30-01-2012

Hello again my friends,
It's been to much time after my last post. Because of technical inefficiency and my new business, I couldn't write my new post. I finished my first journey in all this time for now. This time I will write about my 3rd visit to Basel.

 

Nüziders train station.

When I was in Nüziders, my sister told me that she has a friend in Switzerland but she doesn't now where she. She shared her contact to visit her. I contacted her and she said that she will be happy to host me. I asked where she lives in and she told me BASEL! I said wooooouuuuwwwwww, I really really wanted to go Basel because of Art Basel. It was not the time for the fair but anyway I got really exited. After set all things up, I was on the roads again on 30th January at 07.06.

 

First I went to Zürich and then Basel

 

 

I saw Niki de Saint Phalle's Nana at Zürich train station for the first time wauuwww :D Art every where. 

When I arrived the train station, I got lost because, I took the wrong turn:) It was too funny, I had no change to got tram ticket so a man helped me to buy one. For your information, you need Swiss frank, you can use euro also but they give change in frank. However, be careful on ticket machines you can use only coins both in euro and frank. Otherwise, you need to walk :D As soon as I solved the ticket problem, I went to city center to meet my sister's friend, I left my big bag and went to city center. It's really hard to explain my feelings about Basel. I thought it's not Switzerland, It's SWEETZERLAND :D What a beautiful city, feels like home all the time. Peaceful, well developed, perfect, beautiful...

            Markt Platz, where you can find local market. 

 Barfüsser Platz, you can find puppet shops in here.

 Cool graffiti :D

 This street is closed traffic you can find too much shops.

After seeing some places, I got tired because my train was really early. I needed to wait my friend to go home so to got rest a little, I found an English pub named Mr. Pickwick. I sat there and got my first friend in Basel. In time, this pub became my favorite place. Their motto is 'Where you can make friends' they are right. I made too much friends in here. You should go if you visit Basel. 

http://www.mrpickwick.ch/

Finally, I met my friend Güzide and we went home. The house is not in city center. It has perfect view.There is a farm and I went there to buy fresh milk :) Feels like Heidi :D

                                      

                                       

 It's like sleeping in a snow ball:D

31- 01- 2012

After fully got rest, I started to plan my stay in here. I had to see museums, galleries, interesting places. There are too much museums in Basel and galleries also. They have about 25 museums, isn't it cool?

- Cartoon Museum : http://www.cartoonmuseum.ch/ 

-Museum Tinguely : We went to Vera Isler's exhibition opening at Tinguely Museum. Jean Tinguely is one of the famous artist in Basel. His works are enjoyable and crazy :D He decorated some pools in the city.

http://www.tinguely.ch/de.html

 

Museum's garden.

 

 One of the pool which he decorated in Theaterplatz. 

You can visit also Theater Basel in here. You can find too much activities like Blues Festival, performances and so on. Theater Basel has also a bar where artists and art lovers meet. If you are interested in art you should visit.
Around Theaterplatz there are some museums also you should visit like Architecture Museum.
http://www.theater-basel.ch/

01-02-2012
Today I decided to visit some art galleries. Galleries are really good, rich content. I like;
- Carzaniga Galerie
- Hilt Galerie
- Stampa Galerie
- Laleh June Galeri most.

At these days, the weather was really cold. It was like -15 but anyway, I visited galleries. I think, I never got my sinus frozen before. Turkey's some cities are really cold like my hometown but Basel's cold is really different.

02-02-2012
- Kunstmuseum Basel : Big building and rich collection also. You can see Picasso, Van Gogh, Andy Warhol and so on.
- In Basel museums, you can find lots of activities not only exhibitions. For example, Tinguely Museum is a private museum but they hold other artists' exhibitions. They hold concerts also.
- P.S. If I couldn't take photo because it's forbidden. So I will share link of the museum.
http://www.kunstmuseumbasel.ch/

03-02-2012
Today I decided to Foundation Beyeler to see Pierre Bonnard's exhibition. It's in Reihen and takes about 40 minutes by tram from the city center.

