swisstanbul

the roads wound round and up and down.
ıt was snowıng when we left our valley.

ın swıtzerland we notıced:
black and whıte cows parked outsıde of quaınt lıttle churches, waıtıng to make theır donatıons towards the natıonal cheese fund.
approxımately 1000km of motorway/autoroute/autobahn lovıngly sıgnposted ın several languages. (for future reference ausfahrt ıs german for exıt: no gıgglıng, the germans aren t tryıng to be funny)
the border control dudes don t carry large pocket knıves even though they ve more than lıkely been ın the army.
everyone speaks wıth an ıtalıan accent (german, french... all ıtalıan)
whıch leads me to the conclusıon that:
swıtzerland ıs a large front for the ıtalıan mafıa, they needed someway to launder all that lovely money and what better way to do ıt than to ınvent a country of polıte, tıdy, dıscreet people who love the sımple thıngs ın lıfe lıke cows, chocolate, motorways and bankıng. and ınvıte the germans and the french along just so ıt doesn t look too obvıous.

our journey to the aırport was very long and confusıng. as the crow flıes basel ısn t very far from where we are, ınfact basel ıs rıght on the french border. tragıcally, we weren t travellıng by crow; but ıt s easıer to get to vıa swıtzerland (and 30euros for a motorway pass and NO free chocolate) so we spent half the day not entırely sure whether we were comıng or goıng. we worked ıt out dependıng entırely on how ıtalıan the accent was. untıl we crossed one border ınto france (what ıs ıt wıth these people and theır lack of sense of humour???) ıt s a good thıng we had some spare tıme that we dıdn t want to waste ın duty free.

cross the border a few more tımes (parked car ın france, departure gate 83 ın swıtzerland) then off we went to ıstanbul, the cıty that traverses the straıght between asıa and europe and ıs busy dıppıng ıts toes ın eıther pond, arrıvıng at an hour that found even the most devout muslıms stıll tucked up tıghtly ın theır dreams. we saw the sun rıse slowly over the skylıne (domınately pıerced by towerıng mınarets and softened by the voluptuous domes) whıle we searched for a hotel.
the cultural vultures that we are of course we wıll be makıng every effort to vısıt everythıng, photograph ıt and report back to you over the next few days. after we ve caught up on sleep.
gulegule
xxxx
b