On Thursday 13 June I left for an open access conference in Geneva, OAI8, which was to happen 19-21 June at the University of Geneva. I planned to return Sunday 23 June. I wrote to Wikimedia Switzerland to see if I could meet Wikipedians there. Gabriel (User:GastelEtzwane) responded and I met with him within hours of my arrival. He took me on a tour of Geneva and told me about the Swiss Wikimedia chapter.
Gabriel met me at Geneva Youth Hostel where I had a lovely stay during my trip. We started by going for lunch in Les Pâquis, a waterfront district. There was a swimming area with a restaurant and the option for lunch was the “plate of the day”. Typically there is more choice in the United States, but it must be more convenient for the restaurant when they can focus on one meal for everyone. The food was beautiful – black rice with fish on it, lightly run with a beet-red sauce and bright green sliced onion on top with a bite of orange cantaloupe. The plates were large and heavy and I thought that the presentation, especially for casual dining in a family swimming area, indicated a sense of style which would not be found in any equivalent place in the US.
Here is a list of the places to which Gabriel took me. He also listed these on Wikipedia for me.
- Les Pâquis
- Palais Wilson
- Bains des Pâquis
- Mouettes Genevoises Navigation
- Cité-centre (Genève)
- St. Pierre Cathedral
- Calvin Auditory
- Place du Bourg-de-Four
- Reformation Wall
- University of Geneva
- Grand Théâtre de Genève
- L’horloge fleurie
- Jet d’Eau
- Brunswick Monument
- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
- Ecumenical Centre
- Palace of Nations
- United Nations Office at Geneva
- RHINO (squat)
I am reproducing the list here just to remember Gabriel’s kindness in showing me around and also to show that through Wikipedia, he was able to catalog memories of my trip that I myself would not have been able to remember. In this list he gave me a book of my first day in Geneva and if I ever give a tour to anyone of my city, I think that I also would be able to remember better than them where we went and what we saw and I also would want to send them a list like this.