IAESTE Ticino Weekend

2010-08-04

We caught a train from Zurich to Airolo, which took a few hours. Along the way we played Chinese Whist (what we just called hearts at Ergon) whilst going though the Swiss Alps. Some of the views were pretty cool, but there was lots of tunnels, and tunnels are boring.

In Airolo we got rental bikes and started a 40km (something like that) bike ride to Biasca. It was mostly downhill through the Swiss Alps but was still tiring by the end. At lunch we stopped at Faido and there was an awesome waterfall. Continued riding along the river and huge mountains, and then another stop later at the mining exhibit. They are building a train tunnel underneath the swiss alps, and had an exhibition showing all the mining equipment and how they blow the rock up and such. Then more riding until we got to Biasca and caught the train to Lugano.

At Lugano we were staying at a very cool Hostel, which was also a Hotel so it had a pool and lots of palm trees and other nice stuff. We went to dinner at some restaurant next to the Hostel with Astin Martin car posters all over the wall and had what looked like Fish and Chips with Veggies, but was actually chicken.

Went to the shop and bought a "Swiss Beer" then went down and explored the town and lake. Looking across the lake someone thought that Italy was on the other side, so we looked it up on google maps to find that it was indeed Italy.... but then it went back into Switzerland again. Have a look on a map and it's quite strange. It's called an enclave apparently. See here on google maps to see what I'm on about.

On Sunday we went out on paddle boats on the lake. Not something I would have chosen to do normally but it ended up being really fun. At first we played pirates and hi-jacked each others boats. In the process of which I lost my sunglasses into the lake, and also Ben (from Canada) broke a seat of the boat trying to throw me overboard.

The boat I ended up on (not my original boat) went for a 30min paddle to the other side of the lake (but not to Italy as we were told we weren't allowed to) to try and paddle under a huge fountain... which we did. And it was cold. Also really fun.

Where we were paddling they were also setting up the fireworks on a boat for that night's firework show (as it was Swiss National Day).

We ate lunch in the park then a few of us went for a walk along the lake to see how far it went around the headland, and saw some guys jumping off a bridge. One guy was crazy and jumped off a rock that was about 3m in from the water and had to dodge all these tree branches to get though.

In the afternoon we got the funicular (like a cable car train) to the top of Monte San Salvatore and got a 360 view of the area. There was a fairly (there was a plaque thing from the 1800's on the wall) old church at the top, which is a long way to go if you live at the bottom of the mountain (there was no houses on the way up).

Then back down and to an Italian Pizzeria for dinner. The pizza I got was a Calzone something which was basically just salami and cheese, but tasted very nice. They had like 3 different types of cheeses in it and it worked well. Also because it was a Calzone it was like folded in half and cooked that way, which I'd never heard of but looked pretty cool.

Then fireworks afterwards, we jumped the fence to the park which was locked and watched from in there, so got to sit down and have front row seats. Was very different to the fireworks in Zurich but still incredible. Afterwards one of the boats was on fire (probably the fireworks boat) so we watched the police boats try and put it out (took them a while).

Even when it was finished it was cool to watch the lake as hundreds of boats all left at once and you could see all the lights. They were all honking there horns and letting of their own fireworks as well.

Next day was bungee, then swimming in the Verzasca River afterwards, which reminded me of stoney creek but was much much prettier and also way colder. There was a 13m high bridge that people were jumping off but I was happy jumping off a rock next to it, that was probably only 7m high.

Apparently the water was 10m deep just below the bridge, and as we were leaving some guys started scuba diving in the water, so it must have been. The water was so clear you could still see the bottom though.

Then a bus to the bottom to the mountain, a train to some other town that had a huge castle on the hill that we didn't have time to look at then back to Zurich and then Turgi by about 10.30 that night.