 

It was sunny but cold day. 

I visited Kunsthalle Reihen after Foundation Beyeler. It's a good local museum. 

 

04-02-2012

A little break of culture and museum day:D I met my friend Güzide and we ate delicious Tai Food at Lily's.  

After Lily's we went to Cargo Bar. It's near the river and has a perfect view of the city. You can also see exhibitions at Cargo Bar.

During summer, you can sit outside of the bar near the bridge.

A little rest after busy art and culture days :D Hovewer, I saw an exhibition in here also which is good.

What a love :D I'm really curious how he could write this on the bridge? 

05-02-2012
First Sunday of the month, state museums are free of charge. So today was very busy.
- Naturhistorisches Museum: You can learn too much things in this museum. Dinosaurs, planet, bugs, birds and so on.
- Museum für Gegenwartskunst: Good for contemporary art.
- Museum der Kulturen Basel : It's the ethnology museum and you can see European culture.

I think that's all about museums and galleries. I stayed about 10 days in Basel and went to Paris for 10 days. I will write about Paris later. Before I leave Basel, I met some more friends and we had fun. Because of job opportunities I returned Basel after Paris. The day I returned Basel, there was a traditional festival named Fasnacht. It's the celebration of spring. What was a beautiful day. When left Basel it was too cold but Fasnacht day was warm and enjoyable. Every where covered with confetti :D The festival takes 3 days, during that days people stays outside till morning. You can see groups of people make music with special costumes and walk in the streets. At the end of the 3rd day, at 4.00 o'clock in the morning all the lights turn off and people light their own lights.  For more information http://www.basler-fasnacht.com/.

Playing with confetti was fun :D

I need to mention about traditional cuisine. They have two traditional food raclette and cheese fondu. Cheese is used too much I guess because of French influence. Maybe you don't know, in Switzerland they have cantons and the French population is about quarter percent of the whole population.

To prepare raclette, you should boil small potatoes and cook cheese with the machine and when it melts put on the potato und Guten Appetit :D

Now, it's time for tips of Basel :D

- Don't forget it's not in EU and their currency is Frank. Change money before you go, other wise you may not buy ticket like me :D If you don't have change you can go tourist information and post office.

- Have coins all the time for tram ticket machines or have a credit card. 

- Visit Unternehmen Mitte opposite of the post office. It's a good cafe&bar. Good coffee, food and nice people. 

- You can go Germany in the city center in 15 minutes. I went to Lörach, it was a small and pretty town. Plus, everything was really cheap when you compare Basel :D

- I couldn't make it but my friends told me Freiburg is a good city in Germany and it takes about an hour from Basel. You can go good parties in Freiburg. I will visit during my next visit. 

- As lots of European cities, smoking is not allowed in Basel too but (there is always a but :) ) in some places you are allowed to smoke. Again but, you need to buy 'Fümoar Card'. You need to show your card in smoking places before you enter. Otherwise, you need to pay your punishment.

 

- I found coins everywhere :D I think people doesn't care about coins :D

- You can chat everybody everywhere. They are sociable and friendly and good thing nearly everybody speaks English. 

- If you want to have job in Switzerland learn German, French and English. 

- I wanna share my very best place in Basel at Münster Platz. If you go Basel visit my spot for me too:D

 Here is the garden of a church. It has perfect view at every time.  (Left side view) This place was my spot when ever I got tired, need to got rest and wanna be peaceful I went there.

Right side view.

 The day after Fasnacht :D

                                                                       The church. 

- Don't worry be happy like they say :D

                                            

To sum up, Basel was my favorite city during my journey. I will live there sometime in my life for sure. Nice people, rich art, perfect city. I really really thank to my friends. First of all, Güzide to share her house with me, guide me and help me. Also I thank Zeynep, Colin, Christian, Josephine, Michael, Mark, Sarah and Damla. You really helped me and I enjoyed my days with you :D

See you soon Basel in a short time - I miss too much -  and see you fellas. Thanks for reading. :D

Auf Widerzehen....