Overdue, and no doubt incomplete
Okay, everyone can stop dropping the 'subtle' hints about the blogging infrequency. I mean, come on - we knew I wouldn't be GREAT at this, right? I have good intentions and all, but then things heat up at work and extraneous things like blogging and sleeping and having a social life go right out the window. So things are still quite busy at work, but I'm home alone on a Saturday night with two dogs and one cat (whilst Scott is off playing in the Alps with his friends - those Hausmen get crazy when they leave the wives and kids behind), so I figure I can spare a few minutes from my DVD watching time to write a bit.
So, what's new in the past nearly-two-months since I posted last? Not a lot, essentially. But things have happened in Basel in the meantime. Let's see...in February, Fasnacht took place. It's the Swiss version of Carnival. The Swiss don't cut loose but once a year, and then they cut compleeeeetely loose. It all begins in typically bizarre 'fun' style - with a silent parade at 4 a.m. on Monday morning, called Morgenstreich. They turn off every light in town and then march through the streets carrying large, lighted political signs. Hmm. We missed it, b/c we had gone out of town - more on that in a minute. Anyhow, following the strange morning parade, the fun blossoms into more strangeness. There are costumes everywhere, but more importantly, everyone wears big masks - mostly made out of papier mache, it looks like. And these big costumed mask-wearing people all play in marching bands, 24 hours a day. They literally just parade around town for three days straight playing marching band music. And many people gather to watch from the sidelines. It's a party, Basel style. Some of the masks are disturbingly frightening. And since we live right near the middle of the Altstadt (old city), these bands are marching very near our house, and often right down our street. We took some pictures from our balcony, which, of course, I need to figure out how to post along with all the other pictures we have waiting to be put up for y'all to see.
So anyhow, for the first two days of Fasnacht merriment, Scott and I had gone out of town. We went to a small ski village called Lenk, just over the mountain from Gstaad (but far cheaper). We stayed in a cute little hotel with one of Scott's hausman friends, and his wife and kids. It was fun. I don't ski, of course, but we had fun nonetheless. I even took the dogs up the mountain on the gondola (they were freezing and didn't dig it overly much) and met up with everyone for lunch. Also did a lot of reading and napping, which was a lovely break and a very stress-free vacation. Another fun thing we did in Lenk was go on a two-horse open sleigh ride, and it was soooo beautiful out. It was about 5 p.m. and sundown/twilight time, we got some good pictures (yes, same story - eventually to be posted hopefully). It was a really fun break, and lovely alp location.
Speaking of Alps, Scott is off with his friends in a place called Scuol (sp?? It's pronounced like Skoal), it's about 3-4 hours train ride from here, and it's in the Romansch section of Switzerland, close to Italy. For those of you that don't know this already, and that included me a few short months ago, Romansch is one of Switzerland's four official languages. It's a very old latin-ish language. Anyhow, it's supposed to be a really cool place - one of my friend's here goes there pretty regularly. So maybe we'll go again and I'll go this time. They're not skiing, though, they're actually on a hiking trip.
Another fun thing we did recently was go on the Alsace wine route, which is just a short ways from here in France. It goes through all the vineyard country and a bunch of small towns that are very old, even medieval sometimes. Cute shops, great restaurants. It was really good. You'll have to come see it...it's really cool. Last night, I went to France with my friends, and took the dogs since Scott is out of town, and we went and put the dogs at her house, in Riedisheim (Alsace is schizophrenic re: the French/German thing, since it was a region that went back and forth between the French and Germans several times...there's about 100 towns in the area that have totally German names, most of them end in 'heim'), then went to Mulhouse to a Lebanese restaurant. It was really good. France has better food than Switzerland, generally speaking. And it's cheaper too.
Okay, that's it for now - I'll be back, but no guarantees re: when. :-)
So, what's new in the past nearly-two-months since I posted last? Not a lot, essentially. But things have happened in Basel in the meantime. Let's see...in February, Fasnacht took place. It's the Swiss version of Carnival. The Swiss don't cut loose but once a year, and then they cut compleeeeetely loose. It all begins in typically bizarre 'fun' style - with a silent parade at 4 a.m. on Monday morning, called Morgenstreich. They turn off every light in town and then march through the streets carrying large, lighted political signs. Hmm. We missed it, b/c we had gone out of town - more on that in a minute. Anyhow, following the strange morning parade, the fun blossoms into more strangeness. There are costumes everywhere, but more importantly, everyone wears big masks - mostly made out of papier mache, it looks like. And these big costumed mask-wearing people all play in marching bands, 24 hours a day. They literally just parade around town for three days straight playing marching band music. And many people gather to watch from the sidelines. It's a party, Basel style. Some of the masks are disturbingly frightening. And since we live right near the middle of the Altstadt (old city), these bands are marching very near our house, and often right down our street. We took some pictures from our balcony, which, of course, I need to figure out how to post along with all the other pictures we have waiting to be put up for y'all to see.
So anyhow, for the first two days of Fasnacht merriment, Scott and I had gone out of town. We went to a small ski village called Lenk, just over the mountain from Gstaad (but far cheaper). We stayed in a cute little hotel with one of Scott's hausman friends, and his wife and kids. It was fun. I don't ski, of course, but we had fun nonetheless. I even took the dogs up the mountain on the gondola (they were freezing and didn't dig it overly much) and met up with everyone for lunch. Also did a lot of reading and napping, which was a lovely break and a very stress-free vacation. Another fun thing we did in Lenk was go on a two-horse open sleigh ride, and it was soooo beautiful out. It was about 5 p.m. and sundown/twilight time, we got some good pictures (yes, same story - eventually to be posted hopefully). It was a really fun break, and lovely alp location.
Speaking of Alps, Scott is off with his friends in a place called Scuol (sp?? It's pronounced like Skoal), it's about 3-4 hours train ride from here, and it's in the Romansch section of Switzerland, close to Italy. For those of you that don't know this already, and that included me a few short months ago, Romansch is one of Switzerland's four official languages. It's a very old latin-ish language. Anyhow, it's supposed to be a really cool place - one of my friend's here goes there pretty regularly. So maybe we'll go again and I'll go this time. They're not skiing, though, they're actually on a hiking trip.
Another fun thing we did recently was go on the Alsace wine route, which is just a short ways from here in France. It goes through all the vineyard country and a bunch of small towns that are very old, even medieval sometimes. Cute shops, great restaurants. It was really good. You'll have to come see it...it's really cool. Last night, I went to France with my friends, and took the dogs since Scott is out of town, and we went and put the dogs at her house, in Riedisheim (Alsace is schizophrenic re: the French/German thing, since it was a region that went back and forth between the French and Germans several times...there's about 100 towns in the area that have totally German names, most of them end in 'heim'), then went to Mulhouse to a Lebanese restaurant. It was really good. France has better food than Switzerland, generally speaking. And it's cheaper too.
Okay, that's it for now - I'll be back, but no guarantees re: when. :-)
posted by Swizzies at 21:44
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