Drowned

I’ve mentioned before that the Swiss are a very active people.  I find this extremely admirable.  I myself was once a very active youth.  I would give anything to have one of my old softball or tee-ball photos to scan as proof.  I played softball for about 9 years and soccer for 4, ran track, swam all summer long, played outdoors, etc.

Sadly as I’ve gotten older all of that has kind of gone away.  And by kind of, I mean completely.  Today was more proof of that than ever before.

We headed up by my friend Katie’s place.  She lives north of the lake along the river in Kreis 5.  Kreis 5 is like a combo of Wicker Park in Chicago and Berlin in Germany.  They don’t tell you about Kreis 5 in your travel book, because the hipsters that live here want it to remain a fantastic secret.  It’s got that industrial look and graffiti everywhere, and the same type of artwork tattooed on people’s bodies.  On the way to our destination today, we walked through a graffiti covered skate park that looked like it came straight out of a Run DMC music video.  It was sweet.

Near Katie is another Badi, those fun sectioned off swim areas.  This one was along the river instead of on the lake.  It was a cool new place to see, and we liked it because the river was moving very fast and tons of people were floating down it in inner tubes and rafts.  Take a guess what our next purchase will be…

We finally arrived and I was dying of heat at this point and just wanted to get in the water.  I followed Katie in – Katie, who is a former high school swimmer – and I instantly fell victim to drowned rat syndrome.  

I, who used to be active as hell and swim every day in summer time, could no longer put one arm in front of the other.  I started flailing about trying to keep my head above water.  The thing about the river at this badi was, there was no bottom.  And there was no gradual lead into the water.  It was just a drop with no where to stand and no where to hang on.  People were loving the “just floating” thing, especially those who knew how to swim.  I just climbed out as soon as I could, coughing and sputtering like crazy.

I gave it a second chance – tried to swim a bit farther – and again, needed to climb out and take 5 minutes to catch my breath.  I felt bad for Tony and Katie who were actually concerned for me.  I guess I just can’t hang anymore.

Oh well – next time I will bring some arm floaties along with my inner tube and I will be set.