Street Parade

To set the context for this post, there are two things you should know about me if you don't already. First, while it doesn't bother me as much as it used to, I can still get pretty claustrophobic if I feel trapped in a large crowd. Second, I don't handle hot weather very well because (a) my Nordic skin burns in about 45 seconds and (b) I tend to not drink enough water and get dehydrated easily. (OK, I'm a wuss. There, I said it.) So what did I do on a hot day today? I decided to join hundreds of thousands of my closest friends to check out the big Street Parade in Zurich today. Not surprisingly, I was probably a standard deviation or two above the average age, although I certainly wasn't the oldest person there. Everywhere you went in downtown Zurich there were people dressed outrageously and techno music thumping at deafening volumes (I think it could cure a heart arrhythmia to stand near one of the stages). You couldn't escape it--even the main hall of the Zurich train station had a huge stage with a techno party going on. I'm not sure what was funnier--how people were dressed, or the looks on some people's faces when they walked past. Given how warm it was, there were lots of outfits that looked terribly uncomfortable--lots of nylon and various unidentified fuzzy substances. And there was disappointingly little nudity involved (c'mon, my wife has been out of town for four months so I'm allowed to say things like that). Anyway, after walking around for a few hours and absorbing the ambiance (and the sun and not nearly enough water) I realised the actual parade itself--which seems to be an afterthought compared to all the parties--was still nowhere near coming by where I was, plus I had to get home to walk Grady, but all things considered I felt like I got the general feel for the whole thing.