Archive for February, 2010
Feuer
One of our favourite parts of Fasnacht is the Fasnachts Feuer (fire), where a huge bonfire (of old christmas trees and crates) is lit to wish away the winter witch. Now days they have a dummy on top of the bonfire that explodes with fireworks to represent the witch, but apparently back in the middle ages they used to actually burn a person they deemed to be a witch.. I think I’ll settle for fireworks, thanks.
This year we thought we’d really make a night of it and went along armed with sausages and (thanks to Alex and Ally) smores – which are marshmallows melted on the fire, prized between two biscuits and a chunk of chocolate… incredible!
Fasnacht Abduction
Like I said in the last post, we’ve been to two fasnacht parades this year.. one in Lörrach (with our lovely friend Emma), and one in Weil am Rhein (with Dave’s Dad). While the Lörrach parade was good, it now seems a little bit tame in comparison to the Weil am Rhein one.. as you can see by the photos. About an hour into our parade watching, I had a masked witch sneak up behind me and (once I’d noticed him) push me into the street and pull me to the ground while the other witches took my boots, drew all over my face with red lipstick, and shoved a huge amount of confetti down my coat. Meanwhile my boots disappeared down the street, leaving me to chase after them in my stockings. It was all in good fun – but I’m glad there aren’t any more fasnachts for a while!
Fasnacht
The last couple of weeks have been Fasnacht (carnival) time here. After attending two parades, our apartment is inevitably littered from one end to the other with confetti that just seems to fall off us as we walk (out of pockets, hoods, bags, shoes, clothes, hair etc.) Here’s why…
Basel museumsnacht
A couple of weeks ago, we bundled ourselves against the cold and headed out on the town with a couple of friends for the Basel Museum Night (the one night a year that all the museums in Basel are open until 2 am, with one entrance fee). In about 5 hours, we only managed to make it to 3 museums (hah!) – our favourite of which was the Basler Papiermühle (paper mill). Contrary to what the name suggests, the mill doesn’t only make paper – it’s also a fully functioning letterpress printery.. they even cast their own lead letters! Totally awesome if you ask me :)
Winter
And here is what we came back to.. a little bit less sun, a little bit more snow.
Australia
We took a trip home to Australia for 5 weeks over Christmas, which was the first time we’d been home in almost two years. It was fantastic – and much needed :)
hello love…
Valentines Day doesn’t mean much to me, but we saw this leaf while we were walking in the forest the other day and I thought it was appropriate – even if I am a day late! I also thought this might be a good time to restart the blog after a rather long holiday, part of which was spent at home in Australia.. but I’ll post more about that later.