I joined some new friends, Laney, Mei, Jonny, Jo, Kwok, and Ruth, on a weekend trip to Basel this weekend though it does turn out that I actually met Ruth about a year and a half ago at another friend’s (Amy’s) Girlie Day which is also where I met Laney for the first time too – though I’d forgotten about it!
So strange how I’ve ended up meeting up with them both again.
Why Basel? Well, it was promising to be a fairly cheap weekend away with cheap flights on ryan air and a stay in a hostel so since I hadn’t planned anything for the weekend and I hadn’t done a quick and dirty weekend away in a while I thought why not.
Other than booking flights and accommodation we had absolutely not plans or itinerary at all – which is especially unusual for me as I generally cram as much as I can into a trip and this requires quite a lot of planning. It was quite relaxing to have this kind of freedom. Thanks to the good company I had a fantastic time.
| When? | Last weekend of October 2009 |
| Why Go? | Museum Jean Tinguely, Three Countries Corner |
| Weather | Cool but fine |
| Surprising Find | Three Countries Corner: A point where three countries meet – France, Germany and Switzerland |
The Experience
We arrived into Basel at a reasonable time quite early in the evening on a Friday. As Basel lies quite close the German and French border the airport itself is split into the German and French half. The physical representation of this border (a big giant steel fence) as you walk out of the airport is a very entertaining vision. Shame I forgot to take a photo!
We stayed at the YMCA only five minutes walk from the central railway station in Basel. I was very pleasantly surprised with the place which was very modern, clean and with plenty of storage. Because the YMCA wasn’t full they were also very good at letting us have the room to ourselves even though for our second night we only took up five of the seven beds (with Kwok and Ruth heading off Saturday morning to continue their journey through Switzerland.)
Friday Night
Since the night was young we started off by exploring the town. We discovered that it was first weekend of the Basel Autumn Fair which turned out to be this massive celebration (a right first granted on the 11 July 1471 to the Mayor to hold an Autumn Fair in perpetuity.) The Fair was spread out over several squares – each featuring some pretty cool rides and the usual carni games and food. It was fantastic. And the rides! So much fun! So quickly did my euro disappear! So quickly did I nearly get sick! Ha ha! But best of all – we got to eat sausages for dinner AND breakfast (yes, we came back the next morning for some sausages … hey – its a great hangover cure!)
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After visiting several squares we headed back to the YMCA to get ready for our night out. There are quite a few clubs in Basel though finding the particular one we’d chosen, NT-Areal, ended up being quite an experience. We rocked up to where we thought the club was and found it looked kind of half residential half warehouse. Not hearing any pounding bass or seeing any people at all (it was about midnight at this stage) we were really confused! During our exploration we came across this long road which lead to what looked like a very run down, very desserted and very dark area. We started down this road but then suddenly heard what sounded like fighting and possible gun shots. Scary! We’d come this far however so Jonny and I decided to check it out. The rest of them stayed behind! Anyway, turns out we’d come the back way and though we have no idea what the gun shots we thought we heard were no one appeared to be dead or injured so we didn’t think we needed to be worried. The club turned out to be three different buildings (you had to pay for entry into each building.) The buildings were very simple – a long rectangular room with a bar down one side and you tube videos projected on the wall at the back.
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It was certainly a full on night. For some reason our group got a lot of attention from the locals. I guess they don’t get too many obvious tourists going into these clubs. Perhaps the fact my dress was a little revealing was part of the draw. Ha ha.
Saturday
After very little sleep after going out on Friday night we all surprisingly woke up relatively early to explore the attractions of Basel. Our first stop was a quick visit to the fair to get some “breakfast” before we headed out to the Museum Jean Tinguely.
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Every city seems to have a modern art museum, a history museum etc. etc. but what Basel has is this museum dedicated to one of Switzlerland’s greatest sculpture artists Jean Tinguely. What makes this museum so interesting is that lots of the pieces are interactive with lots of moving parts and sounds. It was fantastic. Loved the giant chess set outside too!
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After a quick break for afternoon tea we then proceeded to take an over seven (!) kilometer/three hour walk to find the spot where the three borders of France, Germany and Switzerland met. We walked EVERYWHERE trying to find this point and when we found it – boy were we excited!
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We certainly deserve the dinner we ate after that.
Having exhausted ourselves with the walking by the time we got back to the hostel we decided that we’d rather have a night than hitting the clubs again. It still ended up being quite a late night but it was good to get in some bonding time.
Sunday
Sunday was a relaxing day enjoying the beautiful blue skies and taking a relaxing stroll through the town.
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Basel isn’t that big on attractions. In fact the most entertaining attraction for us this weekend was the fair which is where we ended up again on Sunday morning. Jonny, Laney and I decided to hop on a few more rides including the very scary big swing type ride. It was so tall and there was so much pressure that a blood vessel actually burst in Laney’s eye! It thrilling that’s for sure. The most wicked ride at the fair, however, was the transformer. You spin in circles, you go upside down whilst you’re spinning in circles, you go up and down. It was wicked!
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The funniest sight we saw, other than the numerous sex shops, was the church service being held on the dodgems! Plus they seemed to be having some sort of circus theme with juggling. It was very strange but I was loving the originality of the concept!
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Last Words
I had a fantastic time on the trip to Basel. I don’t think I’ve laughed so much in my life as I did on the trip (laughs even extended to our plane trip when Laney pointed out that the pictures on the back of the chair in front of us. Yes they look like ordinary safety pictures but doesn’t the first look like the man has boobs, the second makes the girl look like a transvestite and we love how in the third the picture says don’t bring glasses OR dentures!)
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