Zurich - BadHaus Fest

Lake Zurich, Switzerland

There are some days where you feel you should never have bothered getting up in the first place.

Lena had invited me to her friend’s party at a privileged location by the lake – the friend (or rather, her husband) owned a patch of land by the lake with an accompanying boat house that also had a kitchen, toilet, etc. Each year they hold two parties where there’s a barbecue and you can also swim in the lake (there are steps down into the water). It’s prime real estate in Switzerland.

I seem to be going through a bit of an insomnia phase recently – not sure if it’s age-related, heat-related, too much swimming-related, or what. Anyway, I didn’t wake up until 11am that day, and despite the late hour, I was still in no mood to get out of bed. I forced myself to move, but sat and festered on my balcony with no real desire to do anything.

The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and I should have been full of life and eager to do things. Only I wasn’t.

At the 11th hour (well, probably 3pm), I suddenly forced myself to go to the swimming pool so that I’d have achieved something. I didn’t want to leave my swimming until I got to the party, because I was a bit unsure as to whether other people really would swim and I didn’t want to presume. I could also then wash my hair afterwards, so that I’d look presentable.

So, off I went, got changed at the pool, put my stuff in the locker, closed the padlock … and locked the key inside. My clothes were now irretrievable! I went to the ticket booth at the pool and they sent a young lad to me with a giant set of pliers to snap my padlock in two. Well, in three, actually. I was alert enough at this point to double-check that they were breaking into the correct locker before they started (which they seemed to find quite amusing).

Once all this was done, I barely had time to swim any more. I did a few lengths and hurried back home, completely forgetting to wash my hair.

I was running a bit late, so I dashed off to the station to get the train to meet Lena in town. However, and I’m still not too sure what happened, when I arrived at the station, my train was ten minutes later than I thought. I wondered if I’d got the wrong station (Glattbrugg and Opfikon are very close to each other), so I went to the other station. Indeed, a train for the time I thought was correct was listed, but was pulling out of the station as I got there.

At this point, I realized that mobile phones can be quite useful. I had no idea what was the quickest way to get to my meeting point. I went back to the first station and got the later train.

Actually, it arrived at the time I’d originally planned, so maybe I’d just misremembered the departure time. However, as I got there and met Lena, I realized I’d forgotten that I would need a supplement ticket to get to our final destination. We consequently missed the train to get to the party after all.

The next train got us there. And after that, everything was good. I ate chicken, I swam in the lake – twice! – I got complimented on my swimming, the people were friendly and I didn’t even have to speak German. The location was beautiful; it must be truly amazing to own a bit of land like that – basically, it’s your own private Badi (lido).

Well, everything was good, until it was time to go home. We left rather late, so I was a bit nervous about managing to get back. We got a train OK but then it stopped at a station en route and announced its departure from there was delayed. Then it announced it was cancelled. We got on a train at another platform, but that too didn’t move. Some people got off, some people stayed on. Lena left. I stayed on. There was no announcement. After 15 minutes, I thought I might just leave as well, but then the train suddenly announced it was delayed. I decided this was an improvement over no announcement, and stayed. By this time I’d missed my last bus.

However, it was all OK in the end; the train did eventually depart and it deposited me in Oerlikon, where I got another train to Glattbrugg. The very last train. And so my rather weird day came to an end.