January 11th, 2013
The Montarina - my home!
I can't believe I am finally here in Lugano! It only took...an 8 and a half hour flight...and then a 3 hour bus ride from Zurich to Lugano.
It was a full on blizzard driving all through Zurich, and it was beautiful! I think we drove through as many tunnels as we did out of tunnels, but I was dozing in and out of sleep so it didn't phase me all that much. Then, after a 3-hour bus ride we get to Lugano! This place is B-E-A-U-tiful. And the Montarina is this cute little pink hotel that we are staying at.
We did a quick drop off of our luggage, and I am not kidding when I say this, I lucked out with the best room in the place! Our view is unreal.
It was a full on blizzard driving all through Zurich, and it was beautiful! I think we drove through as many tunnels as we did out of tunnels, but I was dozing in and out of sleep so it didn't phase me all that much. Then, after a 3-hour bus ride we get to Lugano! This place is B-E-A-U-tiful. And the Montarina is this cute little pink hotel that we are staying at.
We did a quick drop off of our luggage, and I am not kidding when I say this, I lucked out with the best room in the place! Our view is unreal.
The view from my window
Here's a picture of the view from my bedroom!
Afterwards, we had lunch where we will be eating all our breakfasts and dinners while we're here at the Montarina. And finally we took a stroll through Lugano! And by stroll I mean walking up and down hills for miles, our legs are all going to look great by the end of the semester haha. But that's all for now! Ciao!
Fun Facts:
- Everyone here wears fur coats and has dogs
- Pandora doesn't exist here!!! :( :(
January 14th, 2013
On top of Mt. San Salvatore!
Lugano has been fantastic so far! This past weekend we already did so much it seems like! Saturday we all left at 10am for a "little walk up a hill" as our professor (Brinberg) liked to describe it as. We've now established that he must call it "a 10 mile hike up a mountain in the Alps." It was quite an experience, and we are all still hurting from it, but the views from the top were SO worth the pain haha. We got back to the Montarina around 4:30 and rested up, showered and got ready for our first night out in Lugano! We found this cute little restaurant for dinner called Quattro Sorelle (Four Sisters) and became great friends with the owner, Keles, who speaks absolutely no English, but we got by with gestures and I picked up on a few Italian words from knowing French. By the end of the night, Keles had given our table of about 15 people free wine, dessert and gum (I know, random). But I have a feeling we will be going back to this place a lot, who doesn't love free wine? We continued on to a place called Coyote Ugly where we basically took over considering how small it is. After close, a few Swiss people walked with us to a place called The Underground that we think we will going back to as well. I spent most of the time outside of it talking to some of locals. I was switching between English, French, and the very little Italian I know along with gestures. The only bad thing that happened this weekend was that I dumped an entire water bottle on my phone :( so I do not have pictures of the hike right now, but I'm hoping I can get it repaired. I apologize if you've tried to contact me, but I'm hoping I can get it figured out. But other than that, it was definitely a good start to the semester! Sunday, I had planned on getting groceries, but...turns out basically everything is closed on Sunday's except for restaurants, oops. We ended up getting lunch at a little cafe in the Piazza (town square next to Lake Lugano); however, we will not be going back because, well, a small two pieces of toast with a slice of ham and cheese (if you can call it that) was 7 francs! Outrageous. Oh yeah, did I mention how expensive it is here. It's crazy. After lunch we spent most of the day in our common room of the Montarina basically planning out our first weekend of travel as well as our first 10-day break which is in February. This coming weekend some of us are heading to Milan! We're going to spend Friday night in Milan and tour Saturday, then Sunday we are going to Bellinzona. Today was our first day of class, and right now we are taking Consumer Behavior. Our schedule is SO nice. We have Consumer Behavior Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9:30-12:30pm, and then Italian Tuesday/Thursday 9:30-12:30pm, a lunch break and then another class 2-5 (I think?) Not exactly sure yet, but the classes already seem like it's going to be a lot different then taking a lecture class in Blacksburg. We actually make it more of a class discussion and talk about things that are current. But, that is all for now! Ciao!
January 16th, 2013
Not a whole lot to update on, except I know my dad is going to be asking me to send him my schedule next time I Skype so here it is:
Monday: 9:30am - 12:30pm Consumer Behavior
Tuesday: 9:00am - 12:00pm Italian
1:00pm - 4:00pm Consumer Behavior
Wednesday: 9:30am - 12:30pm Consumer Behavior
Thursday: 9:00am - 12:00pm Italian
1:00pm - 4:00pm Consumer Behavior
Friday: 9:00am - 12:00pm Italian
Things that I have learned so far that you might not know about Lugano:
Ciao for now!
