I am so glad I have to go back there, because it is a beautiful city, on the Rhein, filled with museums and cheap places to eat! After devouring some fried noodles, I was on my way to hunt down some characters!
All of your Fasnacht needs, it turns out, are available at most department stores. I guess it's like going to JC Penny's for your Halloween costume. But the masks in Manor and Pfauen were a. finished (I was looking for the unpainted kind) and b. really expensive. It was still lots of fun to look around and see the excitement of the city getting ready for this festival!
Fasnacht display outside Pfauen
Wall o'Waggis
The Waggis masks are the ones that will come and attack you with confetti during Fasnacht (I think - more on that in March!). You know it's a Waggis by the big hair, bulbous noses, stripey socks, and wooden clogs! Clogs, socks, little hats, confetti, plastic wigs, etc... All sold in a special section of most deparmtment stores.
Clogs.
I didn't purchase anything at the department stores, but then I couldn't find any of the other shops I had written down, either. I was starting to worry that I wasn't going to be able to find what I was looking for. Which would mean that I would make the masks myself, which I will probably do anyway, but I really wanted to find these unpainted masks. I decided to walk towards the airport, which is where another shop was supposed to be. While I didn't find that shop, I did find:
A fabric store selling 'stoffe' for Fasnacht. Sometimes I love Swiss-German!
No masks for sale in there, though. I kept walking. And found:
Spalentor! One of three medieval city gates to Basel.
Eventually, I did find some unpainted masks in an art supply store. I bought two and also some supplies (I haven't been able to find the art supply store in Locarno) for making more!
Fasnacht itself is less than a month away. I cannnot wait!
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