I hadn't realised just how much I rely on being around such weird and wonderful people!
[1] Seriously, this happened while I was having lunch in a hippie cafe in Edinburgh
I've just arrived in Zürich, and I'm already finding it really weird to not be around the alternative/hippie crowds that I've become accustomed to. Can anyone point me towards any volunteer-run cafés or chill out spaces or places where it's just okay to be weird or that randomly have 20-minute abridged renditions of The Marriage Of Figaro[1]?
Have you tried Starbucks central?
other option is www.couchsurfing.org
Go to the openair café-restaurant on Stadelhofener-Platz just in front of the rail-station, .. and from there either through Niederdorf or along the Limmatquai. Or go to Helvetiaplatz and from there along Langstrasse towards the Limmat. Or go to the "Rote Fabrik" with the Restaurant "Ziegel oh Lac" on Seestrasse (from the rail-station Wollishofen towards Kilchberg). The Rote Fabrik is THE alternative centre actually. The Ziegel has a nice clientele and offers quite good beverages and meals at really modest prices. You can walk along the lake towards downtown and will come to the "Freizeit-Zentrum Wollishofen" with a small kind of restaurant, and on the adjoining lawn-place a free-of-charge electro-grill (courtesy of the City of Zurich) !
NEVER trust a Hippie
I haven't really see the hippys here, the "tribes" that Wolli mentions are a down and out bunch of boozers and misfits, the type you see passed out in the mud at festivals with a malnourished dog. I guess for the true Hippys, Zurich would just be too expensive to hang out in and your best bet would be to find the hippy central of Switzerland and that is likely to be a rural setting. Where this is, I don't know.
The Rote Fabrik does NOT have "down + out bunch of boozers and misfits". Rural settings in the end are not less expensive than inexpensive parts of Zurich, AND most of all, the conservative "Innerschwiizer" folks do NOT accept anything even faintly looking hippy-like to them (and that to their minds includes foreigners and Zürchers ) .
The Café on the Stadelhoferplatz has been established right in order to press that sort of boozers you mentioned out. And is quite successful in this.
On Langstrasse and Limmatquai and Niederdorf there is the whole variety from "Boozers" up to noble upscale folks.
Why would anyone want to hang out with hippies?
They always turn out to be fascists when push comes to shove.
But if you're really desperate to meet some, hang around Paradeplatz on May 1st and you'll be sure to meet one or two 'soul mates'.
Sounds like hippies minus the tree-hugging philosophy.
True alternative people rarely look it, mind you! And do not share their views to attract attention. The ones who are loud, worry about their image and manicure their weirdness are usually very square when it comes down to dissecting their counteculture image.
You should hang out in Les Grottes, GE. In fact, you are in the wrong part of CH, seems like. La Maison Gruetli is actually very not hippie, but quite alternative, liberal and open minded. Loads of art projects and programs, very little actual politics. Interesting folks.
I've felt the same way. I have met some cool people in Zurich but the really artsy hippie people seem to be in Basel. I haven't really found any here in Zug. It's all rich international men and their kept wives. Blegh
I shall start by exploring Stadelhofenplatz and Niederdorfstrasse then! I also had a look at Binz, though I'm not sure if that's the sort of place where randomers can just show up.
I thought hippies were extinct replaced by hipsters.
amen to that mc. most of the 'hippies' i've met end up being self involved crooks who are too lazy to be creative- those who spend their time talking about how crazy and alternative they are, aren't that crazy or openminded when it comes down to it.
but it is festival time, so try to find some free events (there are those, i swear) and i know some really alternative squatty artists things here (lausanne) if you make your way to these parts...
This place might not be a bad place to start.
you may visit wiki.
Starbucks?Thats for trendies.
Try "Rote Fabrik"
http://www.rotefabrik.ch/de/home/
or try the tram stop at the main station-thers usually alot of punks/alcoholics hanging around there!
Checking OP's request, seems to be a little bit different...
There's not much inspiration in intoxication.
Binz, Zaähringer and the Rote Fabrik for the crowd that is alternative to mainstream. Not necessarily hippies though.
And I've seen a few of them in Wollishofen, gatered together at the Gemeinschaftzentrum, juggling fire and tight-rope-walking, and engaging in various other hippy related activities..
Most "hippies" (I mean the real ones of the 1960ies and 70ies) were sons and daughters of fascists. That movement was a protest movement. The nearest "equivalents" to them can be found in the areas I pointed out plus the lakeshore between Bellevue and Tiefenbrunnen.
I did not have that ugly crowd in mind you can see on the Stadelhofener Platz in Winter and if going from HB to Central on the left side of the bridge. But even in their case a word of defence. The authorities repeatedly checked up their dogs and came to the conclusion that these dogs are in a remarkably good condition, often in a better condition than their owners. Pfarrer Sieber and others in this city however take care of these homeless as best as possible, so that their condition overall is not as bad as it really could be. That they flock to the City has its logics, as they know that the SVP in the City is a below 20% party and not even represented in the City government
Best there is that just accross from the GZ is the free-of-charge electro-grill, active from early morning until 10pm on all days. Most people around and behind that grill are "to mainstream" and only slightly alternative