First Trips - Basel and Frankfurt

Last post I showed some Carnival pics from Basel, but here are a few shots of what the city looks like during the day.

Koko had told me about the fun festivals that happen in Basel when I first got here, and I really wanted to see them. But let's be honest, my real motivation for heading to Basel was to hang out with Roger Federer. I was hoping for giant gold statues of the man and everyone would be wearing his logo and playing tennis in the street. Turns out it's a normal, beautiful European city, that - along with the rest of Europe - only likes to idolize dead guys. Until he dies, Rog just exists on a million advertisements around Basel, on the courts, and in all of our hearts. (Yes, I do know he's happily married). Patrick got me in contact with one of his mission buddies, and they were nice enough to let me invade their home for a weekend. I loved getting to know Curtis, Susan, their gorgeous daughters, and a little bit of their story.

You could actually swim from Bonn to Basel directly, but it's upstream in deadly currents and freezing water - so I opted for the train. I arrived Saturday morning after about a 4 hour train ride that follows right alongside the Rhine, past many castles and small towns in a Unesco World Heritage cite. Curtis and his daughters met me at the tram stop right by their house, and I soon after went off to wander. I found a flea market right away. Europeans love flea markets and they're good at it. Bartering in multiple languages (I counted 5 in my walk around the square), ancient treasures, and useless stuff as well. I was in heaven.

Flea Market

They like them Shutters. I do too.

This gate was part of the original wall around the small Medieval settlement of Basel. There are remnants of the rest of the wall, but this was the city's entrance. Most European cities have very similar things (i.e. the gate I posted from Bonn, same story)

From within the city

From the "Outside"

A sneak peak of the Rathaus while walking around the city

Just a random mural on a narrow alley wall

Basel Munster

Ideal place for a sunset stroll

Basel by day. The Rhine sure is hideous, right?

 Here are my two new BFFs, Ivy and Mia. Mia only refers to her school as "my beloved school." They gave me a fun tour of their routes and walks, and all weekend they made me feel beautiful and welcomed. I love these gals.

Messeplatz

The following pic is for Amandass. This was the outside of a museum, after hours, with an interactive game of "memory" all with pictures of Marilyn Monroe. The two silhouettes you see are people playing the game.

Basel by Night

I went to church here, their ward was so friendly and fun. And their building is beautiful and much bigger than Bonn's.

After church in Switzerland, I WALKED to France, then Germany. Yup. This is a monument marking where the three countries meet.

 I spent a few hours hanging out at this huge and amazing park. It was pretty much the first legitimately warm day, so everyone was outside enjoying the weather. I sat and watched old men play chess on one of those giant chessboards, watched some hippies doing gymnastics/yoga/what my immediate family would call "Professional Body Games," but I didn't dare take pics.

 

Basel was a great trip. I'm lucky to have gotten to see it, and meet the Nordstroms. 

Last weekend, a fun girl from my ward in Bonn invited me to join her in a quick trip to Frankfurt. We left Friday evening to get to Darmstat for a YSA (Young Single Adult) dance, put on by the Mormon church. This was like no YSA dance I'd ever been to. We got to the church around 9, the dance went until 2 AM! And everyone stays the whole time. We drove 2 hours to get there, and we traveled less than most people there. It was for anyone in the German speaking area (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), and everybody is friends. It was such a cool thing to see people from all over the country come and hang out, really talk, and actually dance. The dance is casual, but they actually dance - kind of like how Americans swing dance - paired off, there's designated steps and form, lifts and fun moves. Jelena from the ward and her friend Maili had to do a ton of introducing and translating for me, and they were so nice. 

This is actually from just outside of Bonn where I met up with the girls, but I thought it was pretty and part of the trip.

After the dance We stayed with Jelena's Aunt and Uncle, they were delightful and really interesting to talk to. In the morning we went by the temple before heading back home.

This nice man, the temple gardener and friend of Maili, is giving us each a flower from the grounds

Frankfurt Temple

 Another view of the temple. You can see two yellowish buildings that look like apartment buildings. They are actually the "Temple Hostel", part of temple square. Since people have to travel a long way to go to the temple, they often book a room in the hostel, which you can get to from the lobby of the temple itself! We saw some friends from the dance, and while talking to them they saw three or four couples from their ward. This ward, mind you, is about 5 hours away. It's a cool network of Saints here in Germany. I'm really lucky to get to witness them in action.

Two pretty quick weekend trips. For no reason, here's a picture of the two men who occupy most of my life right now, Phineas and Nicolas, at one of the amazing parks right near our home.

Carnival - Fasnacht fun!

Europe takes Carnival seriously. Particularly the eastern stretch of Germany right around where I live. Europe is very Catholic, and Carnival serves as an opening festival for the Lent season, as well as ancient traditions of scaring away the winter spirits. Here in Germany, the Carnival season begins in October, but the week of Carnival is kicked off Thursday before Ash Wednesday at 11:11, and it is a constant party until then. The whole city shuts down - the carnival-ers storm city hall and "Run" the city for the week. Schools are closed for at least 5 days, most a week or two. What are normally busy shopping centers in the center of Bonn and Cologne, close up shop, and board up the windows. People wear full - incredibly well done costumes - classy, funny, historic. Some where them for events weeks ahead of time, but EVERYONE wears costumes for parties, parades, everyday activities the week of. It's heaven.

