Summer in Spring??

The weather now's like that in July last year when we were in Germany! Cool mornings and evenings, and warm sunny afternoons up to 25 deg C. So i'm back to 'Spore' clothes now. Haha and after the weekend in the sun, i'm already a few shades darker!

Saturday, we had a picnic in a big big park. Found a large picnic spot, and made ourselves at home. I prepared potato salad and a peach cake, with Yuki and Eiko earlier in the morning, which everyone said were good :) We also had a fire, and grilled wursts, which we ate with bread.. yummy!

After eating enough, it was time to move! haha out came the football and volleyball, which we played in random groups on the vast greenery.

Then it was slacking time, when we chit-chatted the afternoon away under the trees. Yuki and I laid on the grass in the sun for quite some time too. Haha when will (/can) i ever do that in Singapore, given the determination of our sun to practically burn you in 2 seconds? hmm..

Sechselaeuten also took place this weekend, and it's a traditional festival of Zurich to celebrate the end of winter. The city centre area is turned into a large funfair, with booths (selling food, accessories, balloons...) set up everywhere. All kinds of vehicles are not allowed in this area too.

So on Sunday, I caught the children's parade. Little kids dressed in costumes, mainly from the medieval times, and walking through the city, throwing sweets at the many many onlookers lining their path.

Haha somewhere towards the end, there was also a showcase of groups dressed up according to nationalities.. That's China below: (haha see the dragon behind?)

But today (Monday), is the actual and main parade of these celebrations. People dress up and parade through the city centre. And watching them, i somehow felt.. nostalgic.. haha i have no idea why though..

So groups of people decked in colourful costumes according to occupations paraded to the beat of their accompanying band:

Oh yea there were so many horses that after the parade, you had to walk the streets cautiously, cos it was so much easier to step on horse shit than not to. And I felt so sorry for the poor animals as I watched them pull the wagons and carriages, with so many decorations and people sitting inside..

So, more occupations.. These below are the tai-tais then..

Another band..

Oh yea, haha i forgot to mention: I was actually standing along Bahnhofstrasse :)

And these are.. erm soldiers? or bodyguards?

Oh and one more thing.. Realised almost all of the paraders have flowers in their hands? The audience sitting in the first row along the streets (mainly women) usually had bunches or stalks of flowers, which they went up to paraders they knew to present them with flowers and three smacks in the face.. *muack muack muack* haha so you can roughly tell who're the anti-socials amongst the paraders.. ;)

So, the parade lasted 3 hours, from 3-6pm. At 6pm, another major activity was starting at Bellevue.

Where what seemed like the whole of Zurich gathered by that time, the Boegg (snowman figure) was lit.. We were saying bye to winter officially...

And it started burning...

By the time the Boegg actually caught fire and started burning, we could hear 'explosions' from it. And everyone cheered..

So, the thing is, the people here say that the longer the Boegg takes to 'explode', the better Summer will turn out to be that year. This time, it took about 19 mintues, i think.. and that's considered long. But i can't imagine! Now is already 25 degrees, so in June? 45 degrees?? oh my.. let's hope Summer will really turn out fine :)

After that I went on the Ferris Wheel with Eiko and managed to snap some pretty scenes or Zurich from the top:

Hmmm i actually took some great videos too.. But, heh, i don't know how to post it here.. :S I guess the pictures will suffice, huh.. Yea..

Ok, that's all for now. Super sleepy!! haha night night!! Miss you all!! :)