My final 12 days in Lugano went by in what seemed like 12 hours. As you may remember, I arrived in Lugano just before 8am on Monday the 14th of April after spending the night on the floor of the Milan Airport.
While I loved my time in Spain and Portugal, I was particularly excited to return to Lugano to see my family who was arriving that afternoon. I met them around 4pm at AnaCapri, the restaurant by the train station where I celebrated my birthday exactly three months prior. Having not seen them in months, our reunion was incredible. I had so much to tell them before they left for Zermatt the next morning.
Within a matter of minutes of meeting with them, my mom noticed the large purple bruise on my left forearm. It was then that I told my family about my incident in an ambulance a week before. Having survived it, I didn't want to concern them by telling them via text while they were enjoying their time in Italy. Following a light snack, I took my family to the Montarina to show them around my home and introduce them to my Lugano Family.
 |
| Disclaimer: Arjan is standing on his tiptoes. |
I later took them to the castle for a view of the city from above and later the newspaper tunnel, just for fun. We ended our evening at the Spaghetti Store, where Molly, Cat, MK and I enjoyed one of our first meals in Lugano when we arrived in January.
I met them again the next morning for breakfast before they caught their train to Zermatt. My hope was that they would see the Matterhorn clearly after we missed out due to snow on our first weekend of travel. Within minutes of their arrival, I received a photo of it. That afternoon I took advantage of the lovely weather and explored Lugano with some of the ladies on the trip.
Professor Brinberg welcomed us in as part of his family for Passover. Led by Jenny and Dana, we were taught about the traditions of the Passover Seder. We celebrated the evening together as a family and it was wonderful.
 |
| Dana, Professor Brinberg, and Jenny at the Passover Seder |
Wednesday was the last day my Eurorail was active. I made a quick trip to Riva San Vitale, where Virginia Tech's other Swiss campus is located, to meet up with Jenna Zschaebitz. Jenna made a trip back to Blacksburg for Ring Dance a few weeks prior, and returned to Switzerland with a gift from my SGA friends. From Riva I got back on the train and went to Bellinzona. I figured there was no better place to end my a Eurorail travels than where I started them. With David's card in hand, I made my way back to Montebello, one last time. On the way the train stopped in Lugano and eight other members of the Lugano family boarded. The nine of us spent the afternoon throwing a football and enjoying the weather in the beautiful castles of Bellinzona. As you may recall, the first two times I visited the capital of the Ticino canton, it was snowing.
 |
| Back Row (from Left): Kyle, Jenny, Kaitlyn, Susan Front Row: Ashley, Logan, Mary Katherine, Trip, Me |
 |
| Enjoying the view atop Castelgrande with Mary Katherine. |
That night we celebrated both Professor Brinberg's birthday and Trip's 21st birthday at dinner. We moved our celebration to Coyote Ugly after dinner. As the celebrations came to an end, a handful of us took a dip in Lake Lugano.
On Thursday morning we spent the day at the pool before going paddle boating. Logan and I invested in 750 water balloons at the 2-franc store and had filled most of them in preparation for an epic water balloon fight at the castle set to take place after going to the lake. About twenty of us rented boats. Once we were in the middle of the lake, Trip started jumping between boats, stealing shoes and taking them back to his boat. Who knew there were pirates on Lake Lugano? When we returned from paddle boating we were devastated to find our water balloons were all gone. Where they disappeared to is still a mystery.
Coyote Ugly was hosted a thirty-two team beer pong tournament on Thursday night. When we arrived there was room for one team left. Trip and Taylor were our best bet. They needed a little bit of time to adjust to the strange rules of European Beer Pong, but after narrowly winning their first game they went on to win it all. They hoisted a large trophy and each got medals for winning.
On Friday night we went to the carnival located near USI. We spent a while playing in the bumper cars, which were way more intense than any bumper cars you will ever experience in the US. After the carnival, we made a trip to Oops Bar directly next to USI. A group at the table next to us had a delicious looking pizza on their table. Logan and I started talking to one of the guys at their table, while eyeing their pizza. He told us he would offer us a slice, but since it was a vegan pizza, he didn't think American's could handle it. I explained to him that I've been a vegetarian my entire life. With that, he walked to the back of the bar and returned minutes later with an entire pizza for us covered in vegan meat. It was delicious. Hands down, one of the best pizza's I've ever had. We thanked him profusely, and enjoyed the pizza thoroughly. We also came across a stick on mustache at some point, which made for some fun photos.
Lugano was a happening place over the weekend. An Easter festival took over the town. Saturday morning you couldn't walk ten steps without being handed free chocolate samples from people in bunny costumes. As I walked around town while doing some last minute souvenir shopping, I ran into Molly and her parents. As it turns out, this was not Mr. Piffath's first time in Lugano. He had returned with a mission: to find the mysterious George Washington statue near the lake. Molly had told me about this earlier in the semester, but I had never seen the statue myself. To my delight, we were just a few minutes walk from the statue. I joined them in their hunt for the presidential bust. It was a nice treat to see Mr. Piffath's journey complete, and it reminded me of the last thing I needed to do in Lugano. My Uncle Farid had been to Lugano before and insisted I find Cafe Minerva, a hot spot when he was in town.
