Bon Voyage--A Semester in Geneva: A Food Filled Weekend!

While several people in the program spent their Revision Weekend traveling to Madrid, Paris, or London, we chose to take a domestic day trip instead. Maggie, Steph, Lauren, Emma, and I packed our bags (of course it looked like I was carrying a small child on my back) and made our way to Gare Cornivan. Friday night, after 7 of course, we were on board the first of three trains for the night. Long travel story short, we had 6 hours of train rides in between us and our hostel in Lugano. While some of the girls slept, I somehow managed to stay awake the entire train ride there. I was so eager to be visiting a place that Bekah had lived in and gone to school for 2 years, Andrew had visited 5 years ago, and Dad had been to several years ago as well! For whatever reason I felt like I was making a pilgrimage and joining a group of people I love in an unexplored place. We literally traversed the entirety of Switzerland in 24 hours, 6 trains, and a total of 12 hours on the train. It would have been a straight shot to Lugano if it wasn't for the Alps but alas, we literally either had to climb mountains or circumnavigate them--clearly, the latter was what we chose. Anyways, we ended up making it to our hostel Saturday morning around 1:30 am. We entered our room and couldn't help but laugh. It literally looked as if we were staying in a spaceship--thank goodness we had a private room! There were 3 mattresses, a little wooden wall, and an additional 3 mattresses all lined up and more or less, that was our room! Definitely clocked in some cuddle/bonding time with the girls. While we thought this was absolutely hysterical (aka foot wrestling over the wall) we all slept like logs. The mattresses conformed to your body shape and nestled you right into them. Morning came to quickly and we had a long day ahead of us! Our primary reason for coming to Lugano this particular weekend was for their Autumn Festival that was taking place this weekend. We started our day off in this incredible bakery that, as most bakeries do, smelled divine. There were the most gigantic, crumbly topped muffins I have ever seen that were so tempting but somehow we managed to avoid them. We quickly began our navigation of the festival and quickly learned that chestnuts and polenta are two of the big Autumn festival delicacies. We decided to pick up some roasted chestnuts (how American Christmas of us!) and were expecting to bite into the delicious sweet smelling nuts we had smelled upon approaching the stand. However, instead we cracked open the roasted shells and bit into a soft nut that tasted and had the texture of a slightly cooked potato. Not the sweet taste we were expecting so unusual facial expression ensued. Now, not only did we feel like we were locals but we also felt as if we had experienced an American tradition 2 months early! We quickly decided we wanted something sweet to wash down our "delicacy" so we tried a local Ticino canton white wine! Yum! We wandered down to the lake front and basked in the sun before we were hungry. Theme of the day...it was nearing lunch time so we decided to go for the much anticipated gnocchi! Two plate fulls of delicious potato pasta covered in the most divine red sauce and topped with parmesan cheese later, we could have been rolled out of the tent! We enjoyed our gnocchi to the sounds of a local band and our sense of being locals continued to grow. Once again, we found ourselves wandering down by the lake. We plopped ourselves down on a bench and shared stories for an hour or so while taking in the incredible views of the hillside contrasted against the glistening, blue, blue water. We continued to explore the festival and tasted some of the fried fish we had seen so many people eating. They were yummy, a little fishy, and in the end we couldn't bring ourselves to eating the larger fish whose tails were quite prominent and it felt as if the fish had just been plucked from the water. Like with the chestnuts, we were glad we had tried them but were looking forward to the main event, polenta! Before this could occur however, we tried Limoncello, ate some of the most delicious gelato I think I have ever had (I got noisette--or hazelnut...SO good!), and watched the preparation of the vats upon vats of what would be one of the fastest meals of my life. We knew we wanted to catch the 7:12 train to Luzern but polenta wasn't served again until 6...we waited in line, tried to be aggressive in holding our stance as two lines merged into one, and somehow Emma managed to be one of the first people served! We shared polenta with the most delicious meat sauce along with a polenta dish with two huge chunks of gorgonzola plopped on top! This was what we had been waiting for all day, and believe me, it was worth the wait. After scarfing down these two dishes (and a complimentary glass of red wine I had received from a friend in line behind me!) we made a rapid trek back to our hostel to fetch our bags and make our way to the train station. We were all winded by the time we got to our platform and we still had a 20 minute wait before our train arrived. Better to be early than late! We were all exhausted and this time I definitely passed out on the train. We were all eager to get back and fall asleep so finally when we arrived home I took a quick shower and was passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

The next morning I woke up and found myself back at the train station. I took a 15 minute train ride to Nyon--the town I am presenting on for Art History. I made a wrong turn out of the train station, ambled around the outskirts of town for 45 minutes before properly orienting myself and making it into the Old Town area. I explored the Chateau de Nyon and la Musee Romain--entrance was free since it was the first Sunday of the month! Nyon was one of the first town founded after Caesar's arrival in 52 BC so obviously there is a large Roman influence. I visited the Roman columns and enjoyed After 8 and dark chocolate gelato as I strolled by Lac Leman on an incredibly clear, sunny day in October! I loved having some time just to myself: exploring a new town, getting lost and having to find my way, and enjoying what will probably be our last week of gorgeous SUNNY weather. I am sure this week is about to get incredibly hectic so a little downtime, even if it will turn into a presentation, was a rejuvenating way to start my week. Good food, good company, exploring and experiencing new things--even if I am already 4 weeks in to my program, I don't think it will ever get old :)