What a RIDICULOUS weekend. That's the best description I can give you to start of what I did last weekend.
Friday (Dec. 10th) was relatively normal. I went to the Jüdische Gemeinde (congregation) for Friday night Shabbat services. It was really nice to be with lots of Jews. Certainly refreshing. At UT, I'm with Jews about 95% of the time (basically, only when I'm not in class). Afterward, there was a small dinner downstairs. It wasn't really what I expected exactly, but still good. I guess its hard to have hot kosher food. They actually had a few bottles of Manischewitz wine.
After synagogue, a few students (including myself) went to a cafe/bar and had drinks and talked for a couple of hours. Fun, but I had to go to bed early to get rest for the remainder of my weekend.
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I woke up around 8:30 (yes, in the morning and it was tough) to be able to catch my train at 10:02. I got dressed, packed my last few things and got on the street car headed toward the main train station (Hauptbahnhof).
I find my track with 20 minutes to spare and pop on the headphones. Finally a gray train pulls up and I hop on. Quite exciting for two reasons: 1. It's the really fast train called ICE (Inter-City Express) and is really nice. And 2. I'm finally getting out Freiburg. I find a place to sit and settle in. ICE is like an airplane, but you don't have to go through security and you can use electronics the whole time.
After 45 minutes, the train stops at BBB (I'll explain in a minute). I stay on until the next stop at SBB, only a mere 5 minutes thereafter. I walk down to the main hall, where Martin, Marc Alexander's former exchange student, should be waiting for me. I call him up, and there was a slight confusion...
BBB stands for Basel Badische Bahnhof. The key word here is "badische" which refers to the German state Baden-Württemburg. Badische is the adjective form of Baden, the region. This means the station is still in Germany.
SBB stands for Schweizerische Bundesbahnen. The key word here is "schweizerische" which refers to Switzerland. This means the station is in Switzerland.
Since I went to the SBB, I made the mistake of paying more for my train ticket. Not a huge deal, but Martin assumed I was arriving at BBB. I waited a while for him to find me, then we finally headed to his house to drop my bag off.
We headed back to the heart of the city. We walked around, went into a few stores and talked about random stuff. Martin is really excited about his trip next summer back to the US. He just couldn't get enough I guess. I ended up buying two things: a Roger Federer shirt with his RF logo on it and a soccer scarf supporting the team FC Basel, that we were going to see the next day. Everything is expensive in Basel. Everything.
After we ate lunch, we met up with a friend of his, Michi. We walked over to the Rhine river, which flows through the city. I took some photos, and there was this small boat that you can use to cross over to the other side. I took some photos from the boat too.
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| The Rhine and Basel |
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Martin and I
(I wish there was someway to digitally comb my hair)
The one really tall building to the right of me is the office of Martin's dad |
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| On the boat |
We went over to the soccer stadium where FC Basel plays their home games, called St. Jakob Park. We couldn't get in, but I took a few pictures. You can see "FC BASEL" written using the seats in the stands.
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| St. Jakob Park |
We went back to Martin's house, made dinner and I showed him the best websites for watching American TV shows online. Another friend, Michel ate with us, as Michi had gone home for awhile. We got dressed up and prepared for our night out.
First stop was the casino. Not to gamble, but to drink. Apparently on the back of McDonald's receipts, there is a coupon for a free drink worth up to 9 CHF (Swiss Francs, which are about the same in value as the dollar). We had a bunch of these coupons, so we stayed there for a few hours. A 3rd friend, Duong played some roulette and ended up winning 40 CHF.
The 5 of us (Me, Martin, Michi, Michel and Duong) headed over to the big party near the soccer stadium. They have a really cool and cost effective way of hosting parties at this particular venue. At the beginning of the night, you receive a scan card, take your photo and have it electronically stored on the card. If you want to buy a drink from the bar (it's REALLY REALLY expensive) you give the bartender your card and he/she charges it to you. At the end of the night, you can't leave unless you go through the booth, give them your card and pay the total. Cover was 15 CHF and I had a beer at 5.50 CHF, so I paid 20.50. Other people there drank a lot more than I did. I can't imagine what it cost them.
The party was fun. There were two dance floors, separated into different rooms with different music. I preferred the hip hop/rap dance floor to the latin infused dance music, like Shakira. The funniest thing that night happened after we left.
