are different signs and indicators on the roads which may take some time to get used to.
Day Two of work was a little busier. Also, I managed to open a Swiss bank account (oh so cool) armed with only my passport, my employment contract, and a letter of attestation from my employer confirming my address in Switzerland. (Not that I have a permanent address, but I just gave them the one I am staying at for now). They sadly didn't ask for my fingerprints or a retina scan or give me a 10-digit code that I can never tell anyone, but its still a Swiss bank account! I went with UBS - there is a branch just down the road from my work, and they offer a current account, savings account, Maestro card, credit card, internet banking and loyalty programme for 20 CHF a month (10 CHF if you have over 10k in your bank account, which hopefully I will before long!) Also, as a new member of the bank, I get the whole package free for the first year. So I was happy enough with that. I should get my Maestro card and internet banking details within a week; the credit card is only issued when I supply the bank with my carte de legitimation (which I should get in the next few weeks - more on that later). My other great success was finding the "grand" Carrefour in Ferney (the small one is quite large, but the large one is gigantic) - a supermarket that I would compare to ASDA in the UK. My main purpose was to purchase un feu a repasser aka an iron, as apparently these don't come standard with hotels in this area and its not ideal going to work each day with wrinkly clothes!
So far.. so good...
It is possible to pre-book a car from Geneva Airport to Ferney-Voltaire (try companies such as GVA Taxi or Coopérative 202 Taxi) but I wouldn't recommend it. I was quoted between EUR 70-80, which seemed like a lot of money. Instead, I took my chances and found a taxi at the airport. You need to go through French customs (essentially a door) and there is one of those posts at the end of the hall with a button to call a taxi. I did have to wait probably twenty minutes but the journey only cost me EUR 20 - the savings definitely outweighing the inconvenience! I can recommend this company, but not until I find the business card from the driver! The driver was very helpful and friendly - he assisted with my multitude of bags and we even had some semblance of a conversation in French (the failure to participate definitely coming from my side not his). It didn't take long before I arrived at my hotel - F1 Hotel Ferney-Voltaire. Looking like a shoebox, set back from the road, it became obvious very quickly that this was an extremely basic, barebones "hotel". This didn't worry me unduly (you get what you pay for!) but anyone intending to stay there should realise that there is no iron available for use, a limited number of toilets and showers, and no left-luggage room. Still, it was fine for my purposes, particularly as the staff member who checked me in obligingly let me have the room from 10am so that I could sleep.. and sleep I did. Coming from a week of farewells and general anxiety about my upcoming move, I could not have been more exhausted, and happily crashed out for several hours.
That evening I went to meet my pilots for a beer and some food. Had my first introduction to the insanity otherwise known as Geneva pricing. We went to a pizza chain restaurant (can't remember the name, starts with an M) and I paid roughly 15 CHF for spinach and ricotta ravioli (no sauce) which admittedly was delectable but was certainly more expensive than London. Had a great evening though and it was definitely a fun start to my Geneva experience.
The Monday was the first day at my new job. It was also a public holiday in Geneva, which means that although there is a "holiday schedule" up for the bus from Ferney, that doesn't actually mean that the bus will run at the specific times it mentions. In fact, I waited at least half an hour for the bus, which meant that I was not early but instead slightly late for my first day - not cool. Thankfully, my employers were awesome about it and apparently its not a rare occurrence - traveller beware.
As part of my job may include ferrying the my manager to and from meetings on occasion, I actually had the opportunity to try driving on the right-hand side of the road for the first time. It was.. confusing and scary. Thankfully I didn't cause any accidents and almost always aimed for the correct lane. Obviously there are different signs and indicators on the roads which may take some time to get used to.
Day Two of work was a little busier. Also, I managed to open a Swiss bank account (oh so cool) armed with only my passport, my employment contract, and a letter of attestation from my employer confirming my address in Switzerland. (Not that I have a permanent address, but I just gave them the one I am staying at for now). They sadly didn't ask for my fingerprints or a retina scan or give me a 10-digit code that I can never tell anyone, but its still a Swiss bank account! I went with UBS - there is a branch just down the road from my work, and they offer a current account, savings account, Maestro card, credit card, internet banking and loyalty programme for 20 CHF a month (10 CHF if you have over 10k in your bank account, which hopefully I will before long!) Also, as a new member of the bank, I get the whole package free for the first year. So I was happy enough with that. I should get my Maestro card and internet banking details within a week; the credit card is only issued when I supply the bank with my carte de legitimation (which I should get in the next few weeks - more on that later). My other great success was finding the "grand" Carrefour in Ferney (the small one is quite large, but the large one is gigantic) - a supermarket that I would compare to ASDA in the UK. My main purpose was to purchase un feu a repasser aka an iron, as apparently these don't come standard with hotels in this area and its not ideal going to work each day with wrinkly clothes!
So far.. so good...
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