I just realized that I've more-or-less failed to blog the entire month of July, and for that, I apologize. July was, in fact, action-packed, and now you get to hear all about it. I honestly don't really remember exactly which order everything came in, only that Nanda's birthday/Züri Fäscht came first. Forgive me.
So. You've already heard about the gigantic party we threw for Nanda's birthday, but what I failed to mention was that that same weekend there occurred the Züri Fäscht, an even more giant*, every-three-years-only party that shut down most of the historic center to everything but pedestrian traffic for three days. It was epic, and I am truly sad that it happens so rarely, 'cause it was full of everything I love. Completely random, rarely-seen events (in this case, amongst many other things, aquatic cars, airplane acrobatics, and high divers)? Check. Tons of interesting street food that you can't ordinarily find in this city, even in restaurants? Check. Ridiculously extravagant fireworks displays set to music and featuring helicopters shooting fireworks?** YOU BET. Best. Street. Party. Ever. (Despite the actual zillions of people crowding the streets. And the fact that all photos were taken with my or Mike's phone.)
As in, zillions of people. The entire bridge down there is covered with them. But hey, tightrope across the river and giant ferris wheel, right??
The aforementioned high-diver. Whose 20-m-high platform is set up immediately adjacent to the lake shore and to the Quaibrücke bridge, where I'd have thought the water was super shallow. Not so, I guess. (It was pretty impressive, actually.)
A bowl of sangria well bigger than my head.
Cops on rollerblades! Cops on rollerblades! (Um, is anyone besides me having a problem taking these guys seriously...? Nice capri pants, guys.)
The nearby Mexican food stand (where, apparently, jambalaya counts as "Mexican") had thoughtfully dressed this statue so that one could easily find their booth. In normal life, this kind of thing would never stay up for more than a few hours, and that's one of the things I enjoyed most about Züri Fäscht: lots of things you just don't get on a daily (or even yearly) basis. For example: in the background is a cable car suspended from a crane, 'cause why not??
Luxury port-a-potties in front of Grossmünster. I think these things cost CHF 5 to get into...how very, very Swiss (and especially Zürich-y).***
Heh, heh. Both a genius name for your bar booth and a fantastic photo of its namesake.
Giant ferris wheel in front of Fraumünster, as seen from the "Caliente" portion of the festival...
...which featured tremendous Cuban music, lots of people dancing in the audience, booths selling paella (ok, not so Latin American, but you know, close enough) and probable tons of skewered meats, and the best and freshest mojito I've had in a very long time. I could have stayed there all night.
Aerial acrobatics! This is at the lake, but we could see these guys from our roof, too. And later there was this single plane who kept flying straight up and then stalling, which made me nauseous, but which everyone else seemed to love. Amazing.
First night of the 30-minute-long fireworks-set-to-music shows, which started with maybe 20 skydivers floating down towards the lake with little lights on their parachutes, and then landing on platforms in the lake. This show was set to pop music, and we saw it from the top of the lake. I took a video, but sadly, Mike's phone couldn't seem to focus on the fireworks themselves, so you sorta get a reasonable idea of what was going on, but it ain't exactly blog-quality video, in my opinion. Sad, sad, sad.
More fireworks. I have to say that this was easily the best and longest fireworks show I've ever seen, with more insane shapes and effects than I could even imagine. (The one that stuck with me created this crazy sphere-within-a-sphere effect, with the way the sparks lit up and then faded, and was at least four different colors. Really spectacular.)
The next night, on our roof, after Nanda's party, we watched the second music/fireworks show, which featured classical music, was a completely different show from the first one, and at one point, had actual helicopters flying around shooting fireworks towards the lake. It was insane, and if we're still here in 2016, you'd better believe I will be firmly planted on the bridge so that I can see this stuff up close, 'cause holy smokes. And lest we forget, I'd better mention the food we found: the first night, it was Cornish pasties, which I'd never had before; and the third festival day, we dragged Nanda along and shared plates of fish 'n chips (from the stand with the sangria), Kenyan samosas and chicken curry (which were so good, and full of spices and flavors I've never had before--unidentifiable and yet super delicious!), a nice local white wine at the Limmat Club (which isn't usually open to non-members), Sichuan chicken and rice (yum), and those amazing mojitos (and a strawberry caipirinha for Nanda) at Caliente. Ooh, and also lest I forget, here's what we saw as we were enjoying the Limmat Club's riverside terrace:
Yeah, that's right. Boat jousting. Super goofy and endlessly watchable.
