Life As We Live It

Onwards to Lugano, Switzerland to visit our friend Bianca…a german girl we had met en route (way back in Peru) who insisted we come to see her in Lugano. We were all to happy to oblige, or at least try…acquainting with a new friend, a free place to stay in a VERY expensive part of Europe and a few more days we didn’t need to plan. Unfortunately, when it came time for us to get to Lugano, Bianca was VERY busy indeed. Changing jobs, buying cars in far off cities, etc. We had purchased an EasyJet ticket (discounted European airline) that took us to Milan, and we had planned to get a bus from there to Lugano. Upon arriving in Milan, we were unable to contact Bianca on her cell phone…and after spending about 5 euros on unsuccessful phone calls (frustrating system)…we made the decision that perhaps we’d give her one more night of freedom and spend the night in Milan. There was a huge church, the 4th largest in the world, that we were interested in seeing…and we just figured that it would be easier at that point. The long and the short of it is that it was a bad decision…in many ways…but that’s just how life works out sometimes when you’re traveling rather spontaneously and without schedule. Milan was rather dirty and not terribly attractive, and the hostel that we had booked from the airport was a HOLE! It was like a big hippy/druggie hang-out…and we just didn’t feel TOO safe there. We met a lone American girl who was very happy to see that there were a few other ‘normal’ people in her dorm room. I cruised the streets for some pizza and Chinese food, we dined, and dashed out of there the next morning. The subway system was good…we made our way to El Duomo…the huge church, and were thoroughly impressed with that. Unbelievable construction, carving, size, history, etc. We had been in touch with Bianca by that point…and besides gathering that we had stood her up the night before I understood through the very crackly phone conversation that we’d meet her at the train station. Circumstance didn’t bring us together again though…just unlucky timing…but we spent a few beautiful days in Lugano anyway. Even though we couldn’t afford a damn thing…besides a cool swatch for Teresa…we did find the city VERY beautiful, serene and worth visiting. Like much of Switzerland…it seemed perfect! One Swiss girl we met described her country as ‘too beautiful’…such that it became boring to her. Although we could see that as a possibility, the short time we had in Switzerland was filled with open mouthed gawks at the beauty and serenity. We also met a young French-Canadian girl in Lugano and had the frustrating conversation with her about her desire to separate from the rest of Canada. It seems like excess pride and misunderstanding of ‘english-Canada’ plays a big role in their selfish desire to split from this incredible country we all take for granted far too often! She mentioned that she’d vote for independence if there were another referendum in the future…but if it failed this second time, she’d concentrate her efforts on being a good Canadian. We wondered why she couldn’t adopt that attitude NOW instead of waiting. Mucho frustrationado!