Slumdog Sweep and Basel Passions.

This week has been fairly uneventful. On Sunday evening, I watched the Oscars. When I say "evening" I mean morning, because they didn't actually begin until 2:30am here, ending at 6am. It was sort of surreal to see the red carpet in daylight, when my daylight had ended ages ago. I was glad to see that Slumdog had such a killing, and of course, Ben Stiller's Joaquin impression. 

Fasnacht preparations are underway. On Wednesday was the traditional guild exchanges and meetings, and there were a lot of groups marching to each other's "clubhouses." Met a photographer from the Basel Historical Society, and he was telling me of some of these traditions. Hopefully in the next few weeks, we will be able to get together, and he will be able to bestow me with some more knowledge about Basel. Here's some "beverage" preparation set outside the Zum Schnabel.

And a Safran guild member before the march.

Things That I Love Here

—Eating lunch by the river, having birds waiting around you to see if you will drop anything.

—The view from the Münster overlooking Kleinbasel and the Mittlerbrücke.

—Finding new alleyways in areas that you've walked a million times.

—The Mittendrin. Ran into two people that I know when I was there on Wednesday night, which is just so cool to me, since I don't know that many people in this city. It is such a casual place to get a coffee or drink and just chill. I can be found here reading and journaling. I want to pack this place up and bring it back to Cincinnati, although it will be great to be back at Rohs again.

—Tea. I think my love for tea may have triumphed my love for coffee. There is a place called the London Tea Huus, and they greet me with open arms now. I am a committed customer. 

—The "H" bread shop. That is what I call it, mostly because my brain just sort of shuts down when I see the long list of letters that is supposeofly only one word. The "H" bread shop on Andreasplatz is literally a hole in the wall, looking like it came out of Hansel and Gretl. The walls are stone, there are wooden benches and tables inside, and they consistently have good recommendations on fun new breads to try. There is just something about going to a bakery for bread, flower shop for flowers, cheese stand for cheese, that I just love.

—Piadina

—Stumbling across Swiss-geniusness, such as this USB-Swiss army knife combo

—People sitting outside to drink there coffee, even in winter. Shops even provide blankets to encourage this.

This is it for now. I have a lot of stories to tell, hopefully time to write them down soon. As for now, schönnenabend.