So it was a pretty late start today -but we still have time to go to Coop (a supermarket chain) to get some food and to walk along the water's edge before Michele and Urs come past. There are already a large number of people wearing a bizarre range of clothing... if we hadn't known that the Love Parade was on in the city -we'd be starting to have some very serious questions about the Swiss!! Generally a very conservative people -this festival in particular is a real chance for them to have a massive blow out and let their hair (amongst other things!) out. 
The four of us head out the 10m that is it is from the apartment to the start of the street party, stopping to get authentic sausages along the way. The mustard has a wicked kick and the bread is hard as a rock -but apparently that's just part of it! The rain has sadly started to set in so we hang around under the protection of the sausage awning for another round of drinks before biting the bullet and walking to the main parade route. We're in time to see the first of the 26 floats come past and we can totally see what they mean by a "street party"! Each float has dancers (in various themes) and each has a DJ on board pumping out house or techno music. More amazing are some of the wild costumes of the people following the floats... with no apparent theme except maybe "the weirder the better!". The rain doesn't seem to be deterring people too too much -although after 2 1/2 hours 
we do decide to head home and dry up and regroup for the rest of the party (and partly because Michele's red top is running all down her white pants!). Because our place is so so close -we get back, dry our hair and then notice that the rain has pretty much stopped. Because of this we head back out and get a few photos -as well as walking along to the start of the parade so as to see all of the floats. Once we're properly dried off we meet the others and head out for a very very Swiss dinner of cheese fondue and raclete. It's totally delicious although I understand why they warn us that is feels like a brick in the gut after eating it! We head back out where the party has now made it to the stages... the DJs get off the floats and some of them play on the seven various stages to massive swarms of
(very well behaved) people on the street. We all can't help but notice that there seems to be no aggro, even with the size of the crowd and the number of people drinking... would be very different if it was held in NZ! It all stops at midnight -at which point the masses either hit the clubs or head to bed, we choose the later just because we plan on getting a lot done tomorrow...
The four of us head out the 10m that is it is from the apartment to the start of the street party, stopping to get authentic sausages along the way. The mustard has a wicked kick and the bread is hard as a rock -but apparently that's just part of it! The rain has sadly started to set in so we hang around under the protection of the sausage awning for another round of drinks before biting the bullet and walking to the main parade route. We're in time to see the first of the 26 floats come past and we can totally see what they mean by a "street party"! Each float has dancers (in various themes) and each has a DJ on board pumping out house or techno music. More amazing are some of the wild costumes of the people following the floats... with no apparent theme except maybe "the weirder the better!". The rain doesn't seem to be deterring people too too much -although after 2 1/2 hours 
we do decide to head home and dry up and regroup for the rest of the party (and partly because Michele's red top is running all down her white pants!). Because our place is so so close -we get back, dry our hair and then notice that the rain has pretty much stopped. Because of this we head back out and get a few photos -as well as walking along to the start of the parade so as to see all of the floats. Once we're properly dried off we meet the others and head out for a very very Swiss dinner of cheese fondue and raclete. It's totally delicious although I understand why they warn us that is feels like a brick in the gut after eating it! We head back out where the party has now made it to the stages... the DJs get off the floats and some of them play on the seven various stages to massive swarms of
(very well behaved) people on the street. We all can't help but notice that there seems to be no aggro, even with the size of the crowd and the number of people drinking... would be very different if it was held in NZ! It all stops at midnight -at which point the masses either hit the clubs or head to bed, we choose the later just because we plan on getting a lot done tomorrow... 
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Wow - are you sure you are in Switzerland - I may have to reassess my ideas of what Swiss people are like!
ReplyDeleteReally? You can't imagine Philip in that "Batman" outfit?
ReplyDeleteI'm sure I can see Mike in that first pic...
ReplyDelete