Late Start

Managed to get half an hour of photiwalk done but unfortunately the battery on my X100 died soon after. I brought the charger but not the cable off the mains to the charger. Silly me. I had gondola with ny HTC One in the end. But it was an enjoyable salon none the less. And the city center was not at all crowded and the sunlight was really nice.

But I arrived at my lecture hall 10 minutes late and ended up sitting on the floor since the hall was packed. Well worth the hassle though. Great photos and great lecture. And I didn't have to wait for long.

Lets get it on. Let's see what my colleague had planned for lunch .....

A Country Walk

After breakfast, I had about half an hour before the bus taking me down to the city centre arrived. Not to miss the opportunity, I took a stroll - luckily downhill - towards one of the village down there. It was a nice walk in the cool crisp but sunny morning.

It was a small country lane going up the hotel which I took. That lead me to a small village centre. A couple of hotels, many cute houses, some really nice restaurants and finally settled a couple bus stops down the hill to wait for my ride.

While walking, I cane across many of the town folks and they were ever so charming and nice. All of them, old, young and of course most of them pretty said bongiorno to me, clearly a foreigner. If they thought I wasn't, the camera I was carrying would surely give that away.

Very approachable. One of the English speaking lady - I think she was a kindergarten teacher even striked a conversation with me, asking if I was staying at the hotel up the hill. I said yes, and told her that I was here for the conference and congratulated me for being adventurous.

A welcomed change compared to some of the European who were clearly stuck up the moment they saw a foreigner. Definitely not here in Cademario and Lugano.

A few more snaps. Time was too tight for me to try some coffee, and soon enough the bus arrived. I was met on the bus by a couple of my colleagues. Time to head down to the conference I guess. But I should have at least half an hour to do a bit of a photowalk before the lecture starts. The weather looked gorgeous this morning.

Photos from the walk can be seen here.

Fresh and Ready

Can't resist but to enjoy the vista outside my room this morning when I woke up Sith you guys. The temperature was on the chilly side, and the wind wound down the windchill factor by a couple of notches. It was freezing, and I would need my jumper.

The hotel we stayed was situated right at the top of a hill and exposed to the elements as far as wind and rain are concerned. But inside, the airconditioning was top notch. It had been raining outside the whole night but inside, it was right cosy.

It had a spa, which none of us had managed to sample thus far due to our tight schedule. Nor the swimming pool. Today being the last day - we would be leaving to tomorrow morning - if better make the most of it.

Woke Up Starving

I left the lecture hall for the hotel at 8 pm last night - it wasn't exactly night because sunset was just after 9 pm. The last meal I had was lunch, and dinner was just a cocktail affair just before the evening lecture. Reached hotel just before 9, shower, email, television and I was fast asleep by 10

Woken up at 5 in the morning by the grumbling in my stomach. I was starving. And all I had in the room was some fruits. After those were devoured, I had to wait for breakfast which were served from 6. Luckily the wait wasn't very long.

This morning, I plan to do a bit of walking in town if weather permitting in between the scheduled talk. I wanted to experience the charm of Lugano. As well as take some photographs of course.

So, off to the showers, and would be in front of the queue for breakfast.

Minus 9

In the hot weather, I couldn't help but notice the ice cream stalls at the roadside. Yesterday, I tried a stall by the lake. Italian ice cream were mainly thick yoghurt called gelato. These ones were super thick and taste like the real flavour they were made from. Basically the strawberry gelato taste like you were actually eating strawberry. And I had some coffee flavour, and it cane with coffee beans in the mix. They were that authentic.

I shared the experience with some of my colleagues, and they pointed me out to shop in the middle of town which allegedly serve the best gelato. It was called Minus 9 (-9).

The gelato kiosk I visited the day beforeIt certainly lived up to its billing and then some more. I purposely ordered the coffee flavour, and my God, did it taste like coffee. Costwise, it wasn't that expensive. Possibly cheaper than Haagen-Dasz back home. They even had exotic - to them - flavours such as pineapple and coconuts. No green teai. Yet.

I would definitely have to sneak back there once more before I return back home. The gelato stalls in KL had no chance against these guys ....