lo siento para todos

Well I do have to admit that when I began this epic adventure, my intentions of habitually journaling were pure. But now with only 10 days left and being that the finish-line is in plain sight, I would like to take a moment to apologize to my regulars–if they are still lingering. My entries have became few and far between and I´m sorry. This trip has been exactly what needed but not nearly enough of it. Although spending the night in completely unfamiliar and unsafe places hasn’t been a common occurrence during this trip, the notion of being on my own and traveling with the bare essentials has swept me of my feet–I’ve falling in love with this lifestyle.

The last you´ve heard of me I was in Germany. My ridiculously brief description of Deutschland didn´t do it justice though. My relatives opened my mind to German history and my cousin and his friends opened my eyes with prolonged night of eating, drinking, and dancing– a schedule that would leave american frats boys wanting their mommies to tuck them in early. But the short stay in Germany really wasn’t enough.

I took the overnight train from Cologne to Zurich and 30 minutes later hopped on a train headed to Milan. My stop was in Lugano, Switzerland, probably the southern most lake\resort town before the Italian-speaking Swiss actually turn into Italians. Fortunately I had connections with a friend´s roommate and I spent the next two days engaging in half vegetable-like behavior and half adventurous nap-sacking. Now, my experiences in Europe have been extremely isolated and there is so much more to investigate, but the route through Switzerland was by far the most beautiful string of scenery I have ever seen. The 3 1\2 hours from Zurich to Lugano takes you into the alps, past jagged mountain puncturing the sky which provide the thirsty lakes with a fresh supply of the pristine life-blood. Passing towns on lakes, and villages along mountainsides, the ride was eye-opening, even after traveling for nearly 16 hours.

My time in Lugano went fast, but resting was well deserve. I decided a longer presence in Italy would have disrupted the natural flow of my trip–Italy deserves more than a few days–so I only spent a day in Milan, waiting for my night flight to Barcelona.