Ahhh, Züri Fäscht. How I loved you, how I wish you were yearly, and how I didn't mean to write this much about you. Oops.
Next up was what I'll call "a day of shootin' with Bjorn and Pia." These are some of our fantastic Swedish friends, who happen to be big into hunting and sport fishing and the like. In fact, they each just passed their Swedish hunting tests, which are a huge deal, and which allow them to hunt here, too. And while I'm not at all into actually killing the animals I eat, their penchant for hunting means that A) we can eat moose with them (yum!), whenever they bring it back from Sweden; and B) they're allowed to possess firearms here, which, in turn, means that they've scoped out the local shooting ranges.**** Hooray for target shooting! I am no good at all, but it's a grand old time. We all traipsed about an hour outside of town, borrowed the owner's own shotgun ('cause the rental system here is not what it is in the US, and 'cause they recognized Bjorn and Pia, thank goodness), and began blasting away. First up, we shot some skeet targets in this awesome little hollow that had five targets to choose from; then we shot at a "rabbit" (clay pigeon bouncing along the ground) and another couple of skeet targets; and finally, we fired off Bjorn's rifle at both still and moving targets. Seriously fun. (I actually even managed to make my goal of hitting each different type of target at least once, wooo!)
Mike getting ready for the second set of skeet targets. (As I took this picture, I found out that I was standing in the way of a whole next of mean, bitey ants.)
The "rabbit" shot out from the right and bounced towards the left along that horizontal log. It was totally unpredictable and really hard to hit (at least, for me).
Mike shooting at the 80-meter rifle target. It took me a while to work up the nerve to shoot Bjorn's rifle (no fan of recoil, I), but I managed eventually.
We also shot the rifle from a standing position (way easier than sitting, in terms of recoil!) at a moving target, this creepy two-headed boar that moved back and forth along a track around 50 m away. It was a really fun target, though, and we all managed to hit it at least a couple of times near center.
Here's Mike shooting at the boar target, which you can see moving downrange. He's generally pretty good at shooting, and he loves it.
As you may or may not be able to tell from any of these photos, Zürich was relentlessly hot and sunny in July (surprise--the sun does come out here, on occasion!), and so we decided to head up into the mountains a bit, where we hoped it would be cooler. We hopped on the bike for a quick overnight trip to Schuls, which is a small town a few hours east of Zürich, in Romansh territory...which always excites me, for some reason (wooo, we're going to a place where they speak an obscure and interesting language! or something.). In fact, the place has two names: Schuls in German, or Scuol in Romansh, which is this weird little quasi-French-German-Latin-hybrid-leftover thing, and Switzerland's fourth official language, even though it's only spoken by around 60,000 people, and only in this part of the country. Obviously, it fascinates me to no end, and is pretty great.
Our hotel was kind enough to provide this little linguistic guide on the nightstand.
FANTASTIC. LOVE IT.
We heard plenty of people speaking Romansh, but everyone spoke to us mainly in high German, with a little bit of Swiss mixed in, which was fun and a good opportunity for us to practice. But I digress, at least, somewhat: this isn't about the weird language, it's about the trip itself! The ride was nice, if warm, and we did get to go over a lovely little pass, which was absolutely teeming with wildflowers (in particular, the gentian [at altitude] and alpine fireweed [lower elevations] were in bloom, and were spectacular).
Fireweed. Not the greatest photo, but this stuff positively blanketed just about every open hillside along the road.
Schuls itself was fascinating: in the lower, older part of town, everyone lives and works in perfectly maintained buildings from the 17th century (and some even further back). And also, people actually make eye contact and say hello to you on the street. It was genuinely surprising and such a warm feeling, and I realized how much I miss that kind of thing in Zürich. One older gentleman even said "good day" to us in Romansh. Heart all aflutter, mind blown.
