Well, it was success and failure at a detox weekend in Zurich for thier pride. I didn't manage to avoid drinking (of course), but I did manage to avoid getting drunk and hurting my stomach. Well, hurting it too bad any ways...

Friday was pretty bust because not many people were out I guess saving up for daytime parade etc, so only a couple of drinks and then in bed by 1:30.

I explored Zurich on Saturday. I think Switzerland is probably the most beautiful country in the world that I have been to. I really like it! I knew that before, but this just reinforce it. It's reall nice with the mountains and rivers and lakes, etc. The only place in europe where the rivers and lakes are sparkling clean too!! And you can see right to the bottom of the rivers like in the carribean, amazing! Of course they are probably pretty cold even in the middle of August I imagine. People still swim in them though. Any ways so Zurich is pretty cool, the old town was very picturesque.

Then the parade was a little low key. Only about 1/2 dozen floats which was surprising, but I guess Zurich is really only 400,000 people, so for such a small town they have quite a big gay lifestyle. Most of the parade was people just walking along, for support, i guess. I guess that's how pride parades started out being, before they became either poplitacal (like in the states) or colourful like new orleans... or whatever. So any ways, then they had a party in a square, with not much vendors. They had hardly any little places with all the gay stuff, very surprising. Mostly it was food and drink stalls. It was alright, but they had it spread out over too long a period, from 4pm-midnight. There were 2 dance acts at 8pm that I kinda wanted to see, but after 2 hours there with not much to do, you know everyone is visiting with friends etc. not very exciting, I got bored by 6pm and went home for a nap. Kinda wonder if it was more lively in the evening and was going to go back, but didn't wake up till 11pm... opps.

Any ways, at 11 I went to one of like 5 official pride parties. It was packed, but didn't like it all because you had to fight to get a drink and it took 20 minutes. There was so many people and it was a venue not regularily a bar, just 3 rooms filled with people. Not all that exciting, and I realized afterwards that I was ripped off with the one drink I bought. I gave a 50 and got back 8, she though i gave her a 20, or did it on purpose not sure, probably the later. But i didn't realize till I got away from the crowded bar and by then it was too late. Bastards!! So i spent 80 zurich francs which is about the same as euros I think I still don't even know and I've been and gone. Never did see the exchange rate. Any ways, 80 euro to muscle my way through a sea of people and have one drink and stayed for about 1/2 hour total... not fun! I thought oh lord this is going to be a bad night.

So I left because there was another place and regular club, in my gay book as gay-mixed, that I wanted to go to as well any ways. it looked like the after hours and sure enough it was a true sketchy afterhours type place. Big though, and very well laid out. Very nice club. But before I got there I waited an hour in line because it was of course full being pride and all... so I didn't get in until like 3am. Good thing is that it was pretty much all gay, and fun fun vibe. I wish I had goodies, oh well. I was glad that I didn't afterwards. Although I did have some "natural" leagal stuff that I had bought in the Netherlands and so I tried that out. It did absolutely nothing. Not nearly as good as the legal stuff I got in london last summer. So anyways I did start drinking some, but luckily it was so hot and I was otherwise distracted by other things (the club had a darkroom, God I hate those things... sometimes... :).

Any ways, I did end up having quite a few drinks, but they were spaced out over a long period of time. Yes a LONG period of time. I ended up being there until about 11am... yeash!! You know when there are hundreds of people in a club and it never seems to get less busy, well that was what it was like. Although right at the end, in the last couple of hours, the number of people did drop quite a bit. When I left there was probably only about 200 people left, over two floors so it seems pretty quiet. Especially since there was probably 3 times that many people at peak of the night. So I was bad, staying up way to late. And I knew that it wasn't good because I had a 6-8 hour drive back to Belgium on Sunday!!!! Yeash! It ended up being about a 7 hour drive and actually not that bad. Probably because I didn't sleep at all. I just went back to the hotel showered and hit the road. And I was pretty fine for the entire period. Never once did I feel real sleapy, so it actually worked out quite well. I have driven a lot worse than that, only about half way I started to get a hangover headache, so immediately took some tylonol and I was fine.

I got back to Amtwerp and slept for 12 hours till Monday morning. Was a little tired on Monday, probably the oversleep than anything, but now on Tuesday morning I feel great. So all in all a good time. I'll have to go out of my way this week to find an internet cafe and load the movies I took of pride onto my web site. I still can't load them from work so all the movies I have taken since I've been here are not up yet... another procrastination thing I have to break!