FASNACT CARNIVAL: BASEL STYLE

Monday 2nd March!

So we met Allison at the train station and the three of us hopped onto a train for Basel; which would have cost us 30CHF one way but thanks to our beautiful Voie 7 (which we freaking paid 250CHF for) we get to travel for free in Switzerland after 7.

The train ride took about 2 hours but we found ways to amuse ourselves with photos and chit chat. Allison said the ride would have been amazing if we had taken it during the day because the countryside between Lausanne and Basel is beautiful. Guess that’s what saving 30 bucks cost us. When we got to Basel, Allison was the only one with good enough German to actually help us find our way around the place; but since Swiss German and real German is completely different and Swiss Germans hate speaking in real German– Allison was petrified to talk to them because apparently they ‘just look at her and want her to die’. Haha.

We somehow found our way onto a Basel tram which took us to Jonas’s and he picked us up at the station. We crashed at Jonas’s on Saturday night and decided we were in love. When we arrived, he showed us his house and then took us to a room where he’d prepared mattresses and sleeping bags; there was a computer, TV, DVDs. He then showed us the bathroom, got a hairdryer for the girls and told us if were hungry we could go to the kitchen and have whatever we liked. Basically the perfect host. We basically spent the rest of the time before we went to bed discussing how great Jonas was and how both girls had boyfriends so they should both stop discussing how great Jonas was. We eventually fell asleep.

We woke up pretty late Sunday morning and had delicious cheese and bread at Jonas’s for brekkie. He then took us for a walk just to show us a bit of the outskirts of Basel and we ended up in Germany! I love Europe! So for those who don’t know, Basel is a Swiss city on the border of Germany and Switzerland – oh and also the language Swiss German (spoken in Basel) is very different to High German (Spoken in Germany) – to a degree that they’re basically differently languages spoken out loud (oo like Cantonese and Mandarin). We went back to Jonas’s place for lunch and his family were awesome. They made us some crazy traditional Swiss food which was both delicious and satisfying. Jonas is half Swedish and so his family has all these Swedish things around the house and I’ve decided that I now love Swedish people who not only invented IKEA and Swedish meatballs but are tall, blonde and blue eyed and have the coolest dispositions (big word!) I am therefore going to marry a Swede or at least have a fantastic European fling with one... and no. Not with Jonas -_-

After lunch, me, Julz and Allison went into the centre of Basel to further explore the great city. Basel is like a big city crossed with a small town. There are no skyscrapers but there are shops and restaurants somewhat similar to Queen St mall, but then at the same time, there’s little alley ways and streets with olden day houses that looks like it should be on the movie set of something set in the 1100s. The best thing about this town and especially for Carnival is that it actually feels like you’re in a Roman carnival running down alleys and going down mini walks with stone walls and to either side. The city was preparing for the Carnival that starts on Monday morning (so we’re currently on Sunday afternoon) There were people selling Plaggedde which is a Fasnact (name of the Carnival) badge that everyone has to wear during the Carnival. It’s the only way that the Carnival is funded and it comes in bronze, silver and gold. Being the poor students that we were, we each bought a bronze one in preparation for the following day. Allison said that people who are seen during Carnival not wearing a badge gets the confetti stuffed out of them...we had badges... we still got the confetti stuffed out of us! Around 6 we went back to Jonas’s and had dinner (cheese and breadJ) with him. We bummed around his place until about 8.30 then we left to go meet up with the other kids (Matt, Kimberly etc and my parrain Tobias who’s place we were staying at on Sunday night). Jonas went home on Sunday night because he had class the next morning and he’d been to Fasnact countless times already.
We met up with Tobias and the others at the train station and there was like 9 of us cause he had some other Japanese friends who were going to stay with him...that’s where the trouble began. We went to his mum’s house and she was a really nice lady. Very big house! It was like aristocracy, all the furniture in the house were more than 200 years old and the china which she used to serve us tea were like designer cups covered in beautiful patterns etc. We were peasants in a noble’s house. Now here was the problem, when we were all going to sleep (there were definitely enough room) she asked me and Matt where our quilt coverings etc were. We were like...um we didn’t bring any. She was obviously very proper so every bed we slept on needed quilt coverings or at least sleeping bags and none of us had brought any so she got really angry because she had to use her own covers– the anger was directed at me and Matt whom she was talking to - she did not want to have to do laundry for 9 people. The girls were quick on their feet and pretended they all brought stuff so she was just pissed at me and Matt. Obviously the girls didn’t bring stuff so we were all kind of scared cause we were in this angry woman’s house and we couldn’t sleep on things without the appropriate covering. 5 of us huddled into one room and on one bed and kind of just stayed awake the whole night in fear. Very pleasant evening. It was our fault and I completely understand why she was kind of annoyed... I wouldn’t want to have to do laundry for 9 people so we all felt really bad and bought her chocolates the next day to say thank you.

