August 12th, 2006 Saturday morning, Zurich Switzerland

Started some Laundry, which just wouldn't seem to dry, but since the machines were in the building and locked, we felt it would be safe, and we didn't want to miss the parade, so we took off.

The parade started at 1, but it didn't reach where we were until almost 3:30 pm. But the streets were insanely packed and every sort of person was represented, S&M, Hippies, Drag Queens, Yuppie Grandparents, Cow Boys, Ravers, Punks, Skaters, Euro-Gangsters, Hoochies, Cute Families (with their kids ranging from infants to 14),Furries, Gays, Straights, and everything in between. People from EVERY continent and country seemed to be represented as well, even Paris Hilton was there, lol. There was ANYTHING and EVERYTHING imaginable walking the street.

Most astonishing is that with about 1.3 million people, drinking since the night before and intending on going on partying until the following evening, we had only seen one disagreement. You would think with all the pushing and shoving and bumping into one another people would get upset. But knocking someone over was thee best method of meeting someone. We heard just about EVERY language imaginable, but with the beat of the music being the only universal thing one could hear, everyone could understand one another.

We thought the urinals in Amsterdam were public, they took it to a WHOLE new level here, with just 2 foot tall tubs all along the side-walks. I hope no one there was pee-shy. The parade lasted for over 9 hours, with float after float after float. The funny things was how cops were standing on top of bus stops throwing out free ear plugs, which were very handy. Even with those, by the end of the day, Nick said he felt like he had been using a chainsaw ALL day, which was another thing I was surprised about, Nick dancing, you heard me, NICHOLAS BUCHOWSKI was DANCING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wish I would have gotten a picture, because those of you who know him, won't believe me.

Our train left at 11 at night, so we headed to the station. Just when you thought the party was winding down, there was a city sponsored party right in the center of the station. IT WAS SICK!!!! Thousands of people were crammed in the station like sardines, dancing and smiling and dancing, I was in heaven, it was sad to think that one of my favorite parts of the trip was soon to be ending.

We boarded our train with some confusion because the cars were numbered funny. We were sooooo excited to be sharing a small room with beds three tall, with two 20-something girls from Romania on the top bunk, Nick and I in the Middle, and two elderly Italian guys below us. What a language barrier we all shared. Poor nick, six foot something in this barely 6 foot bed, I felt so bad for him. I used this opportunity as well to do some writing.