Now, I’m not sure what the laws are like in other countries, but in Australia I’m pretty sure all events involving fire alone would be banned in a hundred different ways, let alone when they also include thousands of excited people pushing out onto a small street and a thick layer of confetti lying all over the ground.. but here in Switzerland, it’s all good! In fact, it’s an old tradition that involves a bunch of firefighters pushing or carrying huge burning carts and lanterns through the streets of Liestal, burning the faces off the spectators. Ok that last bit isn’t really true, but it felt like it! Aaannddd there wasn’t a barrier in sight.. take that Australia!

But really, it couldn’t have been more special, and thrilling, and hot. Oh so hot.. the photos and videos just don’t do it justice. As the carts went past, we were literally pushing people backwards to get away from the heat, but still had huge smiles on our faces because it was just so incredibly fantastic! I think we probably ingested our yearly dose of ash and dust, and I managed to pour beer all over myself (as a safety measure, of course).. but hey, so worth it.

The video may be a little bit bumpy in parts – that’s when it got hot! It really doesn’t do it justice.. best to just go there yourselves :)

We’ve already been into Basel 3 times this past week, mostly to try out some really funky night-time photography (coming in the next post), but also just to soak up the atmosphere and buy some Mandeln (sugar-coated almonds).. mmm lecker!

It was quite eerie watching the bridge disappear into nothing, and hearing voices but not being able to see anything.. we felt a little bit robbed having killed ourselves hiking there to see a glacier.. but I think seeing the bridge like this was something pretty special too.

Last Saturday Switzerland had their National Day, which is celebrated with fireworks and drinking and more fireworks (in Basel at least), so we headed to our nearest beach (on top of a parking garage – also blogged here), settled in with some beers and mojito’s and waited for the fireworks. 6 hours later, the fireworks appeared, closing out the most fantastic summer day yet. Hopefully the photos can give you some sense of how beautiful a day it was.. and can pass on a little bit of sunshine for those of you playing in ‘Straya. Enjoy!

So, two weekends ago we were lucky enough to have two of my friends from primary school come and visit. I was a little bit nervous going into this weekend, because, while I’ve kept in contact with one of the friends (now living in Paris), I hadn’t seen the other friend for about 14 years. As it turned out, I had no need to be nervous because we all still got along like we did in primary school, and we had a great weekend! We couldn’t help but find it funny that we’d never kept in contact while we were living in the same country, but now that we’d all moved overseas it came more naturally!

Here are some photos of our weekend/mini reunion.. (yes.. more raspberry picking! This time at a proper berry farm though)