I know most of you are like, what the heck is a fasnacht? Think New Orleans Mardi Gras minus the boobies and Rio Carnival minus the beauty. Fasnacht is Switzerland’s response to throwing an Ash Wednesday party… but with much uglier masks and floats. And Basel has arguably the best party in all of Switzerland (just don’t ask anyone from Luzern to confirm that – big rivalry).
Actually, Basel Fasnacht is one of the top 50 events in Europe! Last year I was back in the US so I missed it but this year rain and crappy weather were not going to stop me!! It’s actually a pretty spectacular affair, starting at exactly the time you would want to hear a huge party with street bands and a parade march by your house – 4:00am on a Monday. Then it continues for 3 days straight, lasting until, you guessed it, 4:00 am on Thursday morning.
We spent a lot of time begging for flowers and the “good” candy (we wanted those gummy bears!!!). We got dissed every SINGLE time we begged (and who shuns two cute young women and a baby?? It’s never happened to us before!!!). Truth be told, basically every time we begged, we not only didn’t get candy but we got confetti bombed smack in the face. Here was the general sequence of events:
“Please sir, my baby and I are adorable. May we please have one of those pretty roses?” |
“NO! We are pure evil and we only want to confetti bomb your baby. BAM! In yo’ face!!” |
Overall we had a really fun time and I would highly recommend it to everyone! Next year I’m definitely dressing up. And since I already have a naturally big nose, I don’t have to spend a ton of time working on a mask! Score!