Basel

Rhein.  Architektur.
Population 163,080

We are officially in Basel (arrival date May 8, 2012).  We settled in to the apartment, got resident cards, tram cards, ½ price train cards to save $$ on travel, and opened a local bank account.  Woo hoo!  We even started to receive mail (which we cannot understand, for the most part).  Junk mail is universal.....

 

We are in a wonderful location – Matt walks to work, and we’re just minutes from the Rhine river.  There’s a tram stop at the end of the block, and pretty much everything is walking distance.  There are some cafes at our doorstep and a grocery store across the street (better grocery stores are a few blocks away).  In a span of 15 minutes, we can catch the tram to the train station, buy tix from the kiosk and then hop on a train out of town.  Very convenient!

We ran into some snafu’s trying to do laundry  for the first time as all the settings are in German, and figuring out garbage/recycling was tricky (they take it very seriously here, and you have to put garbage in special blue bags (“bebbi sagg”) purchased at the grocery store).  For recycling, you have to break down and tie up paper/cardboard and they pick it up only once per month.  Aluminum and glass go in special repositories (sorted by size and color), but luckily we have 2 recycling stations near us which I can walk to.  We’re all set now and things are running more smoothly.  The “Translate Google” webpage has been very helpful for us!  Hurray.

We’re still getting used to the city “shutting down” on Sundays.  It’s true, everything is closed, except for a few cafes and public transport.  It makes it very peaceful though.

There are some decent department stores and fun boutiques here.  We did a bit of shopping to check things out and Matt now has a broad assortment of scarves and fun socks (the “Euro” look!).  Very fun, indeed.

We recently made our favorite Thai pizza, twice!  It was veggie, but still as tasty as we remember it. Yum. We brought peanut butter and brown sugar from home (still haven't found any brown sugar here). Some items we typically use are easy to find, like soy sauce, but others are elusive, or really tiny (peanut butter jars are mini size and would last us about 2 servings!).

Interesting / still getting used to:

·    Our door locks from the inside, with a key (there is no bolt).  One day, I was locked IN trying to get out to meet the delivery guy (I couldn’t find the key).  Now we just leave the key in the door for ease.

·     We have a fan that automatically turns on in the bathroom and then proceeds to run for 10 minutes or so.  There is no controlling it. ?? 

·    Where does a green egg come from?  The grocery stores have an array of green, yellow, blue eggs…..very colorful, like Easter all year-round.

·    At the grocery store, you bring your own [re-usable] bag, and pack your groceries.  You also have to weigh your fruit/produce and get a receipt the checker can scan [yes, a lot of countries outside of the US do this, but still getting used to the approach].  And the carts are locked up - you have to insert a coin to unlock, and then you get the coin back when you return it, and lock it back up (Matt figured it out, I however, could not).

·    Getting used to the metric system and measurements, distances, temperatures etc.

·    Nespresso machines are everywhere and seem to replace regular coffee, so until we get a coffee-maker, I’ve been drinking instant Nescafe (not so bad, actually-or perhaps I'm just getting more used to it).

·    People with special floatyy bags (to keep personal items dry) bobbing down the Rhine.

·   Military time (even on our clock radio).

·     Sunday closures.

·       We cannot find a wine rack to save our lives (we brought a bunch of Cali wine with

     us).  We’ve looked everywhere with no luck.