10 Ways Switzerland is not the United States

So my original day to blog was supposed to be last Wednesday aka our travel day from Paris to Lausanne but my good buddy Matt took care of that so as opposed to repeating what he covered,  I'm going to do something different. What I'm going to do will take a look of our trip to Switzerland as a whole.

This might seem a little radical to some, others may call for a retraction and demand my immediate departure from the trip but I beg that you stay with me...This may be a game-changer.

10 Ways that Switzerland is not the United States

This is a list on the ways Switzerland is different from United States, from 10-1 with 10 being a noticeable difference and 1 being an drastic difference.

10) Late dinner

Picture this, we arrive in Lausanne on Wednesday after a full day of travel. None of us has had a lot to eat outside of a small breakfast and maybe some sort of sandwich for lunch. There were some of us(me) who had only managed to scarf down two breakfast bars on the train and were on the verge of passing out by the time we got to Lausanne. To our complete and utter horror, we discovered that the residents in Lausanne and Switzerland as a whole did not eat dinner until 8PM at the earliest. Considering we arrived at our hotel at 3:30, waiting until 8PM was definitely not an option.

9) Scooters/Rollerblades 

I’m not going to hide the fact that people in Switzerland are skinny. It’s not because of their portion size but because of their excessive use of both scooters and rollerblades. I lost count of how many people, who were clearly older than me, that were riding their Razor scooters to work. The same goes with rollerblades, who swerve in and out of people on the sidewalk like a game of Frogger. Say what you will about them, the early 2000’ s never seem to have left Switzerland.

8) Cigarettes

I love Switzerland, I really do. I love the sites, the history, and the fact that you can walk in the same direction and find something new every time. What I hate though is the amount of cigarettes that these people seem to smoke. Most people have never smelled the air near Lake Geneva, but it’s safe to say that I’ve never had cleaner air. Except for when the person next to me is powering through a pack of cigarettes. Drives me up the wall.

7) Traffic Rules

This entry on my list simply because from what I witnessed, there are no rules. People can go whatever speed they choose and pretty much wherever they choose. There were times when our group had pretty much go into stores because the people where driving on “streets” so narrow they had to be sidewalks. We also had a five way stop near our hotel where no one really stopped and the amount of illegal U-turns pulled was through the roof. But to be honest, I’m from New Jersey so this was actually a step-up.

6) Cars

Remember the cartoons where something shocking would happen and the character’s eyes would pop out of his or her head? Yeah that was me every five minutes in Switzerland. Now I’m not a huge car guy but I know when a car is really nice and really expensive. Some of the cars I saw in Switzerland were worth more than I could sell my body parts for.

5) Breakfast

This one can pretty much be attributed to all of Europe but Switzerland was worse than the others. Most of what we were able to have for breakfast consisted of toast, nutella, coffee, and cereal. There were the occasional breakfast croissants that made the whole thing bearable but one of my first stops when I get back to the states is a diner for some 24-hour American breakfast food.

4) Drinking at 18

Some might think that this is a little too low on my list but by the time we got to Switzerland it wasn’t really new to us anymore. That being said, our first night in Lausanne ended in Mike Gutman, Bryson, Alex, and I drinking a 5L tube of beer between the four of us. So as not to mince words or reveal any details, we made the most of ability to order alcohol with our real IDs.

3) The scenery

I don’t know how to say this outside of like this: Switzerland was oh-my-god beautiful. We walked out of our hotel to a breathlessly gorgeous shot of the Swiss Alps. Everywhere we went we had to stop and take photos because every time we saw the mountains they looked even more spectacular. Taking the opportunity to hike the Alps was a decision that I’ll never regret.

2) ½ English, ½ French

England: a lot of English speakers. France: 75% English speakers. Switzerland: 50% English speakers. Switzerland was a land of beauty and wonder but there was definitely a communication barrier. They surprisingly spoke less English than the French did, but those who did speak English were fluent. We struggled through it but all in all it turned out pretty well, including getting free dessert at one of the restaurants we ate at.

1) Money/Pricing

By far the biggest difference in Switzerland was the money and their extensive use of it. The Swiss are a great people and they have a great country but they tax the hell out of everything you buy. That tax then gets added to the already ridiculously expensive pricing. That pricing is in the Swiss Franc, a currency that the American dollar has a 1:1.12 conversion rate to. If that isn’t a good enough example of their money, their smallest bill is a 10 and most banks don’t take you let out less than 100 at a time. Absolutely ridiculous.

In the end, we all loved Switzerland and as soon as they lower their price, I will  be running back to visit.