Watch out Switzerland, I have transport!

On Friday I’ll be heading home for a few days which will be pretty nice. Due to unrelated events I will end up coming home every couple of weeks until mid-June (this is brand new news to my parents. Hi Mum and Dad!) and that means I’m going to be spending a lot of time in Geneva and Edinburgh airports.

My problem with airports in general is that there’s a lot of sitting around followed by a rush of activity followed by more sitting around.
First thing you have to check in, which is pretty straightforward. Then you have to sit and wait for ages before you’re called to security. The last time I went through security at Edinburgh airport I had to take off my jacket, jumper, shoes, belt, watch and chain, remove all electrical equipment from my person (mobile phone, MP3 player, etc) and take my laptop out of my hand luggage. After they had run the metal detector over me about five times to find out I was no threat to anyone I had to hurriedly re-dress myself and re-pack my bag before I could go anywhere. It was an absolute pain in the hoop.
Then it’s through to the departure lounge for more boring sitting around doing hee-haw, overdosing on coffee and half-listening to music, half-listening to departure and security announcements just for something to do.
So I have that to look forward to twice in five days.

The other fun thing is that I have to get to Geneva airport under my own steam. I only need to catch two trains – Belfaux to Fribourg, then Fribourg straight to Geneva airport – and even then I’m not concerned about the trains being late as I usually am in Scotland. After all, Swiss public transport is ruthlessly efficient. 81% of all trains are on time and 95% are less than five minutes late.
And blimey, they’re so comfy! They are reminiscent, I think, of the old style trains with carriages, but without the carriages. Basically, they have two big comfy double seats facing each other. They give a surprising amount of privacy and each has a big, wide window that you can stare out of. I’m really looking forward to going by train to Geneva because apparently you travel next to the banks of Lake Geneva and get a stunning view of the Alps. It had better be a nice day.

The last bit of my journey is the one that I am most worried about; catching the bus from Edinburgh bus station to Biggar. I have only done this once about seven years ago. I don’t even know where the bus station in Edinburgh is; let alone how to get there from Waverly Station. I think I shall be giving good ol’ Google Maps a visit this week.

In other news I start my French course tomorrow morning which is six hours a week for 4 or 6 weeks; I forget which. I am really looking forward to this as I have wanted to learn another language since I stopped doing French at school. I know that sounds stupid but I hated French at school, too much emphasis on verbs and not enough on practical French. I know that you have to learn the basics but we seem to spend four years learning the basics.

And my cousin bought me a mountain bike yesterday, which was very nice of her. I haven’t had a new bike since before I started high school, and this is the country to go cycling in. I will even be fitting a removable (pink) seat to it so I can bomb about with my charge, take to horse-riding lessons and such. I say she bought it for me, but her Dad can also use it when he’s here as can Catriona’s Dad and of course my cousin can use it whenever she wants. I’ve never had a bike with shocks before, so that’s something else to get used to!

Today we went to an amazing place called Schwarzenburg, which was a lovely drive and when we got there we were greeted by some absolutely stunning views. I hope to post some of the pictures I took there on my Flickr page while I’m at home, so I will post a link to that page when they're up.