Episode 4: August 2005

The month of August started with a bang. Literally. After arriving back from our three-day weekend in Naples, Italy, we took a picnic to the lake to watch the firework displays commemorating August 1, the day the Confederation Helvetic was founded. Unfortunately the weather was not overly cooperative – as it had been for much of the summer -- and we ended up watching some of the fireworks during our walk back home to avoid the rain. Each suburb of the city puts on its own display, with varying degrees of complexity. The most amusing people to us were amateurs who attempted to put on their own fireworks. During our time near the lake, we became captivated by a group of local teenagers who must have spent their saved up pocket money on fireworks and were determined to make a few of them work – and possibly lose a limb in the process! We were relieved to see some of the Swiss doing something crazy for once, and we as foreigners loved it!

Mother Nature struck Switzerland with a vengeance this month. In general, the weather has been quite ordinary this summer, as we have had several cloudy and rainy days. However, in August, the rains were especially severe. In fact, you may have seen some news stories about the intense flooding across the country. Zurich was left unharmed, and the only effect we saw was an unusually high water level in the Limmat River, which runs through the city. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for other parts of the country. In Bern, the country’s capital, there was flooding and landslides. As close as 30 minutes away from Zurich, the roads were impassible, and some of our colleagues were not allowed to drive to work for a few days.

Outside of our normal, day-to-day activities, we filled our time with packing! Exciting, eh?! Actually, it was because it was the beginning of our move out of the company-sponsored apartment and into our own place closer to the city. We underestimated just how much stuff we already had in Switzerland. Deb has been living in the furnished apartment for two years, and so we thought that we would have only three or four boxes of things to move. We were slightly mistaken, to say the least. Excluding clothes, which we packed into our suitcases, we stuffed 11 boxes of books, shoes (those who know Deb know that this is no small task), kitchen accessories, and other stuff that Deb managed to collect over her time in Switzerland. As usual, the packing experience was tiring but we were encouraged in knowing that we would soon be leaving the Thalwil apartment.

As part of our moving preparations, we took our first trip to the IKEA, the gigantic furniture warehouse. For those who have not been to an IKEA, let me put it in perspective. IKEA sells modular furniture, decorations, and other home-related furnishings. The furniture is not particularly high-quality – the pieces are typically made of compressed wood – but they look modern and serve the purpose of holding a lot of stuff in a compact space. IKEA stores are actually massive warehouses where shoppers can study mock-ups of the furniture and test it out. On the weekends, the IKEA in Zurich is crazy-busy and becomes, quite literally, a zoo. We were looking for a few items, the most important being two wardrobes for our two bedrooms. Our American readers may be wondering why we need wardrobes and rightly so. In the U.S. apartments come with a wonderful accessory called closet space. This, sadly, is not the case in Switzerland. I think it is a racket – IKEA is providing kick-backs to building contractors to leave closets out of apartment designs. (The founder of IKEA – a Swedish guy who is one of the 10 richest people in the world – lives somewhere in Switzerland. Who knows – the Swiss government could be catering to him since he is such a good taxpayer!) Anyhow, we successfully found a couple of wardrobes and some other accessories. In our infinite wisdom, we decided to take the furniture pieces back with us in the car so that the movers could take them from Thalwil to the new apartment on moving day. This was before we actually saw the pieces that make up the wardrobes! There were at least 15 boxes that made up the wardrobes, and at least half of those boxes weighed more than 50 pounds each and were 7-8 feet long! After carting two or three of these boxes around (five minutes from closing time, no less) we had had it. Frustrated and tired after our 2 hour experience trying to work out the German words for “hanging space”, went to the customer service desk and asked them to deliver the goods to our new apartment in September. Job done! But this was not our last trip to IKEA….

August 13 marked the annual Zurich Street Parade. How can one describe the street parade? This was the first one that I have seen, and I was amazed, despite having had several descriptions of what to expect. The street parade is a massive (this year, they had 1 million people show up) techno parade through the streets of Zurich, complete with scantily clad women, men in skirts, and truck floats driving through the streets blaring out really, really bad music. In my opinion, it is the one day of the year when Zurich allows its people to go completely insane and tolerates an infusion of foreigners. What is funny is that everyone in the city looks forward to the event. It is sponsored by large Swiss companies, and everyone from kids to grandparents watch the event, even though what is displayed in the parade is not really intended for or tolerated by most of those people! We made the wise decision of avoiding the city and its craziness. Instead, we went to the other side of the lake to a town called Rapperswil and did some furniture shopping. (Are we getting old, or what?!) The trip was a successful one. We bought a coffee table from an Asian furniture store and then found a Persian rug and TV stand from a second store nearby. We made it home in time to watch some of the street parade on TV and, of course, do some more packing.

The following morning we went adventuring to a small town called Solothurn, which is located just south of Bern. Solothurn is a small, Baroque town, featuring an amazing 14th century church. We met Tony and Julie there for lunch and together we braved the rain and ticked off the main sights of the town mentioned in the guide books.

The next weekend, we had a busy Saturday. Friends of ours (Johanna and Jaarko) are getting ready to get married. Despite the fact that they have already had their respective bachelor/bachelorette parties in the native country of Finland, we decided to team up with some other friends to do the same in Switzerland. The girls took Johanna out for a day of girly-stuff, including a clue based rally of the city, a trip to a Turkish Hamam spa, drinks, more drinks and dinner. The guys did guy-stuff, including a steak dinner, drinks at a pub, some billiards, and F1-style go-karting (which I loved but, admittedly, am not that good at).

