When in Switzerland

Bonjour!
A word I used quite a bit last week. You may or may not have known that I study physics for the oncoming Leaving Cert --I think it's called A Levels in Britain. I really enjoy physics although I don't understand half of it. The perks of being a physics student includes totally getting the jokes on Big Bang Theory and also getting to visit CERN!

So that's exactly where I went last week. My class headed off to Dublin on Wednesday night to catch a flight to Geneva, Switzerland. Alas, it was raining for the most of Thursday but we had come prepared. We stayed in the youth hostel. That was brilliant, the breakfast was fairly good and the rooms were safe and comfortable. The spiral staircase looked pretty cool from the 4th floor. On the last night my hat was dropped from the top to the bottom. Some English dude tried it on....

Anyhoo I had a great time. I really wished it would snow, but we did get to see some on the mountains ( I'm not sure if they're the Alps). The place was absolutely gorgeous and the art in that city was astounding! I mean the doorknobs! WOW! Like they were some beautiful door handles! =)

 

Obviously the main purpose of our trip was to visit CERN. The Large Hadron Collider is 100m under Geneva but not in use at the moment since the leek in 2008. Ultimately they are sending two particles with opposite charge in opposite directions through a magnetic field for high speeds in order to collide them together. This creates the same type of setting there was during the big bang and so new particles that were around millions of years ago can be recreated. If you have seen Angels and Deamons there is a lot of this type of physics going on. But it is totally exaggerated!!! You cannot hold 3grams of antimatter in a container for that length of time without blowing up. And anyway its nearly impossible to create that amount of antimatter!!

 

I f you do not understand any of the above physicsy stuff, I do apologise and I will refrain form any further out burst of science....

 

We also visited the Red Cross Museum and the League of Nations. I loved the Red Cross tour. That place is amazing and what they do is even better. I found the UN a bit boring but the artwork kept me entertained. In one room, the roof was incredible. It was like being in a rainbow cave (*scroll up*).

 

Overall I would love to go back to Switzerland. The people are nice, the money is cool, the shops are expensive and the chocolate is yummy!

 

Marian