A Humorous Guide to Switzerland

fruit attracts fruit flies Who doesn't know them, the small but annoying fruit flies that seem to appear out of nowhere and take over your fruit plate?  Thanks to their ability to track down fermenting fruit and their super fast life cycle , they multiply quickly once they found your fruit supply. The best way to get rid of these buggers would be to store all fruit (and vegetable) in the fridge but many people (including myself) think that fruit loses some of it's flavor when you keep it refrigerated. Another popular answer to the fruit fly problem are vinegar traps. A combination of water, vinegar and dishwasher soap is put in a small bowl and the fruit flies are supposed to land in there and drown. This has never really worked for me so I was looking for another way to get rid of fruit flies. Fruit Fly Trap that works! Building a Working Fruit Fly Trap I've always thought it strange that fruit flies would prefer vinegar over fruit (which they didn't!) ...

Name Tags - shop.robertkneschke.de  / pixelio.de On the website of the Federal Institute for Statistics of Switzerland you can access statistics for first names of the entire Swiss population. In a way, it is a Swiss hit parade of first names . At its top you'll find names which have been popular for a long time and were typically awarded to the baby boomer generation, for example, Daniel, Peter or Anna. In fact, the top 10 of these names are so widespread that I know at least one Swiss representative for each of them in real life. The 10 Most Common First Names in Switzerland As of 2016 , these were the most common first names for people living permanently in Switzerland. Many of these names are popular in all regions of Switzerland: Peter (also Pierre), Anna, Daniel, Daniela or Anna appear amongst the top names in all four regions of Switzerland.  Most Common Names for Swiss Women: Maria Anna Ursula Ruth Elisabeth Sandra Monika Claudia Verena Nicole ...

baby shoes - JMG / pixelio.de The Federal Agency for Statistics in Switzerland BFS collects the names of newborns in Switzerland and compiles a list of most popular baby names for each year on its website . You can look at popular names for the years 2011 to 2016 and there is also an option to filter according to region. I have written about popular baby names in Switzerland before ( 2008-2010  and 2011-2013 ) and what becomes immediately obvious when looking at the lists is that the most popular names haven't changed over the last five years. For boys,  Noah  has been on top every year except 2012 when it came in second place. For girls, Emma and Mia are taking turns on the top spot. These are the baby names that were most popular in Switzerland in  2016 : Most Popular Girls Names: Mia Emma Elena Sofia Lena Emilia Lara Anna Laura Mila Most Popular Boys Names: Noah Liam Gabriel Luca Leon Elias David Samuel Luis Julian Of ...

Radio - Erwin Lorenzen  / pixelio.de  More than 760'000 Swiss citizens live outside of Switzerland. Many of them in different parts of the European Union and very few in exotic locations like Maui. About 3'100 of them are currently living in Peru and just one  is living in the beautiful village of Cocachimba . These Auslandschweizer  ("Swiss Abroad") can be heard on the radio in Switzerland once in a while. There is a weekly show on Swiss radio SRF 1 called " Die 5. Schweiz "  - a name that translates to "The 5th Switzerland" and refers to all Swiss citizens who reside outside of Switzerland. This show introduces Swiss people living in different parts of the world and interviews them about their new life abroad. A few months ago my mother told me about this program and I thought it interesting enough to write them an email and ask for more information. After a few emails and several failed phone calls (thanks to my very remote location and...

Swiss Alps - berggeist007  / pixelio.de I've been living abroad for several years now. While I'm happy with my life here in the beautiful north of Peru (you can read more about it here:  Las Cabañitas de Gocta ), there are moments when I really miss life in Switzerland. I miss the great variety of cheese and bread, I miss the punctuality of people and busses and I miss hearing and speaking Swiss German and being able to converse without thinking about which word to use. A while ago I wrote about the  10 Things You'll Miss About Switzerland  and it still pretty much hits the spot. 10 Things to Do When You're Missing Switzerland Today, however, I won't write about what I miss about Switzerland. Instead I'll share 10 Ideas on how to deal with missing Switzerland in your life. Music: Put on your favorite Swiss music, preferably with Swiss German lyrics. Personally, I like Patent Ochsner but the song that I lately tend to put on when missing Switzerland ...