On August 25, Deb headed off to Malta to meet up with her sister, Carol, who was arriving there from Melbourne to being her three-week vacation in Europe. The two of them met there to see each other, catch up with relatives, and attend their cousin’s wedding. Both of Deb’s parents are originally from Malta, and they migrated to Australia in 1972. Quick quiz: Where is Malta. Don’t worry if you don’t know…I didn’t! On a map, Malta looks like a speck in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Start at the tip of the boot that is Italy. Off the tip is the football, Sicily. Just southwest of Sicily is Malta. The country is tiny – 14 kilometers by 27 kilometers – and only has about 300,000 residents (most of which are probably related to Deb!).

Deb was able to take a few days off work and made a five-day trip to the island, which is not nearly enough time given how much family she has there. Let’s put her family in perspective. Deb’s mom is one of nine children, seven of which still live on the island along with their respective partners, children, and grandchildren. And we have not even mentioned the extended family! On Deb’s dad’s side, there is only one immediate blood relative left on the island.

After arriving at midday on Thursday, Deb waited at the airport with her uncle for Carol’s flight to arrive a half-hour later. After reuniting, they all headed back to Deb’s grandparents’ house. Deb’s maternal grandparents are still alive and live in a village of Naxxar (pronounced Na-shar) in a house that has been passed down through at least four generations. The remainder of the day was spent catching up with family members who stopped by to visit. On Friday, Carol and Deb spent the day with their aunts and catching up with each other. That night, they went back to the airport to pick me up. Given that I do not have much vacation time, I came to Malta for a very quick trip – arrived on Friday night and flew out on Sunday. After picking me up, we headed back to Deb’s grandparents. After meeting a few of the relatives, we took a walk to a neighboring village with one of Deb’s aunt and two of her uncles. This village was celebrating its annual religious festival. Malta is an intensely devout country, and each village worships a particular Catholic saint. (This particular village was celebrating Saint Bartholomew.) The annual summer festival is meant to pay homage to each village’s saint – and, of course, try to out-do all the other villages. The festivals are usually eight days long, feature nightly fireworks, dancing, street vendors, bands playing the local traditional songs, and the carrying of the saint to and from the church of the village. We had a nice walk to the village – the temperature was still 25 degrees Celsius (roughly 80 degree Farenheit) at 10pm – and took in a couple of beers and a great fireworks display. We also listened to the local band play some traditional village songs and followed them as they marked through the city streets. It was quite a sight!

The next morning we woke up early to do some sightseeing in the city (Valetta) before getting ready for the wedding. Valetta is an amazing city, with huge fortified walls along its exterior. The fortified walls speak volumes about Malta’s history. Malta has always been prized as a strategic position within the Mediterranean Sea for shipping and military purposes. Consequently, just about every major civilization has tried to conquer Malta, including the Romans, Germans, French, Arabs, British, and Turks. We spent the morning looking around the city and took in a show called “The Malta Experience” that put the country’s history in perspective. From there, we walked around the harbor and then took a horse and carriage ride (known as a carrozine) back to the central area of the city to catch a traditional Maltese lunch. Then, it was back to Naxxar to prepare for the wedding.

The stars of the wedding were Deb’s cousin, Karen, and her beau, Kevin. The traditional church ceremony was in the main church of Naxxar. It started at 7 pm, lasted slightly more than an hour, and was attended by about 100 people. The entire ceremony was in Maltese, so I was completely lost! (But I was amazed by the religious devotion shown by the Maltese people.) After the church ceremony, everyone headed to the reception, which was an outdoor party at a reception center. The family obviously spared no expense on the reception. The even was fully catered -- hors d’oevers, dinner, desert, and a free bar – for nearly 400 guests! That’s right…400. It was a great chance for me to meet Deb’s family, though I cannot remember any of their names. All in all, the wedding went extremely well and lasted into the early hours of the next morning.

The next morning, we work up at 7 am, got the sleep out of our eyes, and met up with one of Deb’s uncles to see another famous Maltese sight, the Blue Grotto. The Blue Grotto is a section along the Maltese coast line that features crystal-clear blue waters. We took a small boat along the coast and navigated the crevices to see some of the clearest water I have ever seen. When we got back, we had a great swim in the warm water with Deb’s cousins. We went back to Deb’s uncle’s house for a lunch of a local fish called lampuki, which was really good. After lunch, I grabbed my things, and we headed back to the airport for my flight. Deb stayed in Malta for another two days, during which she saw more family and took another boat trip with another uncle – this time to the tiny Maltese island of Comino. Carol stayed behind in Malta for another nine days so that she could see the Naxxar festival, which celebrates Saint Victoria.

In between our travels, I took to the (rather high) waters of the Limmat for a kayak lesson. It was organized by a group called the Zurich Fun and Sports Club and was a good chance to meet some other English-speaking foreigners. With the rain falling and the relatively low temperatures, the experience was quite cold! I do not know if I will ever call kayaking “my sport”, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

And that brings us to the end of August. As we approached the end of the month, the excitement about our new apartment was building, and the end of our temporary living situation was in sight. We had some great times in Malta and some adventures around Zurich. All in all, another great month!