Partying in Basel

Finally time has reached the moment I was looking forward all the time: The time the train left for Switzerland. The last weeks had been extermely stressfull, exhausting and complicated so that I couldn't wait for leaving Karlsruhe behind me for a while. This ease was accompanied by the excitement and curiosity due to my first couchsurfing experience waiting for me in this confederation.

In Basel I grabbed my trolley and hauled it up the stairs. I was so nervous that I almost walked to the wrong direction on the gangway.
Downstairs at the service counter hall, my host was already waiting for me but it seemed that he didn't recognized me at first. Well, no wonder, due to the horribly cold temperatures we had there I looked rather like the mascot of Michelin.
Outside the station my host asked me whether I'd like to take the tram or go by foot and see a bit of the city. I had sat the last two hours on my backside, so I preferred to walk.
Unfortunately, the way turned out to much longer than I had supposed. So had to carry my trolley all way long as the handle was too short (a typical business present!) to trail it (Later it should turn out that I only was too stupid to pull out the handle COMPLETELY.) When we finally arrived at my hosts, the trolley seemed to weight a ton, but my ego hadn't allowed me to give it to my host when he had offered it^^

After lunch my host showed me around the city. I was very surprised how much Basel has to offer compared to Karlsruhe, which has almost twice as many inhabitants. We went to the cathedral, the Spalentor, the townhall, etc and besides my hosts showed me some architectural jewels like the Schaulager (which is one of the most confusing buildings I've ever seen). During this sightseeing trip we went to the Cafe Schiesser to warm up a bit - and for me to try the legendary Luxemburgerli, which I could have eaten a ton of, yummy!
As I had already listened to Swiss radio a bit (which I yet understood) I was convinced that Swiss German would be peanuts for me. Well...I was disabused pretty quickly: When we wanted to pay, the waitress said something like "zoazwonzig". I looked a bit like an idiot at first till I finally pulled out 20 francs without a word. I really wanted to give her a tip, but I had NO IDEA what she had said till we left^^

In the meanwhile, we went to the location the monthly couchsurfing meeting should take place to reserve a table. Stupidly, there only hang a note at the door that it was closed till 6 January. The rest of the afternoon we spent to pound all possible bars to find a new meeting place. This turned out to be pretty frustrating as almost EVERY location was closed on this day.  However, we were lucky at last when we passed the Baragraph and found the first available location.

In the evening we sat a bit pent-up downstairs in the Baragraph, as we were over ten which seemed to make up more than fitted in that one corner. Finally, at 9 o'clock the upstairs room was opened (which looked like the modern version of an Alpine hut). As they seemed to have turned up the heating not until opening the room, I was really grateful for the plaids lying around.
The evening went on with a lot of beer till only four of us were left, who still had not enough- so we decided to party on in a club called Nordstern. Danny, who should also stay at my host's this night had a bottle of Absinth in his backpack so we had to depose it at home first. Having arrived there, the Absinth didn't remain untouched for long. To warm up for the next party, we took some of it with us to drink it on the way. Gosh, I don't know whether it was because of the absinth or because of me being mollycoddled, but after two gulps I definitely had enough and bitchy as I am I tilted the rest (which was almost the whole cup) into Danny's cup. Well, he wasn't too pleased about that as it turned out that he also didn't brim over with enthusiasm for that stuff.

At the Nordstern I was surprised about the entrance fee: 25 francs - not bad for a location that looked a bit run down. But ok, I was on holidays so I didn't mind. Inside, they played minimal techno which was a quite new experience for me. But the beat was good and so we danced all night long till about half past three when we almost couldn't walk anymore^^ (especially the guys had a good party as the girls in Basel - or at least at this club were very...."sociable" if you know what I mean ;-) ) Alas, there was still a 20 minutes walk back home which felt like an eternity. I thanked god when I could finally fall down on my matress.