I spent Thursday and Friday with the boys as they didn't have school. We went to an Aquarium, the park, and swimming, all in costume and with one of their friends. Friday night I went dancing with some friends in Cologne. We went out all night. Cologne is actually a very Gay friendly city, we wandered around the city, met some funny German guys, and then went to a club - which turned out to be a gay bar - then a wonderful pub where everyone was singing carnival songs and having a great time. Saturday we dressed up and went to dinner. Sunday, after church, a wonderful friend from the ward took me to Cologne for a parade. Steffi works in Cologne and is very familiar with the city, so she showed me some fun things.

Here are a few of the groups accompanying the floats/wagons.

Everyone in the crowd yells "Camello" to receive candy. Camello means candy in the old, Kolsch dialect of German. The parade is all about the tribes, groups and villages throughout Cologne's history, so the dialect is used in many floats and signs. 

This terrible selfie is to show the flowers that are handed out. It's so lovely! They toss out all sorts of funny things in addition to candy. I received: A hand towel, a bottle opener, a small bottle of schnapps, tissues, a pen, a sponge, and FLOWERS! It's so classy. Sometimes, when they hand you a flower, they also kiss you on the check. 

Steffi showed me e famous locked love bridge in Cologne.

This was the loot from just one parade. 

Monday is the craziest day. The parade in Cologne has over 1 million people in attendance each year. I was working, so Patrick, Nico, Phinni and I joined the Orman family and about 300,000 other people for the Bonn parade.

Yes, that's a camel. In a parade. ???

This whole group was drunk and playing rock music and having a grand ol' time.

Chinese draggon

I went to Basel, Switerland that weekend. Basel's festivities are based on the Heathen calendar, so they take place after Ash Wednesday. Sunday night, just outside of Basel in a village called Liestal, they take the scaring of the winter spirits seriously. Here are some before shots of the place:

The parade starts after dark. Therefore, all the floats are lanterns, and people in the parade have lights on. 

Tons of political commentary within the parades. Obama - Yes we Scan. (side note, people here LOVE Edward Snowden, obviously)

Giant Monkey man.

Then the parade gets a little crazy. I didn't take any good pictures of the ground, but know that there was about 4" of  paper confetti covering the parade route. 

Yes, these men are carrying huge "brooms" of logs on fire. Men, women, children all carry these. 

None of these are taken with a zoom. I was standing less than 3 feet away from these flames. 

 Remember that cart/trailer full of logs with men on top? Here it is about an hour later. (you really want to watch this one, even if I took it the wrong direction like a fool)

Yeah, it was an incredible experience. It was really neat to see such a longstanding tradition in action. People have been taking fire under that tunnel for hundred of years. It made me want to be Swiss.

Basel's big kick off starts just a few hours later - promptly at 4 am. A city of about 150,000 people goes completely dark - they turn off the lights to the city and that's when the parade begins. Like those in Liestal, all floats are lanterns. While Cologne has funny, silly costumes, those in Basel all involve these crazy makes that make the person look like their head is abnormally large and strange. 

These are taken a few minutes before the lights shut off.

Yes, it was incredible. The parade follows no real route, the flutes and drums go all throughout the city, apparently every night throughout the week. 

Carnival is like the 4th of July, Mardi Gras, and Halloween in one, but bigger and better. I love getting to be a part of these crazy traditions that have roots with some of the earliest human civilizations. Yay for Carnival!

Reflections on the Rhineland

Germany is a neat place. I like it here, and I really love getting to know how things work around here. I have yet to ever feel unsafe, and I don't just keep to the touristy places or good suburbs. German laws are very different than American laws. I'm not trying to take any political stance, but I just think it's interesting to compare.

Underage drinking is not enforced by police, but pubs and restaurants are required to follow these age rules: 14 year olds can drink beer and wine if accompanied by a parent, 16 year olds don't need a parent around. 18 can have any type of liquor.

Prostitution has been legal since 2002.

The autobahn has no speed limit. I've been driven around on the autobahn a few times, but I haven't driven anything. I did check the speedometer a few times and we were going over 160 km/h (about 95 mph). The luxury auto industry has lobbied to keep things this way because it's easier to sell an amazing car with the capacity to go 150 mph if you can actually go 150 mph somewhere. 

Other things:

Football (soccer) is loved more deeply than religion, patriotism, or success. Each professional team (there's like 40 throughout Germany) has it's own song that's sung as a hymn/anthem at the games, at pubs, at community events. Here is a video to demonstrate (terrible sound quality, and I forgot I was still recording at the end, oops)

So many trees here remind make me think Dr. Suess spent some time in Germany. They have these spheres of green in all the trees. I wanted to get picture before the tress fill in again with leaves. After asking genius boy Nico, I learned it's mistletoe! I don't think I'd ever seen that before. It gets blown to the trees and grows perfectly spherically on the branches, they have symbiotic relationship and creates for some weird looking trees.

I live about 25 minutes away from a place called Neandertal. Yup. The place where the first set of Neatherthal bones (the species got it's name from the town). So my neighborhood has been the cool place for humanoids for about 40,000 years. Really though.

Last week I went to stake conference in Dusseldorf, and it was an interesting experience. It was a braodcast from SLC, so there was an English broadcast and a German one. Greg Schwitzer spoke, so did Elder Hales and Elder Bednar. Bednar spoke in German - he served his mission here 41 years ago. I was really impressed that he freshened up on his German in order to better connect with the people here, I'm sure he's a bit busy as is. 

More updates to come as we're just finishing up with Carnival (a post on it's own) and next weekend I'll be in Basel, Switzerland!