The city with drinkable fountains

Unlike my entry about Interlaken, this time I will let the words tell the story while the camera takes a well-deserved rest.

Close up on the plates

In Basel I got a vivid taste for what Swiss culture is. I'll go through my experience chronologically. After farewelling Sonya on the train in Bern (connecting city for both of our trains) I couldn't really be bothered planning anything and I was lucky enough to meet a lovely American couple on the train. We talked for ages and showed photographs. Had a really nice time and they ended up inviting me out for dinner in the end! I humbly obliged and we had this Mexican dish called Fajitas (it was in that Mexican/American restaurant that I really learned what Swiss culture was: damn you globalisation!). But seriously folks, it was a really nice meal. They brought out this massive tray with some fried meats, vegetables and sauces: it was basically DIY kebabs or burritos. The waiter was something to behold as well: his accent was so strong in both German and English and he would switch between languages mid-sentence if he didn't know a word. So I had quite a challenging time understanding him.

Merr i want to eat your brains

So after I farewelled Mr and Mrs Cody Banks (in-joke), I went searching for this hostel I had described on a sheet of paper. I had no idea how to get there and so I used my tried and trusted method of simply asking someone on the street - this method hasn't failed me yet! I asked a girl which way it was and she gave me this long-winded answer on how to get there. It was an incredibly simple set of directions, only made complicated by sheer distance from the destination. So I set off and I walked for about twenty minutes. I realised that I had gone the wrong way when I was halfway down the river, all the lights had turned off and the street was blocked by construction signs. I managed to flag down a passing girl on a bike to try to again get help. She didn't know where it was, but she flagged down another elderly woman on a bike, so we had one tired backpacker and two ladies on pushbikes in the middle of no where trying to figure out a map under the light from my mobile-phone screen: pretty amusing in hindsight. The result of this meeting was that the older lady realised she knew where it was and she accompanied me all the way there. I hadn't gone too far astray from where I should have been, so it was only five minutes walk, but the fact that an elderly woman would stop in the middle of the night for a stranger really surprised and impressed me: these people aren't taught to fear like at home. On top of this, the Swiss are all willing to give up their time; sort of reminds me of this idyllic ideology called 'mateship' that must be on hiatus at home.

Part of the museum

The hostel was really good and so I was happy just to be there and chill out. There were good info books that helped me figure out the city and I could charge my electronic gear up, unlike in Spain. In my dorm room there was this crazy old man who accused me of being South American. When he figured out where I was from he started cursing in some crazy language that I couldn't identify. I think he was another bum (like the one in Frankfurt) that was staying in the hostel because it was relatively cheap for what it was.

I found the German much easier to understand in Basel and I think I know why: my German teacher was actually Swiss and shortly before the end of our course he revealed that he had been teaching us with a strong Swiss-German accent. So the pronunciation of these people was more homely and they speak slowly anyway. Other than that it is amazing how the Swiss can change between languages so effortlessly. Even the homeless, who I would have thought would be uneducated, could talk to me in three languages (French, English and German). I've said this before, but it makes me so sad that people at home can only speak one language. Language opens such a new realm of understanding and thought. If you want to follow up what I'm talking about, look up the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

The fountain the city centre

I met a cool American girl (I think there is a pattern emerging here) at the bus stop by asking her for directions in German and she responded that she only speaks French or English. When we figured out that we both speak English, we had a chat and when her bus came, as I didn't have any plans for the day, jumped on with her and we went to this crazy museum with all these bizarre contraptions. It was called the Tim Guely museum and featured the artist who influenced a lot of the environmental art in the town centre. It was like two art exhibitions in one: one with art and crazy sculpture and the other with incredible machines. All of the art had a theme of death to it and sometimes was in paintings, collages or a mixture of both. When we got downstairs to the crazy machines section, we were confronted by a dilemma: we couldn't make it work! So I asked the guard nearest to us what the problem was. He told me, in German, that we had to laugh in the direction of the machine in a friendly manner, wait seven minutes and it would spring to life. For a moment, I doubted I had understood what he meant, so I clarified: I had indeed understood correctly. When I translated this bizarre instruction to Colleen (girl I met at bus stop), we both cracked up laughing at the machine and seven minutes later, the man came over, pressed the button and just like he said, it worked. It was an interesting machine that made some strange music. The reality of the situation was that the machines had a nine-minute interval on them so people couldn't play them over and over. Very clever of the guard though: good fun. After the museum, we got a hotdog and a bottle of wine and had a nice lengthy chat about stuff. At the end of the night we said goodbye and she took the train back to the town where she is doing an exchange year in school.

Wall of plates

The town centre of Basel isn't really that interesting except for quirks. There are a hell of a lot of water fountains that you can actually drink from. There is no reason to buy bottled spring water or water from the Alps, when that water flows in your river every day. Incidentally, you can also swim in the river in the summer. The other quirky part is the art that articulates the city streets. A massive wall covered in crockery with writing on them is one and the main water fountain is also interesting. It is like the crazy machines I saw in the museum with gears and moving parts.

Something overall that I've noticed about the Swiss through the two cities I've been to (wow so many!) is that they have a strong sense of national pride. For instance you can see flags flying everywhere and they still haven't succumbed to the power of the European Union. Their currency is very colourful, by the way.