Laundry in Lugano

Since we had some down time that afternoon, I decided that I was going to try and get some laundry done.  Not an absolute necessity, but would be convenient to get my jeans cleaned and the clothes I traveled on the plane with.  My dad also wanted his socks washed, and my mom threw in a pair of pants.  I looked in the hotel information, and they would gladly do my laundry - for 8 CHF a shirt (almost $9.00) and so on, so I decided I’d find a laundromat.  I had googled the word for laundromat and punched the word into my apple maps app-- and two showed up nearby.  So off I went, this time UP hill away from the lake, into the more residential area of Lugano.  After about a 15 minute walk, I came upon the first address I had retrieved.  No luck - closed on Mondays (as many shops were in this country).  So on I forged-- continuing up hill.  After about another 5 minutes, laundry bag in hand, I came to the second address I had.  There was one lady inside and she didn’t speak a lick of English.  I showed her my jeans and the package of laundry detergent my mom had given me.  I pointed at myself,  made the action of putting coins in a machine and proceeded to make a washing motion -- which I don’t know if you knew this, but it’s vigorous movement of your hands while swirling a pair of jeans around on the countertop -- to which she responded “no possible.”  Hmmm.  Okay... clearly this was a dry cleaner, and they HAD to wash clothes too, right?  She looked at me and said, “moment.”  Out from behind the counter she pulled a large blue Ikea bag and put all my clothes (and dads and moms) into the bag.  She weighed the bag and told me it was so much money per kilo.  I had 3.5 kilos, and it would cost me 28 CHF ($30).  Great, sure, yep, let’s do this.  I paid her in cash; she denied my Visa (despite the fact that there was a Visa sticker stuck on the front of her cash register) and she wrote 17h (5 o’clock) on a piece of paper.  I said “ok” and off I went.  As I was walking back down the hill, I began to wonder, “did she mean pick things up BEFORE 5 or AFTER 5?  Would I actually get the clothes back?  Would I be able to find the place again tomorrow?  Would she be the one to help me, or would someone else not speak English and have no idea what I was doing there?”  Oh well... hopefully I’d get the laundry back the next day, or I’d have no pants other than the leggings I was wearing.  #fail. 

She called everybody and their brother to see if they could speak English to me - how nice.

This was the shop.  I took a picture so I could make sure I remembered where it was :)