Zurich Thrifting: Bracki-Land!

I've officially decided that the thrift stores here in Zurich are the best I've ever been to. I base that more on the quality of what's in the thrift stores than the prices, though the prices aren't too bad either. Here I barely have to dig to find something great. Just look at my two new paintings above--a stern lady to add to the collection and a vase of pretty flowers. Thrifting culture appears different here than in the states as far as the clientele goes. Out of the handful of thrift stores I've been to, I'm usually only one of a few people under 65 years old (even on Saturdays when I've peeked into places), which means a lot of what a 20 or 30 something year old would be interested in is just sitting there on the rack. Wow, there's so much good stuff here! I had thriftuphoria today at Bracki-Land! But before we go there, lets go to the Salvation Army (Heilsarmee here).

Lets start with the ceramic plates above. I love them! I see these everywhere here in thrift stores. I don't think these would last 5 minutes at Thrift Town in San Francisco. I was looking around at people, thinking, you're not going to buy these?, and you--how about you? These didn't seem to interest anyone here. They're a dime a dozen from what I can tell by the thrift stores I've been to. I wanted to get a bunch of them to sell in my etsy shop, but they are heavy and I don't know if it's worth it to haul them home. Gotta give that one some more thought.

At this Brocki they even had a reading nook with a table and chairs. All it needed was a little barista stand so you could sip your espresso while flipping through books. And they had so many books!


The artwork was really impressive too. Little did I know at the time that the selection here pales in comparison to Bracki-Land.

Welcome to Bracki-Land!
I thought I was in thrift heaven at the Heilsarmee, but then I found the mothership. That's right, I found Bracki-Land (which happens to be two blocks away from our apartment)! I probably had the same look on my face that Sigourney Weaver did in Aliens when she finds that room where she sees all the alien eggs (cocoons?) and the look on her face says, OH MY GOD! That's how I felt, except I wasn't scared and didn't want to torch everything with my flame thrower gun. I just wanted to fill up my basket, though I was good and just got a few things. It also reminded me of how I felt when I went to Tomato in Tokyo then went to Yuzawaya. I thought the first couldn't be topped, but then I was totally surprised and overwhelmed by Yuzawaya. Anyway, that's how I felt here--completely excited and overwhelmed. Just look at this place!! I took these pictures with the camera on my phone, so they're not the best, but I was afraid someone would ask me not to take pictures if they saw my normal camera, which is pretty hard to hide. Covert missions call for covert photograpy action! Bracki-Land is in an old underground parking garage, and the ramp that curves its way down to the lower level is filled with artwork, and it goes around and around and around. Yes, you still have to dig a little to find the good stuff, but not much.




They also have tons of blankets and linens. Guess who I saw in here? (I said that to Andrew and he said, "uh, we don't know anyone here do we?") But it was the owner of Portner, that antique store here that I like. He was in the checkout line with a stack of linens. Now I know where he probably gets a lot of his stuff. The blanket I bought from him may have come from here too.


The scarves! They had hangers and hangers filled with great scarves. So hard to decide on a few, but I did.

And the vintage clothes. Where do I begin. Well lets just say that just about every other piece of clothing is something worth buying.


Great hat selection too.

Lets not forget the coats. No shortage of those in Switzerland.

How is it that almost every umbrella was great? I don't know. They have so much more--shoes, bags, housewares, kid's stuff, etc., but you probably get the idea.

I bought a few things there. My top favorites are the paintings at the top of this post and this scarf. It's about 2 feet wide, thin and with great colors too. Coming soon to an etsy shop near you.


I'll leave you with a close-up of the floral painting. I love it. It reminds me of all the pretty floral paintings Lisa has in her kitchen.

Portner Antiques

Remember the cool antique shop I told you about the other day, the one where I bought the wool plaid blanket? Well, I went back this week and the nice guy working there let me take a few pictures. Lois was squirming around in the carrier trying to grab the camera strap the whole time, so it's a miracle all these pictures aren't blurry, but I did manage to get a few pictures and bought a few linen napkins as well. Speaking of the linens, check it out. The selection here is outstanding. Those wicker baskets off to the left there in the picture below are filled with monogrammed linens. What's your initial? It's probably in there on some amazing woven cotton tea towel or napkin. Unbelievable. He also has monogrammed tablecloths, bark cloth fabric, and curtain panels in all kinds of beautiful prints. Nothing is marked with a price, but like last time, for the things I asked about, I thought the prices were very reasonable--pretty low actually. I asked the price of a set of 6 navy and white tea towels with the monogrammed initials "RS" on them (my uncle's initials) and he said, "uh, . . . 10" (Swiss francs--about $8.50). Not bad. I love this place and would like to snuggle up to all those linens on the settee he has sitting next to them. I can't find a web site (doubt they have one though because he said he didn't have an email address), but the shop is on Hallwylstrasse.



