Last weekend, Luis and I went to Geneva, Switzerland to be a part of the 200th anniversary celebration of the bank where he works.  It was a party we had been looking forward to for months (10 months, to be exact, when they announced the party), and needless to say, we were SO EXCITED for this big party to happen.  They didn’t give too much information about what the night would entail, but based off of teasers they sent out, we knew it would be a fancy dinner, dancing, music, and a show of some sort.

We flew to Geneva early Saturday morning, and I got to meet all of Luis’ coworkers at the airport, who were so nice and made such nice comments about Bruja’s Bakery!  I’ve actually “known” many of them for a long time from their Bruja’s Bakery orders, but I didn’t actually know them face-to-face.  Meeting them in the airport was totally fine and after a small delay, we were off!  After only getting about 5 hours of sleep, I completely knocked out on the plane and didn’t wake up until we landed- mouth open and everything!  I’m sure Luis was very proud 😉

Once we arrived, we took shuttle buses to the hotel, checked in, and then headed right back out to lunch and then a quick tour of Geneva.  It’s funny, I spent a few weekends there back in 2016 and I don’t remember much of it!  I think part of it was that it was very cold when I was there, so we spent little time out and about.  Anyway, first things first- LUNCH! 

And as they say, when in Rome…. Geneva, you eat fondue.  Luis and I actually never had fondue when he was living there, so I was happy to give it a try!  Everyone at the table wanted to try it so we told our guide (another bank employee from the Geneva offices) that we would have a couple for the table, he said “no no no!  We don’t do that here!  Everyone gets their own!”… which translated to 250 grams of cheese PER PERSON!  He kept insisting that it wasn’t a lot of cheese, but I assure you, it was.

They add wine and other alcohol to the fondue to help digest it a bit.  I am glad we tried it, but I wasn’t a huge fan of it…just too much cheese and bread for my liking, and I assure you, it tastes nothing like fondue from The Melting Pot!  Our guide told us that fondue is great in the winter to help “pack on the pounds”, which I can see!  You’re supposed to eat fondue with wine or other alcohol to help digest the cheese and not have a big, hard ball of cheese form in your stomach, but I had water… I tried not to eat too much because we had a big night ahead! (But in hindsight, I would have preferred more cheese and less of the food at the party!).

After lunch, it was time for a little tour of Geneva.  Lunch took soooo long that we had limited time to see Geneva, but we made the most of it.  Mostly, Luis’ coworkers wanted to see their bank headquarters and see the lake, so that’s what we did.

By 4:30, I was itching to get back to the hotel and start getting ready!  I also wanted to take a little nap, since I knew we had a long night ahead.  Everyone laughed when I said I would take a 15 minute nap, but my Dad taught me that 20 minutes of meditation/light sleep can be the equivalent of a couple hours!  I think I actually fell asleep and woke up feeling a lot better!  I hopped in the shower and was out within 5 minutes, curled my hair, did my makeup, and we were ready to go within 45 minutes!  

I was little nervous about what I was wearing compared to what everyone else was wearing and was originally going to wear a black dress that I have, but last minute, I switched to this dress from H&M that I bought a few years ago and I think it was a good choice!  Nothing makes me happier than getting to use things I already own and not needing to spend a ton for each event!

• Earrings: Sfera (bought for a wedding earlier this year)
• Dress: H&M (bought for a wedding a couple years ago)
• Bag: Sfera (bought for same wedding as earrings)
• Shoes: El Corte Ingles (bought for a wedding a few years ago)
• Jewelry: gifted from my Mom

Around 6:45, we headed down to the hotel lobby to catch the bus to the venue.  Everyone was in the lobby meeting and greeting, and there was so much energy in the air!  Everyone looked wonderful and it was fun to meet more of Luis’ world.

No one knew where we were going, but there were big buses there to pick us up and it made me laugh to see all these dressed up people on a tour bus.

We only rode the bus for about 5 minutes, literally across the highway and we were dropped off in front of a convention center.  We heard that Luis’ work COMPLETELY re-did this place, just for the party.  From the floors, to the lights, stage, walls, kitchen, etc.  It was incredible!  The theme seemed to be water, so the entire set up was like we were under water.

Before sitting down for dinner, they had a photographer there to take pictures of everyone with the big 200 sign!  We snapped a bunch of photos.

Finally, we sat down for dinner, which actually ended up being quite long.  There were 3 courses, lots and LOTs of wine (seriously- they didn’t let you take a few sips without refilling the glass), and a very cool Cirque du Soleil-type show between each course.  They had lights and WATER flowing from the ceiling.

Here was the menu:

First course: foie gras (not my favorite, but I ate a couple bites).  Do you see the gold?

Followed by a show:

Second course: some sort of curried lobster (also not my favorite, but I ate the mango that came with it)

Followed by a show:

Third course: veal with mushrooms and pasta (it was much fancier than it sounds….)

And finally, dessert – lots of it.  I loved the ice cream and the chocolate mouse thing, and was not a fan of the pineapple thing.

I didn’t eat much of the dessert though because I was quite full!  I had had a lot of wine and bread, so by the time dessert came around, I just wanted a gin tonic and that is exactly what we had!  Once dinner was over, the real party got started and it was INCREDIBLE!  They had live music, dancers, and a whole show happening.  Oh!  And they hired the Geneva Orchestra to play!  It was insane.

By 1.30 in the morning, we were getting ready to head out because we were told that the party was going to end at 2 and since all 1000 people would be looking to take the bus, we thought we would get a head start.  It ended up being a good choice since we got back to the hotel relatively quickly and were able to sleep for a good 8 hours, but you know the kind of sleep you get after drinking – very bad sleep!  We woke up in time for breakfast and then packed up the room, checked out, and headed to the airport.  I was off to PARIS and Luis back to Madrid.

It was an incredible, incredible weekend and I kept saying to Luis that I felt so lucky to have been there to experience an event like that.  Not everyone gets to experience that in their lifetime and it was one of those things where we (or better yet, Luis) was in the right place at the right time.. working for this bank during their 200th year.  They threw an incredible party, that’s for sure.  Now like I said, when’s the next?!