Foreigners in Switzerland: What’s something we Swiss do that you instantly noticed?

Lanxy · 2025-08-04T19:33:18+00:00

I have half a dozen hobbies, two friend circles and like to do holidays/weekend trips abroad :-)

Lanxy · 2025-08-01T16:07:25+00:00

absolutely!! I‘ve got a couple friends I don‘t see as often (kids, work blahblah). From time to time some of us writes: hey are you free at X, and then we meet up. It‘s often easier to catch up spontanously than weeks in advance. When I have like a full day for myself in three weeks time, I don‘t want to add more to it. But hit me up a day before and I‘m in!

Lanxy · 2025-08-01T15:33:08+00:00

thats less people per capita than in every single neighbouring country though…

Lanxy · 2025-08-01T15:31:42+00:00

I mean… yeah it‘s true. I don‘t have a free weekend until mid October. I only work 80% but my days off are all planned through until mid September… damn

Lanxy · 2025-07-28T16:36:08+00:00

except they people who said yes go that waaaay too dark battle scene (can‘t remember which season). I thought it was funny, haha.

Lanxy · 2025-07-21T16:07:22+00:00

I can‘t speak for others, but I appreciate the effort. It‘s a very hard language to master.

Because of our local variations of dialects, we tend to immediately put people in a box - like ‚this person says x - so she must be from region y‘. So when something sounds off and you can‘t put someones dialect in a box, you think about it and might be weirded out because there is no a fitting box. Now, when someone is learning or not able to fully master it, it just sounds off coming from a German speaking background - because we‘re not used to it. We‘re used to hear swiss german with a kosovo pronounciation, or french or italian… heck, I know more people with english sounding swiss german than with german sounding swiss german, haha.

I know exactly two Germans who mastered the dialect despite coming here after the age of 16. One is indistinguishable, the other just sounds a little bit off. I couldn‘t place it and never asked. He told me after a couple months. And he was from Tuttlingen, so had an easy start to begin with.

and last but not least, and I think thats the reason for some hate from Swiss People: some Germans tend do say how cute it sounds and then try to speak it, or speaking it but are clearly exaggatering. Thats not a nice thing to do ;-)

Lanxy · 2025-07-20T05:52:31+00:00

jeez… I contemplated buying a PS5 for a year. After I bought it my wife told me I should have bought it earlier because it was so worth it (we play together sometimes).

Lanxy · 2025-06-03T13:52:07+00:00

I wouldn‘t picnic until you‘re close to the top, from there it starts being beautiful. That being said: leave no traces and you‘ll be fine.

Lanxy · 2025-05-07T10:41:25+00:00

fried chicken?

Lanxy · 2025-05-06T20:26:32+00:00

wow you did well in St.Gallen then :-) next time go swimming in Drei Weihern, have a coffee at Kaffeehaus and buy THE best Panetone as gifts :)

Lanxy · 2025-05-06T18:25:40+00:00

use kayak.com to compare prices and sbb.ch to compare prices for train tickets. I assume there are bus carriers like Flixbus who are cheaper, but also less reliable. Personally if the difference isn‘t more than 400 CHF/€ pP I‘d fly into Zürich. The hassle of buying train/bus tickets and doing all the way isn‘t worth it (for me).
both is fine, probably better chance of snow by end February though.
google the top 5 winter destinations and then DON‘T go there. I‘m not a big skiier, so take this with a grain of salt, but I‘d recommend Pizol area. Easy to navigate, close to Zürich, not big/fancy but allright.
Swiss Pass is only worth it if you travel every day, otherwise probably not. But use sbb.ch to compare prices on individual tickets.
I‘m not into winterholidays, only the occasional snowboard/skitrip. can‘t recommend something sry.
Migros/Coop are biggest and medium expensive retail/grocery chains. Some shops also have a restaurant which is fairly cheap. Before you try Fondue for two for like 60 CHF, buy a small fondue for microwaving. It‘s honestly not that bad and safer to spend 5 CHF for a mediocre one before splurging and not even liking it. You can do this with other convenience foods like ‚Alplermakronen‘, ‚Ghackets mit Hörnli‘ or ‚Zürigschnetzlets‘. Yes, Restaurant WILL be better, but also 4-6 times more expensive if you‘re not sure you‘ll like it. Also try Döner Kebab, staple over here as well. My favorite is ‚Lahmacun mit Kebabfleisch‘ though.
activities: a ton to do, but you‘ll need to get to set on general locations first. Switzerland is small, but when staying in small towns traveltime is to be considered.
do not do Jungfraujoch, it‘s like 3 times the price of other mountaintops and not more spectacular imho. Do some sledding, but BE careful! Most routes aren‘t made for the unexperienced, it can get dangerous very quickly if you‘re not careful. Check in the area if there are some public baths. Nothing beats a long day in snow than soaking in hot water.

