Advice From an Aspiring Designer: Lugano, Switzerland

May 9, 2010
Slept in and hopped onto a train to Lugano, Switzerland. For some odd reasons the trains were super crowded. Then we started talking to the ladies next to us. They were from Germany and had been in Venice. They were supposed to take a plane to Frankfurt Germany this morning, but surprise, surprise, the Milano Airport was shut down this morning with no flights going in or out. Family and friends of other students in the group are arriving in the next few days so we're hoping that everyone is able to get here. More importantly I hope I can fly home. As much as I love it here, I'm ready to go home.
We got to Lugano and started walking around. Everything was closed so there was not much shopping. We stumbled upon a fountain and started taking pictures then some

random guys wanted us to take a picture of them so I jumped in and joined them in the picture. After that we found a souvenir shop and discovered that Switzerland uses Francs and Euros. I thought Switzerland was part of the European Union? Then we kept wandering around the lake. It got a little bit cold so we stopped for a snack of hot chocolate. Oh my goodness. This was literally a melted chocolate bar with some milk added. It was SO yummy!

As we walked we saw a mini castle up on a hill and decided to see if we could get closer. It was not a hill, it was a mountain. Not the Swiss Alps, but I'm sure a sub terrain of them. It was nice to get out and stretch my legs on some hills. There are not any hills in Milan. Turns out the mini castle belongs to a famous person because there was surveillance all around and huge bushes that we peeked through. I considered breaking in but I didn't really want to be arrested by the Swiss guard.

I didn't make it to Pisa, but while here I found a mini Leaning Tower of Pisa!
I decided to stalk up on Swiss chocolate and had to pull out money. Bad idea. They only give you Francs. So now I have an endless supply of useless European money. I randomly found 1200 Rubles in one of my bags! At this point I found out that Switzerland is not part of the European Union. (Guess I should pay more attention in history) Someone told us it's because Switzerland has to stay neutral, and they have all the banks so it doesn't matter...