Swiss Passport - Deborah Weber  / pixelio.de  While writing my posts about owning a passport that isn't worth much and one that is totally worth it , I discovered  a great online resource for comparing the power of different passports. A website called Passport Index  lets you explore passports from all around globe. On Passport Index you can see which to which countries you can travel freely if you own a certain passport. On the website you can check out an individual passport (e.g. Passport of Congo ) compare up to four different passports see an overall ranking of all passports  find out if you can travel to more countries if you acquire another passport read news about passports and immigrations laws from all around the world Obviously, I was interested in the Swiss passpor t and checked how it ranked in the overall ranking. I mean, we Swiss can travel to a lot of countries without needing a visa! This is what I found. Top 10 of Worlds Best...

Swiss Cow - Andreas Hermsdorf  / pixelio.de What word do you associate with Switzerland? What is the thing that first comes to your mind when you hear "Switzerland"? I wanted to know what you - my readers - thin k about Switzerland  and created a poll. Slowly but surely the answers started coming in. What You Think About Switzerland The results of the poll are interesting but not entirely surprising. I hoped people would add answers of their own in the comment section but that hasn't happened so far. You can still participate in the poll here:  What you think about Switzerland What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about Switzerland? - Results Mountains (12 votes) Money & Banks (11 votes) Chocolate (7 votes) Chuchichäschtli (5 votes) Cleanliness (4 votes) Neutrality (3 votes) Punctuality (2 votes) Cheese & Milk (1 vote) Watches (0 votes) © 2017 IRENE WYRSCH "A HUMOROUS GUIDE TO SWITZERLAND" ALL RIGHTS R...

Traveling - Petra Schmidt  / pixelio.de  Last week I wrote about what can happen when your passport isn't worth much   and how as owners of privileged passports - one that lets you travel to lots of countries visa free - we are often blissfully unaware of the troubles people with less travel privileges go through. Today, I want to share a personal story about the other side, about what can happen when your passport is truly worth it.  Traveling Without a Visa This happened when I was on my way back to Peru from a trip to Switzerland. In fact, it was the very same trip for which my boyfriend was denied a visa . I was 6 months pregnant and traveling was a bit more strenuous than usual. My AVIANCA flight route led me first from Zurich to London (Heathrow, not a good choice!), from London to Bogota and then onwards to Lima. This is a long journey and can be tough to deal with even when you're not pregnant. Everything seemed to go well. I checked in in Zurich, b...

Swiss and Peruvian Passport This last week the media and social media has been full of comments on Trumps #MuslimBan . The new immigration policies of the US has made me aware once again that our world is still a very unequal place. People are treated in a certain way simply because they were born in one place and not in another. Depending on the passport(s) you hold you are granted certain travel privileges - or not. I was born and raised in Switzerland and have enjoyed the benefits of free travel from an early age. It is normal for me to travel without needing a visa and strange for the few exceptions where I do need one. A short trip to Germany, a holiday in Canada or an extended trip in New Zealand - all is possible without much paperwork! Today, I can travel to 155 countries by just carrying a valid Swiss passport! I never personally experienced the disadvantages of owning a passport that isn't worth much - until I got married to a person who owns one. My husband is...

Matterhorn - Gallus Tannheimer  / pixelio.de  I've always wondered what people who were born and raised outside of Switzerland think of our small country . Is your view of Switzerland mostly affected by the news, movies or by a personal visit? Is it a positive view overall? Has your opinion of Switzerland changed over the years? If yes, why and how? I would be more than happy to read your answers in the comment section below! For those who don't feel like writing answers I've created this poll. If your answer isn't in the list, please add it as a comment below! You can see a summary of the results here . What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about Switzerland? What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about Switzerland? Money & Banks Mountains Chocolate Cheese & Milk Watches Punctuality Cleanliness Chuchichäschtli Neutrality © 2017 IRENE WYRSCH "A HUMOR...

