adventure [ad-ven-cher]
an exciting or very unusual experience; participation in exciting undertakings or enterprises
Synonyms include: chance, experience, feat, peril, undertaking

Have you ever ventured to an unknown place and felt like the only person there? Well, that, in a nutshell, is what Lugano, Switzerland was like for us.

Mission #3 - Get to Lugano and find the

Hotel Walter (pronounced, "Valter")
Point of Origin - Zurich, Switzerland
Destination - Lugano, Switzerland

After the cancelled-flight-3-hour-train-ride, we finally arrived to a rainy Lugano. I think we might've needed that train ride to settle down. Some of us took naps, made some friends (I met this brother and sister during the ride. I love 'em!), sketched (Pat, did you sketch?) and wrote. In the end, we got some breathing time from all the running around Zurich.

The train tracks in Switzerland are situated above the city, so in order to get to street level, we had to ride this tram that moves up and down this track on an incline. It's called a "funicular."

Oh, we were just so happy to be there! Look at those elated faces!!! We were worn out, dirty and most importantly - we were starving! It was all good though because all we needed to do now was find the hotel. We know it's next to a lake.

Check out the sign hanging on the wall and look where the arrow is pointing. HAHAHA! Oh Nonna. It's already foreshadowing that wheelchair picture of yours!

Check out the elevator in our hotel. There was no way the 6 of us with our luggage would fit in that closet, so off we went 2 at a time. I've never been in an elevator where you had to open and close the door yourself.

This is our, "Yay we made it and we've freshened up - LET'S GO EAT NOW!!!" picture. We all just kind of plopped our luggage anywhere, got dressed and bounced!"

Cheers to our first official European meal!!! The Spaghetti Store (which was about 5 steps from our hotel)

And so the modeling began...

***

Mission #4 - Find Andrew
Point of Origin - Hotel Walter

Destination - Vico Morcote

Cile, Kay and I left the curtains on our huge French-door/window open the night before so that the sun would wake us up. I woke up, but only because I heard Cile, "Anna. Anna...are you awake? Anna?" hahaha! Us girls just kind of lay in bed that morning, waiting for the sun to come out.

We got up eventually to have our awesome complimentary, continental breakfast. We were the first ones in the dining hall. Hahaha! Eager much? Well, we needed our sustenance for the day that lay ahead. I love how food made us happy all the time.

If I had known ahead of time that we'd be walking up dirt roads, wading through trees and bushes, and climbing castle walls, I would've passed on the grooming that morning. To think I almost wore flats!

So this is a view of Lake Lugano from Andrew's room. All I could say was wow, he wakes up to this every morning! So while Cile was blogging in Andrew's room and while Andrew got dressed, Kay, Pat, Seong, Randy and I decided to walk around the area to explore and, what else, take pictures.

Let's play, "Find Grams..."

We took this picture in Andrew's room BEFORE the day had REALLY started for us. See how clean and energized we look?...well, except for Kay who just woke up from a nap.

As we went on our way up hills and down hills, past houses and buildings, we came across this random balcony that overlooks the lake. Interesting, we thought - let's take a jumping picture!

At this point I was like, "Oh my gosh, Andrew, where the hell are you taking us?"

After some of us climbed that wall...well, after Randy gave me a boost and Andrew and Seong lifted me up the ledge, I took this picture. That background, foreground - everything that surrounded us, took my breath away. That climb was well worth it.
There was an almost haunting aura about that place. Aside from the fact that the 7 of us were LITERALLY the only people in that area, we felt like there was some sort of presence watching over us. The castle reminded me of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers: the brick, wrought iron hinges, hooks and door handles, the archways, staircases with no banisters. That's what I love about Europe the most; you feel like you're in a different time when you're there.

Well, Nacho Libre is timeless I suppose. I love how Kay's pose and face is just kind of like, "Oh boyfriend, stop it."

When it was time to get back down from the castle, I was panicked, I will admit. Randy, Seong and Andrew will certainly attest to this. After 5-10 minutes of coaxing, the 3 of them finally convinced me to hop down from the ledge and that's me cheering. Thanks for not letting me fall down the hill and into the lake, guys!

Oh these pros. I'll be walking behind them and just count 1-2-3 and then I get this.

After that little tour (or trespassing, whatever you'd like to call it), we were ready for lunch! So Andrew takes us on this "nature walk" down to the lakeside. What a path we followed! The ground was completely flooded with leaves that had fallen from the canopy of trees above.

When we get to the end of that beautiful walkway, we came upon this hill. Andrew said that the gate that led to the next path was locked and that the quickest way to get to the bottom of the lake would be to climb down this hill. I believe my exact words were, "YOU WANT ME TO CLIMB DOWN WHAT?!" I think I almost passed out. And then Pat opened the gate and I cursed them all!

Don't Seong and Cile look like they're on a honeymoon?

Oh wait, ANDREW AND CILE look like they're on their honeymoon. Hahahaha!
Here's us at the end of the day. Not so fresh, not so clean, dead tired and, of course, hungry.

Here's our taxi driver, Giuseppe who reminds me of Andy Garcia. He really toughed out the drive up to Vico (it's not the easiest place to get to when your entire van has no idea how to get there and the one person who does is Andrew on the phone with Cile!). After he dropped us off, he offered to pick us back up. You get extra swiss francs for that, buddy!
Here we are back at the Spaghetti Store, having our last few drinks before heading off to bed. We just kind of sat there, outside, by the lake and laughed about everything. "To think, " we kept telling ourselves, "this is only the second day of this trip!"

I took this picture from the street. That's our terrace and up there are the boys peeking out of their window.
We spent the morning walking around the lake, soaking in as much Lugano as we could before the train ride to Venice. It's not a very big city, and everything was closed because it was Sunday so we didn't do much exploration beyond Vico Morcote. Even so, the adventure remained....