Dinner, Movies, & Interlaken

Since Geneva is one of the most expensive places in the world we usually pick and choose what we do with caution. This weekend was a little out of the ordinary. We went to dinner and a movie and visted Interlaken. For those who have asked I thought I would give a low down on what dinner and a movie costs.   We usually go out to dinner once a week at the most. If we travel then we go out more. Sometimes we go a couple of weeks without eating out at all. It's just so expensive but every now and then I need a break from cooking. Especially since a lot of the easy dinners we once fixed in the U.S. are near in possible here due to the lack of ingredients we are used to cooking with in the US. One of our favorite places to eat and if we need to eat something that reminds us of home is Fiesta Mexicana.  I know of only two Mexican restaurants in Geneva. There are probably more but these are the two I have heard about. In the U.S. chips and salsa are free or pretty inexpensive with the meal. Here in Geneva you are looking at around 15,00 CHF for a small thing of chips (no refill mind you) and a small thing of guacamole. After we pay for a water (no refill) or coke (no refill) and two basic meals ( usually i get fajitas or a salad, David enchiladas )it's usually around 90 CHF.  Typically in the US mexican food is pretty inexpensive you also get plenty of refills on drinks and chips and your meals are huge. Most of the time I make Mexican food at home but every now and then you just need a treat.

Friday night we also went to see The Dark Night rises at the local movie theater called the Pathe. This is only our  3rd time seeing a movie due to how ridiculously expensive they are. When looking for a movie (if you are English speaking) you want to look for the title that has VO next to it. VO stands for version original meaning it's English and hasn't been dubbed over in French. There are only a couple of movies shown in VO so you have to pay attention or you will pay for a movie you can't understand.  They do have French subtitles playing the entire movie at the bottom of the screen. If you get distracted easily like I do you spend most of the movie reading the French at the bottom of the page and missing part of the movie haha!! It's kinda fun and definitely part of the experience of living in another country. The theater looks pretty similar to the ones in the U.S.  You can go see a movie for  the low low cost of 20 CHF per ticket haha! Wow....that's a little more than 40$ US for both of us to see a movie!  I know we have paid 18 CHF before for a  movie so i'm not sure if they have raised prices or why it was more this time.  They do serve popcorn in all different sizes, soft drinks (not fountain only bottles of course), waters, beer, wine, coffees (in true European fashion), and a lot of the same candies that we have in the states (m&m etc.)  The guys shared a popcorn and we got 2 bottles of coke and a water for around 24 CHF.
                                                         



                                                                                                             
                                                     (Pictures taken from the Pathe website)

Sorry these pictures are so tiny but it wouldn't let me enlarge them. 

On Saturday, we decided to go to Interlaken. Interlaken lies in the Bernese Oberland (in Switzerland, German speaking area) between two lakes (hence the name Interlaken) Lake Thun and Lake Brienz. Interlaken is surrounded by 3 mountains the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau. It is known for its extreme sporting locations and Interlaken is a great place to go for just that. We kept our feet on the ground but enjoyed watching everyone else.  It's been so hot here the last couple of days and even though we were up in the mountains being so close to the sun was brutal.  We wished we would have brought our swimming suits so we could have cooled off in the lake.  The views, as always, in Switzerland were just amazing!! It took around 2hrs and 15 minutes to get there and it was worth it for the view alone.  From what I have heard it was a  huge vacation spot back in the 19th century. People would flock here for the clean mountain air and enjoyed many spa treatments. Some famous people such as Lord Byron have stayed in Interlaken for a visit. Hope you enjoy the pictures. Please note....it was in the 90's( hence my curls) so it was HOT and we were so sweaty (gross) so these are not the best pictures of us but the views are just to amazing not to share.

The view from where we had lunch!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 On the way home we stopped for dinner at a beautiful little restaurant about an hour from Geneva. It sits right on the edge of the lake as you can see above.  Unfortunately they were booked for the night so we only stayed long enough to get some pictures and have a few Cokes. What a perfect setting to have a wonderful dinner. We will definitely try to go again and this time make reservations!

 

 

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