Geneva was the first city I was posted and so it has a special place in my heart. I had seen some places before, but this was the first time I was on my own and alone. I was excited.
During my tenure I tried to grab as much as possible. Keen learner and an observant person that I am, there was so much to see, know and learn. I wanted to know what the locals eat, how they eat, how they speak and so on. I was keen to know about their culture, behaviour and tastes.

I wanted to explore the world. And it all started with weekends.

In spite of very hectic and tight schedule (at times working as much as 14 hours a day is no joke); I could manage to free my alternate weekends to visit places. I would work more hours on other days to get a full weekend.

I started with the city I was in. I used to walk down to various places in the city. That’s the best way to know insights of any place. Old city, lake area or the big park. The place was enchanting. Everything is closed on Sundays so Sundays were reserved to explore free parks and other outside beauties especially the lake area.
Take a novel, walk down to the lake, sit or lie down and enjoy your day basking in Sun. The first book that I read there was Kane and Able, my all time favourite book.

Or you can feed the ducks and swans or simply watch people parking their cars and cruising their yachts towards other cities. I could see so many people doing the same. No kids or dogs disturbing you, no hawkers pestering to buy their stuff and no staring eyes. You just have to relax. You are out there in open and still no one is intruding in your privacy.

Parked boats at Lac Lemon. You can see water jet in the background

Then slowly I started going out of the city either to a neighbouring country or to a different town of Switzerland. After St Gallen’s scary experience I made my Schengen visa and I was ready. Whenever I came to know of a group going to some place, I was always more than eager to give them company.

It was hard to resist. No one waiting at home and no one to report to. And it was so easy and safe to travel compared to my own country.

I knew travel bug had bitten me. It had started as an innocent infatuation but slowly I could see myself thinking about my next stop. Instead of reading novels in free time I had started reading maps. I would fantasize about living with ‘Travel’.
And thus began a journey. A journey never to end.. ..

Note:- The photographs are scanned from analogue camera prints, hence the quality is not that good.

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