I said my goodbyes to the Piffath family, and made my way back up the hill to find Cafe Minerva. I was told that it was near the Hotel Colorado, which was visible from the soccer field we frequented. As I made my way to the Hotel, I was delighted to find Cafe Minerva was still there. I treated myself to a celebratory beer and took a few pictures to show my uncle when I returned.
On Sunday morning, our friends who were teaching in Kenya for two weeks finally returned to Lugano. The highly anticipated reunion was tear-filled and much needed. We spent the afternoon listening to the stories of their time in Africa, including their experiences teaching at Bambakofi Academy and their safari. Later that afternoon we played soccer at Franklin University and enjoyed Easter dinner by the lake.
On Friday night we went to the carnival located near USI. We spent a while playing in the bumper cars, which were way more intense than any bumper cars you will ever experience in the US. After the carnival, we made a trip to Oops Bar directly next to USI. A group at the table next to us had a delicious looking pizza on their table. Logan and I started talking to one of the guys at their table, while eyeing their pizza. He told us he would offer us a slice, but since it was a vegan pizza, he didn't think American's could handle it. I explained to him that I've been a vegetarian my entire life. With that, he walked to the back of the bar and returned minutes later with an entire pizza for us covered in vegan meat. It was delicious. Hands down, one of the best pizza's I've ever had. We thanked him profusely, and enjoyed the pizza thoroughly. We also came across a stick on mustache at some point, which made for some fun photos.
 |
| Kaitlyn, Logan, and Trip showing off their mustaches. |
 |
| Giorgio Washington |
On Sunday morning, our friends who were teaching in Kenya for two weeks finally returned to Lugano. The highly anticipated reunion was tear-filled and much needed. We spent the afternoon listening to the stories of their time in Africa, including their experiences teaching at Bambakofi Academy and their safari. Later that afternoon we played soccer at Franklin University and enjoyed Easter dinner by the lake.
 |
| A photo of Kenya taken by Marissa Forte |
On Tuesday we were treated to a fancy dinner by the owner of the Montarina as part an end of semester celebration. We enjoyed dinner outside with wine made on the property. It was there that the winner of the promotional video contest for the Montarina was announced. It was no surprise that the video produced by MaryKate Goff won the grand prize.
On Wednesday we took the train to Riva San Vitale, to take a hike up Monte San Giorgio. The hike itself was arguably the most difficult hike we've completed while in Switzerland, even more so than Monte Boglia which is directly across the lake and almost 500 meters higher. Kyle, Trip, Nick, Molly, Marin and I completed that hike about two days before our trip to Spain. The view from the top of both mountains were incredible.
When we returned to Riva, Professor Brinberg took us to the Riva campus to show us around. We saw a few of our friends and got a feel for what their campus was like. After our brief visit, Professor Brinberg treated us to gelato. That delicious cup of banana gelato was the last cup I had in Europe.
On Thursday it finally started to sink in that our time in Lugano was almost up. We gave our final presentation and finished packing. That evening Nick, Trip, and Taylor hosted the 2014 Lugano Superlative Award Ceremony. I was honored to take home the award for Best Blogger. Thanks to everyone who has been keeping up with the adventures!
At the end of our award ceremony we presented Professor Brinberg with a Swiss flag that was signed by every member of our 2014 Lugano Family.
Immediately following the award ceremony, we took the Smiley Train a few towns over to Bioggio, Switzerland for "The Last Supper." We enjoyed an appetizer buffet followed by a risotto dish. As dinner came to a close, Professor Brinberg gave a speech that brought almost everyone to tears. Our time together really was coming to an end.
 |
| All smiles atop Monte Boglia! From Left: Marin, Molly, Trip, Kyle eating a snowball, me, Nick |
.JPG) |
| The view atop Monte San Giorgio |
At the end of our award ceremony we presented Professor Brinberg with a Swiss flag that was signed by every member of our 2014 Lugano Family.
Immediately following the award ceremony, we took the Smiley Train a few towns over to Bioggio, Switzerland for "The Last Supper." We enjoyed an appetizer buffet followed by a risotto dish. As dinner came to a close, Professor Brinberg gave a speech that brought almost everyone to tears. Our time together really was coming to an end.
Following a sentimental dinner, we made a stop at the newspaper tunnel before our last visit to Coyote Ugly. We closed down Coyote Ugly to the tune of Closing Time by Semisonic, before making our way to Club One. Our plan for the evening was to avoid sleeping. We stayed at Club One briefly, before heading to Lake Lugano, to jump in all together, one last time. We did exactly that.
We returned to the Montarina just hours before our bus left to take us to the airport. At 5:30am we were loading the bus and by 6am we were on our way to the airport after saying our goodbyes to the wizard himself, Professor Brinberg.
We arrived safe and sound in the USA on Friday around 4pm. While my European adventure has come to a close for now, this blog has not. Stay tuned. Ciao!
We returned to the Montarina just hours before our bus left to take us to the airport. At 5:30am we were loading the bus and by 6am we were on our way to the airport after saying our goodbyes to the wizard himself, Professor Brinberg.
We arrived safe and sound in the USA on Friday around 4pm. While my European adventure has come to a close for now, this blog has not. Stay tuned. Ciao!
No comments:
Post a Comment