We called hours ahead to have a taxi ready for us when we wanted to leave. We had a coupon, of course, for 10 CHF off a special taxi service company that uses Bio-fuel. Our taxi, however, wasn't there. We waited and called and waited more, but we grew impatient, as it was late and raining outside. Eventually, Martin convinced another cab driver, from a completely different company, to take our coupon. We silently laughed the whole ride home. Went to bed, not really knowing what to expect the next day. Wow, was I in for a surprise.
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I'll be brief with the unimportant things:
Woke up. Got food near the SBB. Hopped on a train with 2000 other FC Basel fans headed to Zurich. Everyone is smoking cigarettes (I reeked of smoke for days after) and drinking beer. The train ride is an hour.
Someone pulls the emergency brake on the train. I hear things that sound like bombs. Extremely loud. We get out of the train in a fury and run on the tracks for a little, all 2000 people. The mob forms on the street. More tremendously loud explosions. Chanting and singing. We march down the streets of Zurich. Police cutting off our route so we don't wander off and cause more problems in the neighborhoods. It's cold. More explosions but even louder. The mob is leaving stickers supporting FC Basel all over the street signs, cars and buildings. It sounds like a blitzkrieg. Bombs, marching, flares.
People are lighting flares, red and blue. I see mobsters throw beer bottles and cans at the lines of police. I hear more explosions. I cover my ears at the first crack of the firework, hoping to avoid the louder explosion that follows just seconds later. Red and Blue smoke bombs thrown on the street. The mob grows angrier, cursing and using obscenities at the onlookers from their balconies. We march down their streets pillaging their town.
The litter left on the ground was like the tail of a comet; you could tell there was something big there. Unfortunately, no pictures. I was told by Martin that someone would destroy my camera if I tried. Based upon what I'd witnessed so far, I kept it in my pocket. The mob marched on. We reached the stadium prior to game time and went through security. I got patted down like I had just opted out of the new scanners at the airport.
We get into our place inside the stadium (standing of course) and continued our endless chanting and singing. FC Basel fans don't stop singing. I respect that. I quickly caught on with the cheers and the lineups were announced. The mob had a
HUGE flag with a checkerboard pattern of red and blue that covered the entire stadium section. People lit flares in the stadium, which is pretty dangerous with so many people bunched up. Again, no pictures allowed. Game started and so continued the singing. More obscenities and it got really cold.
Grasshopper Club or GC scored a goal in the 12th minute. The mob was initially silent, throwing rolls of toilet paper at the police guarding the field. The cheering started again. Trying to rally the team, the FC Basel fanatics were louder than before. That is, until GC scored a second goal just two minutes later.
A 2-0 deficit is a large gap to bridge for any team. Were FC Basel up for the challenge? The team started to dominate GC on the sheer number of goal chances they had, but no one was willing to shoot the ball. The first half ended 2-0.
The second half saw a somewhat weaker FC Basel side. They had fewer chances and were sloppy with possession. At one point, FCB shot the ball, it was saved by the keeper, but the rebound went right to a Basel player. He slotted it home, but was pulled for offsides. Naturally, the FCB fans were outraged.
With 15 minutes left in the match, FCB cut the lead in half with a strong attack on goal. The score 2-1, the fanatics lit up the flares and were ready to help their team rally.
Time was running down on the match and GC players would fall down and roll around like the had both of their legs shot. They acted like they were in such big pain to stall and run time off. And it worked. After wasting a few more chances and the 4 minutes of injury time, the referee whistled the match to a close, the final 2-1 for Grasshopper Club Zurich.
We left the stadium, Michel, Martin and I. We wanted to get out to the street as fast as we could. Police vans were videotaping people leaving the stadium so if a fight broke out, they would have evidence. We waited and met up with the mob a couple of blocks from the stadium. Then began the silent march back to the train. Methodically, we escaped the town we had pillaged, leaving behind even more stickers on cars, lamp posts and street signs.
About 20 minutes of walking passed and we got to the train station. A few more of these "bomb fireworks" were thrown from our train onto another track, scaring the shit out of me. Our 1 hour train ride with people smoking and drinking again arrived back in Basel, hours before I was to get on my train back to Freiburg.
I decided to take an earlier train. Martin helped me "smuggle" a case of swiss beer onto the train to bring back with me. I don't think it was actually illegal to do that...
When I arrived back in Freiburg, I got on the first Straßenbahn and made it home within 15 minutes. I was dead tired. Took a quick shower and slept after a quite interesting weekend.
Adam
(I have another post written that I still need to type up, so be on the lookout for that this week)
