Road to Europe

Ok, I swear we are going to post more often. I still need to backfill a couple of stories in Mexico, having our raft flip on a raging river and drinking moonshine in the back of a truck with some Italians comes to mind. Hopefully when we have free internet somewhere we can do it.

(no pics this time, this computer is locked down tight)

So off to Europe we go. Just one more note on airplane etiquette: No cowboy boots on the tray tables, this includes you ladies. Ok, with that out of the way the flight went well. Landed in clean orderly Zurich and bought our train tickets to Lugano. I felt like Switzerland would be a good starting point. An amalgamation of French, German and Italian cultures with some order and cleanliness tying them all together. (Brooke`s note: Switzerland is the most gorgeous place I have ever seen in my life.) Brooke was pleased that she fit in a bit better here, rather than the giant white people that just stood out in Southern Mexico. In Zurich we bought our first food. Brooke purchased what I can only imagine is the national food of Switzerland, a giant pretzel (German), stuffed with Salami (Italian) and a little surprise inside, some French butter. Decadent, rich and a little taste of the great food to come.

The train ride is just gorgeous. It was a bit overcast, but it did little to dampen the spectacular natural beauty. Blue lakes composed of glacier runoff and snowmelt, soaring peaks, waterfalls, clear rock strewn rivers, green pines and pastures. Just stunning. Brooke was sufficiently wowed, and I couldn`t be happier to be back in this beautiful place. (B: Seriously, I do not know what could be more gorgeous than mountains, lakes that look like the water just fell from the glacier, white houses with brown roofs, and the feeling that Heidi or Swiss Miss was going to pop out at any minute. Am I going to survive the rest of this gorgeous continent?)

Arriving in Lugano, it just got nicer. Even the train station has a beautiful Italian facade and is on a hill overlooking a gorgeous lake surrounded by steep mountains. Lugano is a resort town just north of the Italian border where Swiss and Germans come on holiday. It is warm for Switzerland (in the upper 70`s when we arrived) and it rarely snows. They plant palm trees everywhere to add to the tropical feel (fuzzy, date palms, not the coconut palms of Mexico - Chrissy, there are a few pics just for you). Down the street from our hostel is Bar Cuba and Bar Siesta. Everyone is so polite here. When driving, people will stop and let others in, and pedestrians always have the right of way (B: ALWAYS! It is amazing how nice people are in this city, I cannot get over it.). It is a bit bizarre after having come from Mexico where the cops almost ran us over when we were crossing with the right of way.

We got to our hostel and it was clean and well run, we took a little cat nap and then hit the town. There is a pedestrian area downtown near the lake that is lined with high-end boutiques and cafes. The guide book recommended eating in the cafeteria of a department store. It steered us right for sure. Pasta bar, pizza made fresh in front of you, soups, self-draft beer. Just what we needed. You pick the ingredients you want in your pizza, then hand them to the guy and let him know if you want salami or proscuitto and he cooks it up in a few minutes. A little gorgonzola, mushroom and proscuitto and we were good to go. Back to the hostel sleep off the rest of the jet lag.

Day two we strolled around the lake soaking in the scenery and took a funiculare (cable car) up to the top of a mountain where you can see the whole lakes region for miles around. Lake Como is nearby, which Brooke never fails to remind me is where Clooney has a home. Noted. You can see Milan on a clear day, which it was not. There were some loud ass Germans on the trip up, they were actually dressed in liederhosen and just making a racket. No worries, we hiked around the top a bit and took in the views and had a little picnic.

Dinner was at a casual little restaurant in the basement of some building. Family-like atmosphere with house wine in carafes and great home-cooked Italian food. The wine was served into bowls that looked like teacups without handles and the water was served in wine glasses. Brooke had Gorgonzola Risotto (yeah, it is as good as it sounds) and I had a homemade sausage with Risotto (B: regular, boring risotto, not the bomb risotto that I had :-). We saw a Capoera troupe perform in the street, had some gelato and called it a night.

The next day we slept in (or I did at least). Still working off that jetlag. We were on our way to go visit the school I went to for a year in 10th grade (TASIS) in a nearby hilltop town (Montangola). We stopped for some espresso with cream, our new favorite breakfast drink, when it started to rain. We waited for it to stop for a bit and had a beer, a great way to start any day. It finally stopped and we went on our way. The school has expanded since I had been there. New buildings, but still retained the old charm. It is built in the middle of the town with narrow cobblestone streets winding all around it. I remember it being beautiful, but I think I appreciate it a bit more now. Perched on a hill overlooking the town of Lugano and the lake, it is really something. Brooke was blown away and just couldn`t believe it. Surrounded by grape vines, orchards and stunning hilltop homes. (B: Okmulgee High School, it was not. There will be descriptions in the pictures, but let me just tell you that I hit Sammer a bunch of times while saying "I can`t believe you went to school here." Wow, it is freaking beautiful. Have I mentioned that this is a gorgeous country?)

We have been stopped and asked for directions three times since we have been here. It is nice to fit in again. Brooke attributes it to her tan and European fashion sense, but I am going with the Italian blood running through my veins. (Brooke says "whatever".) Either way, everyone feels stupid when we say we don`t speak Italian. The water here is pure and delicious. It taste like God`s sweat and they have drinking fountains every so often that tap into underground springs. (B: The water from our bathroom sink tastes like what I imagine gold to taste like. It is so yummy and delicious. I bet the chocolate is just as tasty, but the only kind I have found in the store is Belgian, which was great, but I am in Switzerland and I want to eat some Swiss chocolate.)

Well, off to Venice tomorrow. Hopefully some pics will be up soon. Ciao!