June 17th: Three Countries, One Day — France, Switzerland, & Italy

Even though we’re sad to be leaving France, we will be back at the end of our trip when we go to Paris.

Getting Comfortable with the Eurail

Making sure there isn’t any laundry left out on our line outside or items left under under beds, we bid adieu to our Marseille home and made our way to the train station for another early train. On the train from Marseille to Lyon, we sat next to the cutest, most adorable 14 month old baby and his father. We danced and entertained the baby for the journey and the father was a joy to sit with as he probably was happy to sit next to a live television program for his son to be distracted by. The next train from Lyon to Geneva we also sat next to a wonderful stranger, this time an old man who was excited to learn that we are from NYC as he had run the NYC marathon three times! The polarity of sitting next to a baby to then sitting next to an old man, filled our hearts and souls with so much love as they both wanted to engage with us in the most beautiful way.

Surprise Country Day Trip!

After arriving in Geneva, our mouths were on the floor over how incredibly gorgeous it was from our train windows and what a long travel day it was going to be to Milan, so… we decided to take a later train to Milan and spend the day in Switzerland!! After locking up our suitcases at the train station we were ready to hit the road, flower-crowns and all.

Another adventurous afternoon, we got 17,448 steps in as we explored the city of Geneva starting with lunch. We walked along the water and across the bridge to find a street food fair happening—which we’d later find out only happens twice a year! Lucky, lucky us! We all grabbed some delicious noodle dishes, and Viv & Jill got some yummy IPAs while I tried out black and blue ice cream.

As we continued exploring the city, we stumbled into this small dress rental store with the most beautiful fancy dresses and Joe, the shop owner, was extremely open and kind to us—Jill found her dream dress here, a olive green, flowy dress perfect for a special occasion or for dancing around on her balcony in the NYC, blowing bubbles for Saint Marks St.

Of course, our adventures in Switzerland wouldn’t have been complete without getting some Swiss chocolate to try and some to bring home. We visited the flower clock and rode on the ferris wheel to gain a birds eye view of the city and admire the mountains surrounding us.

Three Countries in One Day

Around 7pm we jumped back on the Eurail and four hours later found ourselves in our third country of the day, Italy! Back to the hostel lifestyle, we checked in to the Ostello Bello Hostel where we were greeted with three free drink tickets. We walked up into our all girls room of five and to our surprise we were met with two people asleep at 10:30pm (before us??? gasp!) Jill and Viv headed down for a quick free drink at the bar while I settled into Jill and my triple bunk bed. One long travel later, we all (quietly) slumped into our beds, pooped from the long day but so ready to start the next chapter of this journey tomorrow; bring it on Italy!