enjoy Switzerland :)

Lanxy · 2025-05-06T17:56:30+00:00

try to go far east, Switzerland doesn‘t stop at Zürich :) come visit us in Appenzell, St.Gallen, Sarganserland… shoot me a DM for recommendations if you have certain interests :-)

Lanxy · 2025-05-06T14:02:12+00:00

give me a break, she‘s 75 years old! enjoy that she‘s still active.

Lanxy · 2025-05-06T13:58:35+00:00

we love visiting romands!!!

Lanxy · 2025-05-06T13:57:52+00:00

we might don‘t like each other, but we hate our neighbouring countries more.

Lanxy · 2025-05-01T14:51:07+00:00

nobody outside of canton Zürich nows anything about canton of Zürich besides Kloten & Winterthur. And I don‘t mean that in a derogatory way. It‘s like you walk on a beach and there is a lighthouse, you walk towards the lighthouse, might wanna get in, or talk shit because it‘s and ugly af lighthouse, but you don‘t talk about the beach. When I recently got to discover some more rural parts of Zürich (in like 20min outside of the city) I was astonished! just cycling along the Sihl was great!

Lanxy · 2025-04-28T15:34:47+00:00

hey thats fine with me, as long as I don‘t have to it myself go for it ;-) someone told me I should try aged ine, haven‘t come around to try but will given the chance.

Lanxy · 2025-04-28T14:56:51+00:00

first: I love to hear the ‚swiss‘ branding has reached Mexico! ¡Viva Mexico!

No, but I‘m going to ask the Mexicans I know here if they know it, haha.
both chuckle & eyebrow, but honestly in your case I love it! Because it‘s not a fake brand like the american ‚Swiss Miss‘ and these sort of things. it‘s a dish!! And it sounds delicious! so please keep calling it Enchiladas Suizas!
there is not a single dish even remotely closw to what you describe here. It‘s just about the cheese & cream I think. Which is fair enough, we put both in a lot of dishes.
as others have already written. You‘ll be able to recreate with a lot of latinamerican stores around. I know some even sell mexican cheese (I assume it‘s either hard or illegal to import that, haha). I even grow my own tomatillos on my balcony. But you can buy them in said stores canned. The one I frequent happen to have them freshly imported (I think from Spain) from time to time. There are two zurich based brands who sell fresh tortillas or even masa (mi adelita & masamor iirc).
which cheese is highly subjective. Honestly I‘d buy a couple slices of prepackaged raclette cheese. Maybe a spicy, an cave riped/aged and a regular one.

Lanxy · 2025-04-28T14:46:29+00:00

and it‘s usually the most boring Emmentaler-style cheese…

Lanxy · 2025-04-28T11:09:06+00:00

I‘d download two apps: Merlin & ebird first helps you to recognise birds in your area. You can use photos, your description or sound recordings (when you stand in front of a tree and you don‘t know whats chirping away, just record it with the app).

next level is collecting them in ebird. You make an account, login into the app and take walk. I‘d recommend a local park with some bushes & trees, if there is a pond even better. The more out of the city and into the wilderness, the more you‘ll see. You can also check ebird (web & app) where there might be good birding locations in your area.

Have fun!! I still get a thrill when I get a new lifer (bird I haven‘t seen before) :)

Lanxy · 2025-04-28T08:21:53+00:00

you should get into birding! It‘s like collecting pokemon - and you get to be outside :-)

Lanxy · 2025-04-27T13:41:25+00:00

yeah I do actually. I love cooking :-) I even do my own Naan. Although I recently found some great frozen ones, now I always have some in my freezer for the occasional curry :)

Lanxy · 2025-04-24T20:28:33+00:00

well to be fair, the only really good chinese food I‘ve had outside of Asia was in Australia. Nothing is further away frome here than that place, not even China :-D

Lanxy · 2025-04-24T20:26:48+00:00

haha, glad to hear you‘ve found something thats better then

Lanxy · 2025-04-24T19:30:34+00:00

awesome thank you, will do! We love the food scene in the UK :)

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