A few months ago, Hannah informed me that she would be descending upon Basel, Switzerland with a number of fellow British erasmus students from Dijon, which for them is a fairly cheap train journey away. I decided that it would be equally easy for me to meet them there and so booked flights to Zurich and allowed myself to become incredibly excited about the prospect of Basel Christmas markets, meeting up with Hannah and all things Swiss.
However, when Friday the 5th rolled round, I realised I should perhaps have researched this one a little better. Getting from Vienna to Zurich was fairly easy, despite sleeping in, I was at the airport in plenty of time and discovered the whole solo flying thing is now second nature to me - I even contemplated having a haircut while I waited since the hairdresser at Vienna Schwechat International Airport would be the most likely to speak English and therefore understand that I don't actually want all of my hair cut off and dyed green.
My lack of organisation only affected me when I landed in Zurich, having no idea how to get to Basel and for some reason, even though I had both Austrian and UK phones with me, no phones which would send or receive calls. Luckily for me, they speak German in Zurich and so I soon found myself on a train to Basel, hoping that I would bump into Hannah and her friends eventually.
I arrived at the Hostel and discovered that my bed had been paid for and that Hannah and her friends were in my room, napping. Interrupting their nap-time I was soon settled and caught up and we prepared ourselves for the next big adventure of the evening - der Blindekuh restaurant (the blind cow and also the german name for 'Blind Man's Bluff') where we would be eating our meal in the dark in order to experience what it is like to be blind. This was an extremely surreal experience. We arrived in the well lit lobby and the woman there explained how it would work, in German, so it was then up to me and the only other girl in the group who speaks German to translate. We left all of our things in the lockers outside (we weren't allowed to take bags or coats in, in case people tripped over them) and awaited our waiter, Patrick, to lead us to our seats in a conga-line. With a little bit of chaos we managed to find our seats and immediately smashed a wine glass to the floor. We were told not to move anything on the tables and Patrick went to get our drinks - we had to pour our own water and put our fingers in the glass to tell when it was full, we all got the hang of that one pretty quickly - the difficulty would come with the main course. I wasn't expecting the room to be as dark as it was, in a normal dark room you can generally make out shapes but there was really no difference between having your eyes open or closed. You had absolutely no sense of how much time had passed and we found moments where the conversation just stopped because no one could play off of each other's facial expressions or body language - we couldn't tell whose turn it was to speak.
Eating wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be but then because no one could see you, we did resort to eating steak with our fingers and poking around on our plates to see if there was any food left. The first thing I did upon receiving my plate was to send brocolli flying across the room. Pudding was easier and by that time we had the hang of it. It's really strange how much detail your mind fills in when you can't see - we all imagined what colour the chairs, napkins and place mats were, how big the room was and whereabouts we were seated within it - the strangest thing is that we all tended to guess the same things, we were all sure the chairs were red, for example.
Leaving seemed to be the most difficult part - Patrick came to collect us and guided us each from our chairs but the three on the other side of the table caught on to the end of the line and walked around the table when the waiter had wanted to go and collect them - he was rather confused as to where they had gone, which was both funny and a bit of a shame. On our way out, our conga-line ended up getting separated and three of our party was left stranded in the middle of the restaurant making a rather loud fuss and the waiter had to go back to find them. The whole experience was really strange but it also made you appreciate how difficult it must be for blind people and just how much people are capable of doing without sight - cleaning up the glass from the broken wine-glass and the dozens of other plates and glasses we heard smash while there, for example.
The rest of the weekend was spent at the Christmas market and discovering Basel. Apparantly Erasmus himself was from Basel and we went on an Erasmus walk which sent us around the main buildings - my favourite was the Rathaus which was bright red and ornately decorated with a massive Christmas tree and Christmas wish book in the middle. We also visited the Puppenhaus Museum (doll's house) which was really good and full of bears and toys from all over Europe. The weekend was really lovely - it was great to see Hannah again and I'm always so happy to know that we can just pick up exactly where we left off with absolutely no effort whatsoever, as though we haven't just spent weeks apart.
The way home was slightly more problematic, misjudging my timing slightly I nearly missed my flight home and ended up racing through the airport as they announced the final boarding call (I believe it may have been karma for laughing at the hundreds of people doing just that in Vienna airport) I had also left my keys with Ellis so that she could use my room while her sister stayed in her's and not having a working phone meant I was locked out of my building. Luckily I found a girl from my corridor in the cafe downstairs and she let me in. I then discovered the lengths to which Ellis had gone to reach me so she could give me my keys, including msning my brother in Wales from my computer to find Hannah's number to reach me, but I got home eventually, even beating Hannah home by about 20 minutes.
Yesterday was a bit of a loss, it was a public holiday here anyway so classes were cancelled and shops were all closed. Ellis and I spent the day watching harry potter and catching up before going out for dinner and to the cinema to watch Madagascar 2 (in English because dubbed films just aren't the same!). Today I really need to do the homework I neglected yesterday, but my only lecture today was also cancelled.
It's now only 10 days before term finishes and I head to Paris on the way home, which I'm really looking forward to! Before then I have to register as proper Viennese resident who is staying for longer than 3 months but I plan to recruit Sarah to go with me because she still has to do it as well and I've heard it involves an hour and half wait. Luckily I have no more exams until the end of January so the time before the holidays is all about winding down and I have to say I'm really enjoying it!