Now finally for Carnival!

We got up at 3 in the morning... well didn’t really sleep and headed into the town. There were people everywhere and the weather was shit...it was raining. Swiss rain which means it was just drizzling but still cold and miserable! Everyone gathered in the town square and at exactly 4 in the morning, every light in the place went off plunging us into total darkness. Then the flute and drums started and we were told it was the music armies use to march to whilst going to war. People in masks holding lanterns marched across the street and just dispersed all throughout central Basel. We spent an hour just running down the alleyways following marchers playing the flute and drum. It was definitely an experience. I just remembered thinking how like a real Roman carnival it felt. Phoebe will appreciate this cause we both did Carnival as a subject for a semester last year but it was actually exactly like the way Veronica described and it was so weird to actually know theory behind the whole thing haha. The parade went for an hour and stopped at 5 at which time we all went and got coffee and breakfast. Afterwards we all went back to Tobia’s mum’s place and squeezed back into the one room. We decided we actually needed some sleep if we wanted to keep going during the day so 2 people sat on the couch and fell asleep and 4 of us got into a standard queen size bed and squeezed. It went Matt, Allison, me and then Julz. We physically couldn’t move, we were all our sides in our jeans inside the cover and it was like a 1000degree oven for me and Allison – meanwhile her ghetto booty haha was all up in my space... just jokes Allison! Apparently the two kids on the side got cold cause me and Allison hogged the blankets while me and Allison were dying of heat and kept trying to push the blankets off. It’s not an experience I want to have again too soon. But we did manage to get some sleep and got up around 10 in the morning. Tobia’s mum made us coffee and we all sat around the posh table sipping away. She turned out to actually be really cool and nice and told us all about Basel history and the things that you can do in the city and in Switzerland. She’s well into her 50s and still goes to Uni to just keep learning new things. We actually all ended up really liking her and talked till past noon. We left her place and went back into the town to grab some lunch – chocolate bread – but she let us leave all our bags so we didn’t need to carry them around all day. The afternoon parade didn’t’ start till 2 so we chilled in a cafe and also went to see the Basel cathedral. It was huge and ancient; designed in the Gothic style. I can’t really imagine ever going to a church in a building like that cause it has such a ghostly feeling and it’s just huge!

The afternoon carnival was so much fun! Unfortunately it was still raining as you’ll probably all see from the photos hence we all look like drowned rats but god it was amazing. When the parade started the flutes and drums came back on and people in all sorts of crazy masks marched but there were also giant floats where masked people threw confetti and assorted goods into the crowd. Some of them threw candy, flowers, some threw vegetables and fruit and others threw out plush toys etc. We collected about 20 mandarins, 2 cloves of garlic, a cucumber, and alot of candy! The girls also got about 6 or 7 roses. The funny thing is these guys trick people too so they’ll hold out a flower from the float and when people reach up to grab it, they grab the person’s arm and won’t let go then they stuff confetti all down the person’s clothes. All the girls had confetti down their bra haha. The best bit was when Allison got grabbed and they actually pulled her onto the float and went home with the confetti. She was absolute covered! I got confetti punched in the face a couple of times so I didn’t get off any better. By the end of the parade we were all wet and covered in assorted colours of confetti but we loved every minute of it. Around 6ish we started to walk back to Tobia’s and just followed the parade and everyone going crazy. The entire city floor was covered and apparently all during carnival, the confetti can come up to your knees but at the end of the carnival, the Basel cleaning team cleans the entire place up in the early morning like schoolies and Basel goes back to being completely clean.
We had coffee with Tobia’s mum again after we got back just to warm ourselves up before we went and took a train back to Lausanne. The Carnival goes for 3 days but we all had class the next day and we didn’t have anywhere else to stay so we all went back early. On the train, we emptied out our pockets and bags and covered our train in confetti J That’s Carnival for you kids.