blogging - S. Hofschaeger  / pixelio.de I imagine that almost every blogger has set up a Google Analytics account in order to track visits to the blog. I'm no exception to this and while I'm probably not using all its features and benefits, it still is a very interesting tool. Other than the total amount of visitors per month I'm mostly interested in how these visitors actually got to my blog. There are referrals, social media referrals, direct hits and - most interesting - search keywords that led people to one of my posts. However, since Google updated it's privacy settings * , most of these keywords appear as "(not provided)" which isn't very helpful. The keywords left in your Google Analytics keyword list are the ones from other search engines. At least, those give you a general idea what your visitors were looking for when they were sent to your blog. My Top 20 Keywords in 2016 For this blog "A Humorous Guide to Switzerland"...

baby -  Helene Souza  / pixelio.de Every couple of years the Federal Bureau of Statistics publishes a report on the most popular baby names in Switzerland. In  2008-2010 the winners in the German part of Switzerland were Lena and Noah followed by a variety of other short and quite international names. While Noah still leads the list of most popular baby names in the 2011-2013 report, Lena has been replaced by Mia . Also, there are a quite few "new" names in the top 8 of first names 2011-2013. The 8 most popular baby names in Switzerland 2011-2013: Girls: Mia (+1)* Alina (+2) Sara (+4) Laura (+1) Lea (+/-0) Sophia (new) Leonie (new) Emma (new) Boys: Noah (+/-0) Leon (+1) Luca (-1) Julian (new) Levin (+4) David (+/-0) Nico (-1) Gian (new) * in brackets the comparison to the 2008-2010 report The most popular names in French speaking Switzerland were Emma and Gabriel , Sofia and Gabriel in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland, ...

Rotzloch - a town in Switzerland Funny Place Names all Over the World All over the world, there are cities and villages with names that strike us as funny. Places such as Sexi (Peru), Middlefart (Denmark) or Hooker (USA) make us smile or even giggle a bit. Especially, when you actually get to visit one of them. I once actually drove through Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu (New Zealand) which is one of the longest names any populated place on earth has. Sometimes, it is the sound of the place name that sounds funny to foreign ears but most of the time it's the either the literal meaning (as in Climax (USA)) or the similarity to a word in another language (as in Bitsch (Switzerland)) that tickles our sense of humor. Funny Place Names in Switzerland There are plenty of collections of weird and unusual place names from all over the world but there aren't that many lists of places with funny names in Switzerland - at least none in Eng...

Switzerland is a very small country . Not as small as tiny Luxembourg or Liechtenstein but still very small. Especially, if you compare it's size to countries outside of Europe. In fact, Switzerland would fit over 200 times into Canada or the US.  Being small helps a lot to stay organized and clean - two characteristics that are very typical of Switzerland and its inhabitants . Signs that Switzerland is a Small Country Even in every day life, the small size of Switzerland is sometimes noticeable. I've found 5 signs that show that Switzerland is indeed a very small country. Postal codes are made of four ciphers only and go from 1000 in Geneva to the 9000s in St. Gallen. There is one system of postal codes for the whole country (and not one for each state or province!). Most other countries have ZIP codes of 5 or more ciphers. Driving from Germany to Italy (north to south) through Switzerland takes about 3 hours, driving from France to Austria (west to east) through Swit...

When you move to a foreign country you'll be confronted with many new things. New types of food, a new kind of mentality, most likely a new language, a new scenery and much more. However, you'll most likely not only be busy with getting used to new things but also a bit longing for (at least some of the) things you've left behind. The same is true if you're traveling for a longer period of time. 10 Things You'll Miss About Switzerland I've been on the road and away from Switzerland for a few weeks only so I'm not yet homesick for some Swissness . However, I'm pretty sure from earlier experience that if I'll be it'll be for these ten Swiss things: Cheese : Nothing beats Swiss cheese. Seriously, it's tasty, locally made and you can make great Fondue or Raclette from it. My favorite: Gruyère. Punctuality : Yes, you're train will actually be arriving and departing on time in Switzerland. And so will busses, trams, boats, cable cars and ...

