Street Parade, Zurich

I think it would be safe to say that Swiss city people have a reputation for being very serious, punctual, precise, and sometimes a little uptight--you know, bankers and businesspeople all wearing suits and looking at their watches. Last weekend, Martin and I met up with some of his friends at the annual, one-day-only, Zurich Street Parade! It was so crazy and wild...I couldn't believe this was the same Zurich that I have visited many times before! There were close to a million people in the streets dressed in costumes with dye in their hair and boas around their necks! The parade was, basically, lots of semi-trucks with empty, flat trailers. On top of each of the trailers was a DJ, loud music and energetic people dancing their hearts out all dressed in matching colors! The streets were filled with people and these people surrounded the semi-trucks. It looked like a sea of people pushing semis down the street to a beat! It was the biggest party I have ever been to! There were people everywhere and it was sometimes difficult to turn around! To save space, garbage bins were omitted. Therefore, people had no choice but to leave their garbage on the street! But, even this was funny to me--I watched person after person carefully place cans on the ground and neatly crush them first in the middle, then on each end until they were flat and unobtrusive. The streets are normally impeccable and I guess after training a city to properly dispose of its garbage, it is hard for some people to carelessly throw it on the ground! Still, there was so much garbage from hours of partying (even if it was "neat" garbage) that the place was a mess! (I was told that it would all be cleaned by the next morning so one would never even know there had been a party the day before.)