The center building here was our hotel (the lovely little Hotel Engiadina). Note the ridiculously thick walls.
Did I mention that this place is set on the side of a mountain, with a river running through the canyon below and mountains all around? 'Cause it is. Here's the Lower Engadine Museum, sadly closed while we were there (the foundation walls of this building date to the 12th century, with "recent" construction from the early 18th).
If I haven't yet given them their due, the Swiss, in general, seem naturally to be expert gardeners. They grow everything, all the time, and lots of it, and healthily and well. There were tons of flowers here that I've never seen before. Jealous on all accounts.
Look at this insane building exterior. Some of it's paint, and some of the design is actually etched into the stucco. (That's called "sgraffito," FYI. I'm learning all sorts of things today.)
Yup, the gentian were in bloom. The color's not quite right here--the flowers should be bluer, but still. You get the idea of how vibrant these little guys are. My favorite Alpine flowers, I think.
Basically every building had some sort of wild decorative painting/etching on the outside...centuries of tradition, I'm guessing.
Nifty covered bridge over the Inn river.
St. Georg church, on a hill overlooking town on one side, and the river on the other. On the inside, the decoration is minimal, but there's plenty of light, and it's quite lovely. Feels like a local, home church, unlike the big, flashy cathedrals I like to visit.
Bell tower from 1562, although construction of the current church building was completed in 1516.
I love how the placement of the windows seems like an afterthought.
Panorama of part of the larger plaza in the lower city.
Mike's favorite discovery from the trip: all of the drinking fountains had not one, but two distinct types of water to choose from: still, or naturally sparkling (from the local underground springs). NEAT.
Another view of the plaza, with one of them crazy two-water fountains at left.
View of St. Georg and the covered bridge from the Chantröven bridge.
View in the other direction.
Baby goat (not much bigger than my gigantic Stewie) that we saw on the way up the hill to the newer part of town for afternoon snacks.
Crazily painted Art Nouveau-y building in the upper/newer town, which was far less quaint, but still impressive in that we actually found some delicious, spicy, cheese-stuffed peppers at MundArt. (The Swiss are not known for their love--or cooking--of spicy foods.)
We caught dinner at our hotel, which was not only the easiest, but the best-sounding option as well. It was a grand choice...Mike had the tasting menu, and started with a garden salad (as in, picked from the hotel's garden) garnished with dried beef strips and a light, tangy dressing; then had a cold yogurt mint soup garnished with a raw salmon "rose;" a filet of beef with green peppercorn sauce, (fantastic) rosemary potatoes, broccoli, and carrots; and a bowl of chocolate ice cream topped with blueberries, whipped cream, pears, and cinnamon (which we shared). I went rogue and ordered from the a la carte menu: I started with trout tartare with lemon and avocado on a bed of lettuce with a honey-dill-mustard vinaigrette (slightly spicy, again!); then had pumpkin soup with pumpkin seeds and a drizzle of olive oil (man, how I love pumpkin soup); and finished with a local mystery dish called "Capuns 'Val Tavrü,'" which turned out to be a brick-heavy, but still amazingly delicious, bowl of these little rolls of dough with bacon and cheese mixed in, wrapped in some sort of leaf, then baked with an actual ton of the local mountain cheese on top, and garnished with dried beef strips. What a meal. It was all tasty, but I think the tartare was the standout for me.
The next morning, we hit the hotel's European continental breakfast (with outstanding homemade breads and jams, as well as some tasty cheeses and muesli), and then headed back towards home. If it hadn't been so terribly hot, I think we might have taken a slight detour to visit the rather spectacular castle nearby, or maybe a gondola ride up one of the mountains, but we were anxious to get on the road before it got too hot, so off we went.
Morning view from our lovely (and lovely-smelling!) pine-paneled room.
View from in front of our hotel. Most of these old buildings had some sort of bench next to the front door--built on top of the wall dividing the main entrance from the cellar entrance, where possible, but otherwise free-standing. You can see three of them here. I'm guessing it's some age-old hospitality tradition, and I found it quite charming.
