I got a pretty nice sleep and woke up very ready for the all-you-can-eat buffet. I feel like my use of hyphens there was wrong, but I am too lazy to check it.
After getting up and getting changed, I headed downstairs with my friends to eat. My buffet experience was pretty much the same as yesterday, I just ate a giant amount of food and took a sandwich and pain au chocolat for my lunch later.
We had originally planned to go into the city one last time, but we had to go to a different airport this time and didn’t want to risk being late. This time we were going to Stansted Airport, which was about thirty miles outside of London. We bought our bus tickets online, and hung out in the hostel lobby for about an hour. One of the employees we talked to actually was from an area very close to Grenoble. I was excited to be back in France soon.
Fifteen minutes before our bus, we checked out and left the hostel to go to the bus stop. We initially went to the wrong stop, and had some trouble finding the right one. By the time we finally go to it, we were really sure we missed the bus and we got very worried. Luckily, the bus came a few minutes late and we were all hit with a nice feeling of relief.
The bus ride was about an hour and half pretty relaxing. It was nice coach bus and we all had a two-seater to ourselves.
We eventually got to the airport and I went to check in. There was online check in, but by the time I checked this morning it was closed. I thought this wouldn’t be a big deal, but I learned I would have to pay 17 pounds or about $24 to check in at the airport. What a rip off. On top of that, my phone data randomly stopped working, so I couldn’t access my flight information on my phone. After a really struggling ten minutes of getting the free wifi to work, I was able to check in. You better believe I gave the check-in lady some attitude. I shouldn’t have to pay $25 for something that takes two seconds to do.
Security was just as annoying because I got randomly selected for an extra pat down. I love the airport :).
Once we got through, our gate wasn’t ready yet and we waited in the main hub. I took this time to eat my sandwich and pain au chocolat. A hour later, we went to the gate and boarded the plane.
Me, annoyed and eating a ham and cheese sandwich
We had a two hour flight to Geneva. This went rather quickly and we were soon landing. I wish I could write that we just hopped on a bus and got to our Airbnb, but it was not nearly that simple.
You know you are in Switzerland when the clocks are sponsored by Rolex
Our original plan when booking flights was to take a bus to Grenoble immediately after landing in Geneva. This would have worked, except the last bus to Grenoble left at 5 PM and we landed at 5:30. We realized this shortly before out trip, and booked an Airbnb because we were essentially forced to stay the night. We chose one in Valliery, France, a town in France just outside Geneva, because it was significantly cheaper than ones in Geneva.
This ended up being a real pain to get to. Since it was a Sunday, no buses or other forms of public transportation were running to France. Our only option was Uber, and it was very expensive. Since there was five of us, we had to take two separate cars. Nick and I had two Uber drivers accept out ride, and then cancel when we found their car because they didn’t want to drive to France. Why they couldn’t have cancelled immediately, I don’t know. On top of this, it was extremely cold andmsierableoutside. We finally got a driver to accept our trip, and we headed off.
Thirty minutes later, we arrived at our destination, or what our driver thought was our destination. We were on some dirt road in the French country side. The house he dropped us off at was not the correct one. We knew we were nearby, but still pretty lost and confused. Once again, the cold didn’t help either. Utilizing our poor phone service and google maps, we crossed through somebody’s garden and some train tracks before stumbling upon an apartment complex. This had to be it.
We then spent another twenty minutes trying to find the actual apartment. We even had to ask people in French if they knew, but they were no help. We finally found it, and spent another ten minutes getting the keypad to work. Finally, we were in the apartment.
We were all starving and needed food desperately. The only problem was that it was a Sunday. Nothing is open on Sundays in France. To out luck, we managed to find a single pizza place that was open nearby. We ventured there, only to find out it would take an hour for pizza to be made. For context, we only ordered two plain pies. If that doesn’t sum up French food service, I don’t know what does.
We headed back to the apartment to wait. There was a box of pasta left to us by the owners, so we cooked and ate some plain pasta while waiting. You could probably infer this from my writing, but by this point everyone was very grumpy, annoyed, and hostile. This trip had pushed us to peak exhaustion and everyone was ready to go home.
We finally got our pizza and it made everyone feel much better. I also took a nice hot shower and it worked wonders for my spirits. I facetimed my family for a bit, then called it a night. I had to be up early tomorrow to get back to Grenoble.
Foreign Tourist with No Grasp of the Local Language 
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