For a few years, when our daughter was a tiny baby, we lived in Winterthur.
And although it is more than 14 years since we left, going back there always feels a little bit like going home.
Its cafes, delicious coffee, cobbled streets and strange wooden statues fill me with a comforting sense of warm familiarity that you only have in places where you have been happy.
 |
| Wooden statue resting in the streets of Winterthur- the jury's out as to whether he has a very long penis or just very long legs |
As a foreigner, Switzerland is not an easy place to live.
There are so many laws and rules that the Swiss are born knowing and everyone else just has to find out the hard way.
When we first moved there, I was 7 months pregnant and had to fly back to England for the last month because we didn't have health insurance in Switzerland. While I could speak German, Ninesh hadn't yet learnt it. I was staying at my parent's house when we received a phone call from the Swiss police. Ninesh had broken the law. He had put out a bag of rubbish in the wrong place with the wrong sticker.
And it is not that anyone tells you which sticker to use or where to put the rubbish.
If you are Swiss, you just know that.
" How do they know who's rubbish it is?" I asked one of our friends when Mia had been born and we returned to Switzerland.
" Oh," she explained, " there is a special policeman whose job it is to go through rubbish bags that have been put in the wrong place until they find a name and address!"
" Do they have a special rubbish-sorting qualification?" I asked.
My friend just laughed.
And there are lots of other laws we found out the hard way:
If you live in a flat you may not take a shower after 11pm.
You may not mow the lawn or go to the bottle bank on a Sunday....
But once you have learnt all the rules that and laws that are important for to you, Switzerland is one of the most beautiful, relaxing, friendly places you could live.
We lived there for such a short time but the friends we made are still some of those closest to our hearts.
Which is why, last Saturday night, we were back there for our friend's surprise 40th birthday party.
It was in an underground bar, the kind that you only seem to find in Switzerland with metal art on the walls and car doors suspended from the ceiling,
The whole place was ours: a tableful of food, unlimited cocktails, a dance floor and the familiar smiles of long-ago friends.
And we might all be over 40 ( almost all) but we danced and drank and laughed the night away until it was almost light outside.
 |
| Age cannot stop us headbanging |
And when we woke up the next morning in our friends' beautiful flat, floating above Zurich, the world was white and sparkling and covered in snow.
Exactly as it should be in Switzerland.
And as we trudged and slid and crunched our way through the snow towards the tram and the airport and rainy England, it was hard not to wish for just one more day of chocolate and cheese and Swiss relaxation.
But however many times we fly away from Winterthur, we always know we will be back. There are some places that you never quite leave.
And there's always our friend's surprise 50th to look forward to.
Happy Birthday Christine.
No comments:
Post a Comment