poo

zürich is a fantastic place sometimes. where else can you get a free tour of the sewerage system, complete with funky orange overalls, thigh-high rubber boots, friendly rats and freshly flushed crap? i can think of many places where you could get the individual parts, but getting the whole smörgåsbord at once is a bit of a treat!

some friends of reto had organised the tour (you just need more than 10 people to get a free booking with the zürich sewage treatment plant!) so he, martin and i trepidatiously tagged along for a long lunch. after getting changed into the super-funky gear, we caught a special bus almost into the centre of town. waving to the kiddies skipping school while wearing our special quasi-firemen outfits was a treat all in itself. then it was down a manhole on the side of a stock-standard street, and a 500m wander downstream. i was last in line, and there was a cute friendly rat tailing us for a bit. i felt a bit sad though, since there's no way out of there, even for a crafty rat, except for when the next rain big comes... he seemed quite happy sipping at the turbid wastes flowing past and frollicking in the sporadic explosions from minor side tunnels though. mmmmm.

fresh air has rarely tasted so good as upon my emergence from that dark underworld. and to think whenever there are houses around, those tunnels are below us all the time...