A few things about the Swiss

• The Swiss still love to smoke. Which is kind of a shock coming from New York City where people also love to smoke but can't do it inside (unless you're stuck with a bunch of young, entitled hipsters in a basement bar and then everyone does it anyway).

• The Swiss love a drag queen Transformer. Not only did they clap and hoot and holler their little Swiss hearts out during his brilliant performance, but they continued to clap for the aforementioned Ennio even after he'd taken four bows. When it was apparent he wasn't coming back again (the house lights came on and the music had ended) they continued to clap and cheer. I was the first person out of the theater and this was a good 12 minutes after we'd last seen Ennio.

• The Swiss love wearing tiny, delicate spectacles. Whereas thick, black, chunky glasses are all the rage in NYC right now, here everyone looks like the grandmother from Little Red Riding Hood. But in a good way. It makes everyone look even more elf-kin and adorable -- if that's even possible.

Finally -- I'm having a really hard time telling who's gay and who's just European. Which is nothing new, I've always had this problem, but I find I'm second and then third and fourth guessing myself all the time. Plus -- there are supposedly going to be over 100,000 queers at some point but so for I've only seen 67 or so confirmed homos (the ones in the inflatable Europride "Locker Room"), so maybe I'm just assuming everyone is queer when really they're just Euro? Or maybe they're queer AND Euro? Factor in the language barrier (everyone speaks German, French, and English -- often it seems they're speaking all three at the same time) and I think that I'll just have to wait for someone to hit on me rather than the other way around.

-- NOAH MICHELSON

Previously > The day before EuroPride 2009