Tertiary

So - the main players were: Myself. Paul. Erika. Phil. Luis. Allison. John. Sanjay. We allworked together, and for everyone excpet Paul (who lived there) it was our first time in Geneva. Paul worked at the site, and he was a wee bit of a party animal, so he took it upon himself to take us out and show us a GOOD time on the town.
We started as soon as we got off of work - around 7:00pm. Our first stop was to a lovely outdoor cafe - the drink of the night for the main players was rum & coke (diet coke for me!), and we started out with two or so drinks here. The cafe was in Old Town, so we were surrounded by old buildings, cobblestone streets, and lots of hills. After finishing the drink, we walked down the hill toa little bar/ resturant type place that sold tapas. We cohntinued to drink here - along with a WEE bit of food. After we ate, westayed there and took over a large section of the bar. Yet another thing that I thought was GREAT about Ge. - all the bars had real seating areas - with cushy chairs and couches that simply INVITED you to sit down and to get to know your neighbors - very nice. So - we sat there and ate and chatted until it was dark outside - which would have made it around 9:30pm or so. As we left this place, we walked by a stand that sold a lovely collection of postcards. I promptly snapped up several, figuring that I would not have to find anymore. Our next stop was barely a block away, and it was a basement bar. Once again, there was GREAT seating, and they had REALLY good music. The DJ was spinning mainly american R&B/HipHop tunes, and was mch better than any of the DJ's I've heard here (as in in Indy). We started getting into trouble at this point - when we opted to buy an entire BOTTLE of Bacardi instead of ordering it drink by drink. We finished off the bottle - that would be 1 bottle of rum divided by 8 people - and ALL of us had at LEAST 3 drinks before that. And oh MY - the bartenders do NOT pour light! We started feeling nice and light and loose, and we traisped off to yet another dancebar, but we lost two people - Allison and her husband John. They decided that they were a wee bit too old to keep up with us young lushes. We left them regretfully, and went to the next place - which was down a couple of hills and up a couple of hills and around the corner. It had to be around midnight at this point - maybe a little earlier. So - we get to the next bar and the FIRST thing we do is order yet ANOTHER bottle of Bacardi - now being divided amoung 5 people really as one of us (Erika) doesn't drink much (read at all, but we twisted her arm!) Luis, Paul (who at this point of enibriation was being called Pablo) and Phil all smoked - and me being the substance freak that I am, I HAD to taste one. Okay - why did noone ever tell me that cigs give you a FIERCE brain rush, or is it just me? ONE cigarette, and I felt like I had drank that entire bottle ON MY OWN. So - being wonderfully tipsy, and having ust watched Luis salsa with this cute Italian girl - I decided it was time to boogy my way onto the dance floor. OH. MY. GOD. I wanted to start singing Nelly - I've never been to a club that felt more like a HOT HOT basement party EVER. The fact that we actually WERE in the basement helped - but there felt like there were HUNDREDS of people down there. I danced myself damn near sober :(, and once I took a break, Pablo was ready to move on. We left, and we waited outside for Phil and Luis who were inside macking. I was hot, tired, and semi-sober, so I plopped my tail on the street. Erika, Sanjay & Pablo proceeded to give me the third degree about my dancing style (I get buckwild - I know I'm only dancing, and I let the men know that I'm ONLY DANCING - so what's the harm, eh?) We (being the loud Americans that we are) were being - loud. Apperently we were loud enough that the Swiss Police came to tell us to keep it down as it was 3am(!!!!) and we were surrounded by sleeping people. One of the interesting things about Ge. is that it's not really zoned. Bars are next to (or under) apartments and stores and schools. So - truly, we were in a MOSTLY residential neighborhood that happened to have a fabulous dance club in it. So - the boys finally came out - and we started heading to other bars, trying to find a stylish one that would let us in. Since we thought we were JUST going to bars - two of us had worn sneakers, and that caused a problem dress-code wise. We tried four different places, before one FINALLY had mercy on us and let us in. As we wandered around, I found a stall that was still open that sold PEACE flags. On of the first things I noticed in Ge. was that many of the apartment balconies had rainbow colored flags with either Paix, Peace or Pace on them. I found only ONE - with Pace on it, and promptly brought it. It had to be around 3:30/4am at this point - and MOST of us were still going strong. Luis and Sanjay were both getting worn out - and this last club had these BIG LONG Couches. Naturally - they BOTH went to sleep. In a club. Right NEXT to the dance floor. The poor things were EXHAUSTED. Those of us who were left standing then closed down the club (and half of yet ANOTHER bottle of Bacardi) - by the time we left, they had turned the lights on for us.
We left around 5am, and went to get something to eat. The very thought of food made my rum filled stomach do some very interesting flips, so I opted out. Pablo then suggested that we walked to the lake and wathc the sun rise - which was going to happen in another hour or so. On our way to the lake - poor Luis simply had enough and collapsed (read - passed out) onto the ground. We refused to just LEAVE him there, and when hand tugging and general noise didn't bring him off the ground, we took tougher measures. I straddled his waist and began to tickle him (he's VERY VERY ticklish) and Phil (who happens to be a good friend of the very straight Luis) sat on his FACE! *laughs* That popped him up - and we finished our walk to the lakeside. We sat, ate, chatted, tired to keep Luis awake (me and Pable were really the only ones still going strong) and 'watched' the sun rise. I say 'watched' because it was so dang cloudy, we never really SAW the sun rise, it just got lighter and so we KNEW it had risen. We finally gave up on seeing the sun really well and caught cabs back to the hotel. I walked back into my room at 6:53am. I had woken UP on Friday at 6:30am. I haven't been awake for 24 hours straight in YEARS, and I can never remember feeling quite so good at the end of the 'day'.
At some point during the night - all those lovely postcards vanished. *sigh* I'm going back (YAYYY!!!!) in July, and I will be SURE to get more and actually send them out.
The rest of the week was actually rather dull! We worked, went out to a great Thai place for dinner one night, and managed to close out the hotel bar EVERY night. Those of us who were leaving Friday morning tired to duplicate Firday night on Thursday, but since the Ge. people had to go to work the next day, we ended up back at the hotel at a very decent hour of 12:30am.
I had wisely packed Thursday afternoon before we went to dinner, so when I woke up a mere 15 minutes before the shuttle left for the airport to catch my plane, I was rather calm - tired as HELL - but calm.

I really can't wait to go back. Heh. I'm going to see if me & The Boy can duplicate a night like that here - I'm sure it's doable.