A few months ago I wrote about online clothes shopping in Switzerland . In my post I focussed on Zalando and Bonprix because they were most popular and the only online clothes shopping websites I had tried. Recently I tried another supplier for online shopping: La Redoute . My Experience My experience with La Redoute was fine. The selection is large and the navigation on the website itself alright. My positive experience might also be connected to the fact that there was no need for me to return any clothes. As it goes with online clothes shopping, the major issue is the return of clothes that don't fit or don't look as expected. According to La Redoute 's terms and conditions you can return any items that you didn't like and you won't be charged for them. Also, if you want to exchange clothes (change size or color) you won't have to pay for the re-sending of the clothes, which means you'll pay just once in the first place. However, you will hav...

Someone sent me a link to a really funny post about living in Switzerland a while ago. I was doing some organizing in my inbox today and stumbled upon it again. It's really very entertaining so I thought I'd share it with everyone. Maybe you'll recognize yourself or someone you know in this list. Matterhorn - Reto Fetz (swisscan) / pixelio.de  You know you've been living in Switzerland too long when... ...you think it's economically wasteful to have more than one brand of a product in a store.  ...you think spontaneity is OK, as long as it's planned.  ...you think getting up early is good.  ...you get upset in the train when a foreign tourist opens the window causing a draft to go down your back.  ...you actually get interested in the local elections.  ...you know the words to the Swiss national anthem.  ...you expect the shop clerk to say goodbye after you purchase something.  ...you wait for the shop clerk to open the door to le...

Bloomberg has recently published a list of worlds healthiest countries . And guess who made it almost to the top of the list? Exactly! Switzerland was chosen the 4th healthiest country in the world! This doesn't surprise me since Switzerland is well known for it's populations healthy eating habits . Who beat Switzerland in healthy living? On top of my head I would have thought that the Scandinavian countries like Sweden or Norway would be right at the top of the list. Great health systems and a modern lifestyle should do its trick, right?! However, none of them are found ahead of Switzerland. Sweden is placed 6th and Norway 9th - still very good though. The top three healthiest countries of the world are definitely not what you'd think they'd be. Maybe with the exception of Iceland as #3 healthiest country. But I don't think anybody would have guessed Italy to be the second healthiest country of the world. I mean, how healthy can pasta and pizza be? Maybe the r...

Ever wondered what happens to all the things lost and forgotten on the many trains and busses in Switzerland? I always imagined some giant storehouses with tons of old stuff simply aging and collecting dust. That wouldn't be very Swiss though, would it? Especially with all the dirt and dust since we are generally such clean freaks. Turns out that many public transportation companies sell their lost and found items to a shop in Zurich that makes a business out of selling lost items. lost and found -  brit berlin  / pixelio.de The Shop of Lost Items About 60'000 items reach the lost and found shop every month. And there are some very funny, some expensive and some very strange items for sale there. If you have a look at their online shop  you'll understand what I mean. Currently on sale are: different kinds of jewelry sex toys second hand underwear paintings clothes sports gear a machine for counting bank notes There's two central questions that have ...

If I ask people to give me an example of a typical Swiss name, most would probably name Heidi. Made famous through the stories of the little girl living in the Swiss alps, the name has turned into something uniquely Swiss. Although I learned that people outside of Switzerland sometimes name their children Heidi as well. However, most Swiss consider Heidi a very old and unmodern name that belongs to our grandparents generation. Ueli, Walter, Rösli, Annemarie - all these names are slowly disappearing from Swiss phonebooks and index of names. Some are undoubtedly beautiful but simply won't do anymore. I mean, who is calling their children Eugene or Earnest these days?! You might ask, are there any original Swiss names still popular with parents? How about all the beautiful names from Grisons like Flurin, Zegna or Gian? They definitely are still in use but others seem more popular. These are the baby names that were most popular in Switzerland in 2008-2010 : Most Popular Gi...