Basel : Day 1

I went out today with the intention of getting a SIM card for my cell phone.  While I successfully found the shop to get it, they weren’t able to register the card, so that part of the day failed.  Instead, I went and explored the old part of Basel (downtown, if you will), and it’s definitely as charming as you’d think an old city in Switzerland is.

I live about 10 minutes away from Spalentor, which is the ancient city gate.  Walking through (or around it), you’re suddenly in the narrow, hilly streets of old Basel.  There are the cute houses, with their cute shutters, and of course, the window boxes with red geraniums.

I walked around for a bit, and stumbled into Marktplatz (literally, Marketplace), a little farmer’s market they have everyday (!) in the city center.  It’s right in front of Rathaus, which is their city hall.

Cute shops and cafes!

I got a crepe as my first Swiss lunch, and bought a small bag of cherries to take home.  By this time, my jetlag was catching up with me, so I headed back towards home, and stopped by Coop (the local grocery store) and bought some rations for the next few days.  I didn’t know you had to buy the bags there, so I ended up at the bagging part (where you bag your own groceries) with no bag and had to get back in line.  Oops!  Oh, I also caught this picture of the cheese section in the market, which is totally an indication of how seriously the Swiss take their cheese.

In the evening, after a really long nap (4 hours?), I went out to meet Ellen, one of the girls in the program, who is from Eindhoven in the Netherlands.  

It turns out she does yoga too!  A bit more advanced than I am, but at least I have someone to go with now.  We got some dinner, and went to a couple bars before we each headed home.  Tomorrow, orientation and meeting everyone else!