Basel, not Basil

Let's get the ridicule out of the way right now... when we arrived in Basel, Switzerland, the first thing we did was go to the theater and see Harry Potter (in English)! Laugh if you'd like, but it was a pleasant change to sit and watch a film in English for a few hours. Our hostel was immaculately clean and had a kitchen, so we picked up groceries for the week. It's a good thing, too, because although Basel isn't a huge tourist spot, it is extremely expensive to do anything there, including eating. The grocery thing worked out well for us, except when someone stole Kara's yogurt. She threw a fit.
The next day we got back into the groove and went to the Vitra Design Museum (furniture and whatnot). We saw an awesome exhibition of Fernando & Humberto Campana's work and it made me miss Jim Postell and our off-the-wall conversations. We were all excited to go back to the hostel and make pasta for lunch, but the kitchen was shut down for cleaning when we got there! We asked and they told us that it was literally the one day of the year that they did such an intensive clean. Just our luck.
Later we walked around the city and saw the Rhine river, which made me miss home. After a visit to Europe's oldest university, we got some overpriced fondue for dinner. After some reflection, I am coming to realize that my diet here consists almost entirely of bread and cheese. Not that I'm complaining, because I love these foods, but Europeans eat a lot a lot a lot of ham. And I'm just not into that.
The next day Kristin and Justine went to Zurich to visit Kristin's uncle. Kara, Megan and I went out on the town (Basel) and saw a museum before taking a rainy-day nap and then going down to the shipyards to stand in three countries at once (Germany, France, Switzerland)! Then we went back to the hostel and watched part of The Whole 10 Yards (in English!).
The next day turned out to be one of the biggest days of the year for Basel, the Tattoo. It was awesome because we all missed out on the 4th of July parades at home. This one represented several countries and was overrun with bagpipes. It rained on our parade a little, so we made up for it by buying very expensive and extremely delicious chocolates. The Swiss do it right.