Next stop Switzerland and we started in Geneva for a 3 week stay to catch up with Tash’s family. We spent a couple of nights staying with Tash’s Cousin Lukas, Marie and their two kids Kay (the tassie devil) and Lea just across the border in France in a village called Ecorans.

They have a wonderful place up in the mountains looking down into the valley and Geneva with views to Mont Blanc off in the distance. Ticked off the first Swiss cliché of cows with bells (even though we were technically in France and so they were French bovines). It was nice spending a few days in the village, we saw Kay perform at his end of school play where he played the big bad wolf in little red riding hood and we went to a village BBQ/bonfire, complete with mobile bar.

We had to tick off the Geneva tour so we spent a few hours in the city (more like a quiet town), drove past the UN headquarters and saw the lake and fountain. Tash was also asked if she wanted to buy drugs from an old dude sitting on a bench who then went on to talk about his respect for Fred Hollows?! Then it was time for fondue in the red-light district, Pâquis. The ladies are out early in Geneva, Lukas said the older ones have to get a head start, baby got back!

Cheese, bread, beer, wine, grappa, limoncello, done!

And so we set off early Thursday morning, heading for St Gallen in the east of Switzerland to the Open Air festival. A motley bunch of 7 cramming into a van and on the beers before we had even left Ecorans at 7.30am! Due to sticking to Lukas’s strict timetable, we didn’t stop for a toilet break until just out of Bern. I now know what pregnant women feel like, I practically had to waddle to the bathroom.

I’m not sure really how to explain the Open Air experience, in typical Swiss style it’s in a stunning location with snow topped mountains and a lovely river skirting around the edge of the site. Then there’s 30 thousand crazy people partying harder than I’ve seen in a while. OASG has been running for almost 40 years so it’s a bit of an institution much like Glastonbury or Meredith. It’s the first time we have used RFID tags also which was nice and also dangerous as you just topped up your wristband at a booth and then just swipe away. You were given a token for each cup, plate, whatever and it had to be returned or you were burning some serious francs, which was happening anyway. It was a heavily German themed lineup but we managed to checkout Rise Against, Royal Blood and the Chemical Brothers amongst a few other random bands

Most of the action was happening at the Stars and Stripes bar high up on the hill overlooking the festival and a short (convenient) walk from our tents. This bar was open from beginning to finish, not closing once, nothing like being woken up by the crew at 6am for a sunrise beer as the late night partiers were dying out and the daytime kickstarters were arriving. 8am signalled the Prodigy’s firestarter and a massive increase in volume and onwards we sailed into the blurry daytime. The bar, being on a hill had a rather precarious steep slope which provided great entertainment throughout the day as those boozed up bravados attempted to run, skate, surf or just walk past and fall down to their mud filled doom. Special mention has to go to the Turbojugends, a group of guys that bring no tent and spend the whole time at the bar in various levels of sobriety and drunkenness, anywhere is a bed, even the steep muddy slope.

cereal and beer at 7am

Euro festivals have a much more relaxed vibe, especially compared to the US and Australia. Some guys pushed a mobile bar into the river and we sat around drinking beers, someone was letting off large fireworks at random spots, there’s the bar and it’s on a non-fenced slope down to the tents below and there’s the large hay store where people go to buy hay to spread around the campsite and soak up the damp. Genius! Until the peeps in said camp somehow manage to set the whole thing alight! Might have been the large fire you had 5m from the tent??

A fantastically boozy slog which introduced us to one of the best festival bars around. Thanks to the crew; Lukas, Marie, Tania, Steve, Jonas, Alain and Super Steve for making it a cracker.

J & T