What I'm reading: totally forgot to mention that I finally broke down and read Eat Pray Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert, on Nanda's recommendation, and in actual paper form, no less. I was a bit dubious, initially, remembering all of the hype surrounding this book and its corresponding movie, but for once, I actually understand why a book is a best-seller. This thing is well and entertainingly written, and a very personal chronicle of Ms. Gilbert's international experiences. It will make you want to travel and eat and learn languages and study at an ashram, probably. Really enjoyed and recommend it.
Now I'm back to Condoleezza Rice and her second memoir, No Higher Honor, about her time in the White House as George Bush's National Security Advisor, and, later, Secretary of State. During which time 9/11 occurred, so she certainly had her work cut out for her (and also, that means that she worked in the White House during both 9/11 and the fall of the Berlin Wall/end of the Cold War...wow.) What I find rather refreshing about this book, despite my misgivings about that administration and her mostly dry writing style, is that Ms. Rice actually respected the president greatly, considered him a friend, and portrays him as not at all the bungling idiot that most of the rest of us saw in the media throughout that administration's missteps. She certainly admits that mistakes were made, and that various departments under President Bush simply could not get their respective acts together, but she also brings some humanity to (most of) the people involved the situation. Personally, it's nice to have just the tiniest edge of a glimpse of the fact that our elected leaders (and their subsequent appointees) maybe aren't quite as inept as the media makes them out to be. Sometimes. Occasionally. Or maybe it's just that the President, unfortunately for him, generally appears as the figurehead for what amounts to large-scale, collective bungling, when in fact things are not necessarily entirely his fault. Or maybe it's that judgments we (society, the media, me) form without having all of the facts can absolutely be erroneous. Either way, it's a new and interesting perspective on something I assumed, in a rather cavalier manner, that understood fairly well. (Who would have suspected that that particular sentiment might someday come out of my mouth...? Or rather, out of my blog? Is it possible to have a positive rant about the Bush administration? 'Cause I think I just did, in a roundabout way. Cats and dogs, living together! Mass hysteria!)
Anyway. What we're watching: lots of Top Shot these days, which is probably my second favorite summer reality indulgence. Not many movies just now...waiting for all of the summer blockbusters to be accessible. I actually wanted to go to the movies this summer (a new Star Trek! Iron Man 3!), but somehow never made it, which is a pity, because it was probably much cooler in there than wherever I was at the time.
And now, introducing a new feature: What I'm Cooking. Recently, it was this lovely pasta dish, which I can only imagine would have been better if I hadn't overcooked the egg. Sigh. Sometimes I think I have that under control, and the rest of the time there's no yolk left to speak of. I think I'm going to add chickpeas to the leftovers, 'cause that's what I do these days. Chickpeas: not great on their own, but somehow they always make everything else better. Especially when there's lemon involved. EVERYTHING'S BETTER WITH LEMON, I'm finding.
Next up: Zürich Street Parade and our first trip ever to Edinburgh. Mmmmmm, Scotland.
*As in, they were expecting 2 million visitors over the three days of the festival!!
**They claim that this counts as two of the top five largest firework displays in Europe. I think I believe them, 'cause how could they get any better? I would like to perform that study myself, in the form of traveling to various large European firework displays and documenting them. Somebody needs to do it. For science.
***To date, all of the temporary toilets at all of the Zürich festivals I've attended have been shockingly clean and unsmelly (not sure what witchcraft they use to accomplish that), although I did find myself tempted to spend the money and see what made these guys "luxury." And so I looked into it. Pipi de Luxe's website describes their booth as "the ultimate WC experience"--HAAAAH! How wonderfully frickin' awesome. Just in case you're wondering, they feature climate control; background music; designer interior lighting; genuine granite walls and floors; Dornbracht fixtures with Villeroy & Boch toilets (like anyone would know enough to argue that!..."Oh, I see you have the Villeroy & Boch model 362z...what made you select that over the 673x?"); an array of cosmetic and hygienic products to suit your needs; some sort of pink, fuzzy throne on which one can sit and have his or her photo taken; and a small champagne bar. You can even give a ticket pack as a gift card. I AM PAYING UP THE NEXT TIME I SEE ONE OF THESE PLACES--I must experience this for myself.
****BOOM! Two puns in one post. Yeah. That just happened.
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