Monday: 9:30am - 12:30pm Consumer Behavior
Tuesday: 9:00am - 12:00pm Italian
1:00pm - 4:00pm Consumer Behavior
Wednesday: 9:30am - 12:30pm Consumer Behavior
Thursday: 9:00am - 12:00pm Italian
1:00pm - 4:00pm Consumer Behavior
Friday: 9:00am - 12:00pm Italian
Things that I have learned so far that you might not know about Lugano:
- Pedestrians do not have the right of way
- There is such a thing as a pizza vending machine, and no I haven't tried it, I'm afraid
- Palm trees do exist in the alps
- You bag your own groceries here
- A combo meal at McDonald's here is 15 francs...not cheap
- People don't really like when you want to pet their dog...doesn't really stop me
- No one speaks English
- Italian ham (prosciutto) tastes amazing on anything
- A common pizza topping is tuna and onions (not the biggest fan)
- No overweight people
- It's common for the Swiss to only have one minuscule glass of water throughout a 3 hour dinner
- In America, when you pass people, you might smile on occasion, here, people look at you funny if you do that
Ciao for now!
February 5th, 2013 - Interlaken and Bellinzona Trip
Mountainside of Interlaken
I didn't exactly spend this past weekend how I had planned, but I still enjoyed it! My friend Savannah and I left Lugano Friday afternoon at 1:30 for our train to Interlaken, Switzerland. It is about 6 hours by train from Lugano, and Interlaken is a place known for all things adventurous: skiing/snowboarding, canyoning, water sports and paragliding (which was what I was planning to do). We got to Interlaken by 7:15 and it only took us about ummm 45 minutes to find our hostel! We haven't exactly learned our lesson that taking a taxi is our best route, but oh well. When asking for directions from a worker at a local Migros, they essentially couldn't even figure out what street they were on, so they were just as confused as we were. Anyways, we get to our hostel and end up getting checked in at a bar where the bartender just pulled out her Mac, checked our reservation and pulled out a key from a drawer just under all the liquor...a little odd, but that's what you get when you pay 25 francs a night for a room. We were in a room for 4 people so we were really hoping it was just going to end up being Savannah and I, but nope. We were in a bunk room with two Korean guys that were quite startled when we walked in...oops. It also didn't help that they spoke minimal English. Savannah and I were on a mission to get fondue for dinner in Interlaken but after researching it online beforehand, it was a little out of our budget (like 40 francs/person). So, us being cheap college kids, we ended up bringing our own mini microwavable fondue with apples and bread for dinner, woo! We ended our night at a club called Balmer's which is located under one of the most popular youth hostels in Interlaken, and we met TONS of Americans and made some friends with people who were studying abroad in Vienna and Barcelona so that we could get tips of places to go when we visit! Saturday morning, we woke up to a BLIZZARD. My original plan was to go paragliding which basically means I jump off the side of a mountain and fly over the mountains for about twenty minutes and land in a field. But unfortunately, there was literally no visibility, so I got refunded :( but here is a video of what I was supposed to do.
We ended up taking an earlier train back to Lugano on Saturday afternoon than we had originally planned because the weather just wasn't exactly ideal. It was a nice treat for Savannah and I though because when we got back to Lugano, our professor and "house Mom" Ashley took us out to dinner. We were the only 2 students back at the Montarina so it was nice having some peace and quiet. On Sunday, Savannah and I took an afternoon trip to the town of Bellinzona which is about a 30 minute train ride outside of Lugano which is known for its beautiful castles. We decided to take a tour of Castelgrande (the largest of all Bellinzona's castles).
Overall the weekend was a nice break from our go-go-go weekends. It's hard to believe but we leave for our first 10-day trip on Friday morning at 4:30am! Eek! We're off to Budapest, Prague and Berlin!
Ciao!
Ciao!
April 22nd, 2013 - Easter Weekend in Lugano
Lake Lugano
We decided to spend our Easter weekend in Lugano because of the gorgeous weather and because Lugano sets up tons of markets that run all through the streets near the lake. We didn't do anything too exciting but we did have an interesting Easter Sunday. For lunch, we splurged and bought ourselves, Burger King...yup I said splurged. It costs about 12+ francs for a combo meal, haha. Afterwards we decided to go paddle-boating on Lake Lugano which was really fun! My friend Savannah and I split the cost of a small boat for an hour and explored a little bit of the lake. As it turns out, it takes a lot longer to paddle across a lake than you think, haha, but we did our best. We then did some more exploring of all the markets which had everything from soaps to clothes to jewelry to all types of food, but again being in Lugano everything is expensive so I didn't get anything. Then we spent the rest of the day laying out by the pool! For dinner we went to a restaurant called Anacapri that overlooks the water and we all got fancy pasta! It was definitely a much needed relaxing weekend because we were gearing up for our last week of classes followed by our last 10-day which I will have up blogs about soon! Ciao!