Tea set will you come home with me?

And cool cabinet with glass drawers, will you come home with me too? You can be friends with the tea set.







I'll have to go back and ask the price on those cute acorn top salt and pepper shakers. (I collect salt and pepper shakers, well, I have a small collection of them anyway.)

The place is a little messy, but I like that. It gives it a lived in feel.

He wrapped linens. A brown paper package tied up with string. One of my favorite things. Simple and sophisticated. I love this place!

etsy fix!

I got my etsy fix last night, just browsing all my favorite shops. We're having a great time here, but with all this stuff I'm amassing to sell in my etsy shop, I'm looking forward to getting back to it when I get home. I'm also looking forward to going treasure hunting at estate sales with my friend Caroline who is scoring a lot of great vintage finds. Just check out all the great things in her etsy shop, like this Danish modern cook pot above! Surrounded by all this cheese and chocolate, I can't help but picture some fun fondu dipping in this pot's future, or hot chocolate--those little spouts on either side are perfect for hot chocolate pouring. The lucky owner of this pot might want to pick up those great Vera napkins to make the experience complete. Now that I have my etsy fix, I can get back to Swiss sightseeing.

Carnival in Zurich

Sunday started out with a beautiful sunrise. The clouds looked just like pink cotton candy. Lately Lois wakes up before the roosters, so I get to see the sunrise often. We made plans to head into town to see the Carnival parade, but first we wanted to stop for a special hot chocolate.

I've been wanting to try the hot chocolate at Sprungli (a very famous chocolate shop in Zurich) since we've been here but thought I'd wait until Andrew could go with me. So we decided to go there before the parade. I saw Samantha having a yummy looking hot chocolate on Passport to Europe and thought she had it here, but I think she had it someplace else because hers came with a mound of whipped cream (maybe I should have asked for whipped cream). I normally have a hard time drinking hot chocolate without whipped cream, so I was a little disappointed at first to see my approximately $8 dollar hot chocolate without it. But it was so creamy and delicious that it didn't even need whipped cream. Yum.

Then we headed to see the parade. Lots of people lined the Limmat to watch the parade.

It was fun to see people all dressed up in their costumes. Carnival in Zurich may not have the glamour of, say, Carnival in Venice, but I liked the laid back neighborhood vibe it had.





Then we decided to grab a bite--street food, Zurich style, cheese of course! Holy smokes this puddle o' cheese with potatoes was one of the best things I've ever eaten. I'm not sure if it was really that good or if I was just super hungry. The way the cheese was heated was so cool. Sort of like big toasters for cheese, then the guy scraped off the melted cheese once it was bubbly.



We also got some glühwein (mulled wine) to go with it. It was delicious.

As we headed home the party was still going, and based on the number of wine bottles people were buying at the grocery store the day before, the party surely lasted through the night. To see more fun pictures check out My Kugelhopf. In one of her last photos you'll also see the very raclette stand where we got our puddle o' cheese!

Bogen 33 and Freitag

Yesterday, after I got back from the flea market, we went to Bogen 33 and the Freitag shop. Bogen 33 is an amazing store in the basement of an industrial warehouse building. They call it a second hand design shop, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. As it turns out, it's filled with an eclectic selection of vintage modern treasures, and being there made me feel like I was right back on Valencia Street in San Francisco. Their lighting selection was most impressive to me. They had the most interesting and unusual lighting I've ever seen, but everything there was fun eye candy. Check their web site for much better pictures of individual items.














Neat place, huh? Then we went to the Fritag shop, which was right down the street from Bogen 33. Freitag sells messenger bags made from old truck tarps, and how cool is the store, which is housed in these stacked shipping containers. It was a fun day in Zurich.