Zurich Street Parade - The Call of the Weirdos

Oh man, every time I think I should write something and log in, as soon as I hit the new post button my mind goes as blank as the wall I am staring at. I have about half a dozen half-posts waiting to be completed which I am mighty afraid I will never get down to doing. So, help me out. What do I write about? Ah, well some news updates. My influence on the blogosphere has been extended thanks to a collaborative blog I am now a part off. Check out the storm I started brewing over there , here. Also, got this very cool map which shows from where my readers are. Can you see it? I am hoping it's a giant sea of red soon. Need your help to do that though, so visit often, make sure you take plenty of international vacations and log in while holidaying as well!!





















Last Saturday was the Zurich street parade, the largest techno rave in the world. So there I was with my band of merry IAESTE revelers to soak up the sun and fun. The Swiss are a pretty obedient lot. You tell them to work 8 hours a day, and they'll do that with a dedication, bordering on passion right down to the last second. You tell them to party and you can be assured they will till they drop dead from fatigue. The second Saturday of August is such a day. The Swiss are called out to throng the streets of Zurich and hang out at one giant party! Some interpret this a little too literally and let it 'ALL' hang out.


There were people of all shapes, sizes and ages on the streets, dressed in costumes ranging from cute, to kinky to the downright bizarre. But the prize for best costume, if there was one has to go my new house mate TT. Where 'less is more, but nothing is even better' seemed to be the motto of the day TT showed up to the event, on a 30°C, sunny summer day in a sweater and jacket. How he didn't bake himself into a human Shepherd's Pie is beyond me. I wasn't doing myself any favours in my Swiss sweatshirt, which felt more like a sweatshop.




Pensioners were prancing around in minimal clothing, all happy and gay. I am sure the children present were mentally scarred for life. Imagine, if you can, your grandmother, in a bikini, at best, dancing to the latest electronic shit they call music.I am 21 and I was deeply traumatized. Just imagine what nervous wreck those little children will grow up to be!



When I told my colleagues I was going to the parade, they all told me one thing. 'DO NOT CONSUME ANY PILL THEY OFFER YOU'(Yes, they said it in CAPITAL LETTERS). They obviously thought that I was a hypochondriac under the impression that I was attending the celebration of the discovery to cure the common cold. Thanks to all the dire warnings, I was hoping to get a stash of pills,powders and leaves sizing up to atleast a small hillock enabling me to become the Pablo Escobar of my tiny Swiss village. But, no dear readers,even half a pill of Ecstasy didn't come my way. Maybe it was the 'Say No to Drugs' campaign launched by the government and event organisers, but the number of people sprawled on their backs by the lake-side, in artificially induced comas seems to suggest otherwise. I guess they just weren't feeling particularly generous that day.



Now, that my dreams of becoming a powerful drug lord had gone up in smoke(quite literally), there was not much to hold my interest there. There is only that many crazy people one can tolerate in a single day and my threshold was fast approaching. I am no 'tranceformer' (that's a term I have coined for people who transform from peace loving humans to toe crushing baboons on hearing trance) and neither am I addicted to any type of house, other than the ones which have beds, fridges and TVs. Moreover I had smoked passively just under a million cigarettes and needed to leave before the onset of lung cancer. I hobbled back home, choking and sputtering like an Ambassador car well past it's prime...