dude, this happens to me one out of two times. we receive merchindising from abroad the whole time and even though the name of the company is ON the button, the postmen manage to ring somewhere else. out of this friend brian from ups, who's from england. when he has stuff for us, he call to us to be sure that we are at the office. kind of compensation for the generalised ring-bloopers.

Well had a typical 25 minute ride back from Baden to where I live in the Reusstal. The drunk was busy singing in extremely slurred Swiss German, and very loudly at that, with the younger school kids standing there rather amused in Baden's train station. Then, now this one shocked me, a mother sent her two kids along on the bus alone (which is standing room only, and sometimes cannot fit more people in it). She told the bus driver that "one is six, the other younger." One of them then thought they missed the bus stop and started flipping out, yelling at the sibbling. The bus driver was apparently the designated babysitter, and had to calm them down. Just another day in Switzerland...

And you people are just noticing the empty beer cans? They're typically strewn all over the place.

Andres your force field is so Swiss looking (JOKE) I want this one-

I don't know...in London, I once observed a skinhead in a gay pub greet his lover as he came in the door. The skinhead was dressed to the skinhead nines - but he got up and jumped up and down and clapped his hands like a giddy schoolkid when his lover arrived.

In Switzerland, however, I did have trouble with some skinhead morons in a small town in Schwyz. When we lived in Zurich, the skinheads in the bahnhof always gave my husband dirty looks because he looked punk. He's had trouble with the skinheads there since he was a kid... (skinheads and punks generally do not mix at all)

__________________

ha !

Well swiss or not swiss ... its real ! www.tesladownunder.com (crazy aussies)

Ok ok guys, enough of the forcefields.

Ok ...

Just slip into your anti-moderator force-field suit...

His one does not provide that protection. Told you his force field was not that good. His is Ver 1.00...mine is Version10.05

Wow, I'm a him now?!

I was talking about Andres's (all over the place) force field I know you are a she Miss Evil

I dont think standards have dropped noticably in the five years I have been here but I sure as hell notice the difference in the 5 years I have been out of the UK. Everytime I go back I notice a bit more of a decline in everything from condition of the roads and transport system to a drop in standards of service and general behaviour.

I agree, CH is a bit slow on the uptake on most things but in matters of declining service and standards this is no bad thing. I would quite happily walk through any Swiss city at two in the morning on a weekend but in the UK.... no way dude.

I have been noticing more rubbish appearing on motorway slip roads. e.g. A1 Affoltern motorway entrance just after the Gubrist tunnel. The rubbish accumulating there is a disgrace. What kind of people throw this rubbish out of their cars?

I don't think it's a decline in Zürich, it's an up and down, the more and less attractive places move around in Zürich, so to speak... Now it's Skinheads, but some years ago there was a Punk scene at Bahnhof Stadelhofen and these guys were no can collectors either. Tourists arriving at the Main Station don't know that less than two decades ago, the Park across the street was the infamous "Needle Park" tragic result of an errant drug policy.

The recent discussion about "das Littering" (yet another English import) has confirmed me in my opinion that Switzerland in fact stayed Swiss during the last years. But the cities try to react. In Zürich, underground garbage containers were built and the city made an effort to make the lake promenade cleaner.

Maybe there are less efforts to keep the trains clean but hopefully this will change in the future.

My opinion about the Euro 2008: The World Cup went well in Germany last year and I expect Austria and Switzerland to profit from Germany's experience. There already is an arrangement with German police forces for the worst case scenario. I'm confident in the security concept but I think the police might show less retention than after Ice Hockey / Axpo Super League (TM) matches in Zürich. And I will of course go to some public viewing events! (On the bright side, nobody will strangely look at you because of your skin color for three weeks - instead it's the shirt color that matters ).

I'm not saying there are no racists in Switzerland (and sincerely regret your bad experience) but at least from a political perspective, xenophobic mentalities are not on the rise.

I've been walking by the same 2 needles thrown on the ground by Limmatplatz.
they've been there for about 3 weeks now, just lying there. My husband works for The Post and he said there's been a needle on his route, sitting on top of mailboxes for the last week.

that shit scares me.

From my experience in Germany at the WC last year, it was fantastic - fans were well behaved, the Fan Fest's allowed everyone to enjoy supporting their teams in a controlled and well organised environment. To the point that, during England v Sweden, I was at a fan fest adjacent the river in Cologne, where (somehow) one single Swedish guy had decided to join about 10,000 England fans to watch the match - we made fun of him when we scored, he made fun of us when they scored, it was all just good natured "football fan" banter. Also now I think back, before the game all the England fans gathered round a square in Colgone town centre (head out of the station, past the cathedral, past KFC & BK, it open out on your right if anyone knows the city) - this was packed with supporters, drinking, chanting and playing football with inflatable "penny floaters" to their hearts content. There were police keeping an eye on things, but the only time that they stepped in was when the "penny floater" got swapped for a "proper" ball, and the fans / (we ahem) started trying to score goals in the windows of the flats around the square (bear in mind, the flat owners were leaning out of their windows enjoying the day as well, and were catching the balls and throwing them back - it was only when a ball went into one of the windows, and the crowd started chanting "1-0, 1-0, 1-0" etc that the police confiscated the ball and we went back to the penny floater haha)

The only time I saw any trouble, was after the Togo v Switzerland match. We were catching the train that night to go to Cologne for the match the next day, so we were all in our England shirts (no point taking a change of clothes on a lads football holiday!), and a crowd of Swiss fans (apologies to the Swiss here) start chanting at us "Ingerland, Ingerland" when we went into a bar. The result? The landlord threw us out for causing trouble before we'd even got past the doorway :|

On the hooligan issue, there are hooligan elements in any society (note the FCB v GCZ match comments above) and England (through necessity in the 80's) has much more experience and capability in dealing with football fans in general to avoid any incidents. (compare Man U v AS Roma in Manchester and Rome, same fans, different police reactions, different outcome...) - I honestly believe that the way forward is for the Swiss authorities to approach the UK and German authorities, take the Germans experience of last years WC, the UK experience of managing football environments / potential flash points, combine the two, and I'm sure we'll have a very peaceful Euro 2008.

Hmm I just re-read my Germany tale and it doesn't paint a great picture, the point I was making is that the fans of all countries were allowed to enjoy their football however they chose to do so, in a good natured and very secure feeling environment. (e.g. at Switzerland v Togo, I was sat on a row with 8 Swiss to my left, and 8 Togo fans to my right with drums etc - all really friendly, everyone shook hands after the game and it was a great atmosphere all the way through!!)

__________________
Zürich Inneoin GAA Club
www.snopes.com - an essential resource for the everday gullible internet reader.

'Switzerland is the pinnacle of civilisation'............ good one!!!

And football should be banned, end of problem.

Sorry I am slow on the up-take... but what is the Euro 08 got to do with Zurich? [/unawareness]

I think there is a point where you do think swizterland is the most safe country in existence, and it takes a while to spot the normal stuff that goes on in every city. Thankfully it IS probably much safer than alot of places.

Euro 08 will be held in Switzerland and Austria, presumably with Zurich being a major meeting point for a few million people.