OK, my birthday weekend passed without excessive damage to person or property, and it was good to celebrate with a few dozen friends from Zurich, London, and Paris. Everyone made a strong effort to ensure that this once-in-a-lifetime event (turning 27) would not go un-feted, as evidenced by the many dozen cans and bottles that made it to the recycling center the next day. Trash day isn't until tomorrow, so the last traces of the party are still sitting in my kitchen, properly squashed and bagged, and I will take them out tonight, even though we aren't supposed to take trash out until 7 a.m., for fear that the foxes will get into them on their nocturnal rounds (because everyone knows that Swiss foxes go to sleep at 7, just as everyone knows that I'm up and ready to take the trash out at 7).
A few notes for future generations: absinthe is never as brilliant an idea as it might seem; keep everything (kitchen appliances, electronics, people, cleavers, candles) on the floor, because it will all end up there eventually; beware of confrontational Polish men in bars known to be Nazi hangouts; even if you aren’t taking pictures, chances are there are other people who did; nothing good happens after someone says, “Watch this!”; and ordering falafel can be trickier than you might think. So thanks to all who made it out to make things a bit less civilized around here. It was a birthday weekend to remember. Will collect pictures to post in a while.
So a few of my friends came in from out of town and had to get to my apartment from the airport, and while giving them directions, I realized just how absurd cabs are in Switzerland. It costs less than five dollars to get from the airport to my apartment, and all it involves is taking a ten-minute train ride and a five-minute tram ride, and the trains and trams run very frequently. Taking a cab takes almost the same amount of time, but it costs about fifty dollars, which makes no sense, unless it’s because almost all of the cabs here are Mercedes or BMWs. Maybe they could offer slightly more competitive prices if they would use normal cars.
But then, the Swiss don’t seem too fazed by over-priced goods and services. In fact, in many cases, they are more than happy to pay a huge premium, because they see higher prices as a sure sign that the product is better. They also like to pay a high premium for Swiss products, either out of some sort of economic patriotism, or out of a certainty that an egg or a computer or a light switch made in Switzerland is bound to be better than one from Germany or China. My friends who work at a Swiss manufacturer of light switches report that their company has 86% market share even though they charge double the price of their closest competitor… come on, they’re just light switches!! On, off, they all do the same thing, and I have never seen a light switch that made me think, “That is clearly a superior light switch, I’ll pay double for it!”
In order to pay for all of these expensive cabs and light switches, the Swiss carry a lot of cash. Credit cards are not so popular here, as many stores don’t accept them, and so most payments are made with cash or debit cards (but stores often only take Swiss debit cards). Zurich sometimes seems to have more ATMs than people, and they like dispensing cash in as few bills as possible. Withdraw 100 francs, and you usually get a single 100-franc note. Never fear, though, as everyone is always quite happy to make change for large bills, and you can go buy a candy bar for one franc at a newspaper stand, and the cashier will give you 99 francs change without blinking an eye.
There is no such thing as a checkbook here, and I don’t even know how you might go about depositing a check in your account. Instead, you can pay your bills online or through the post office, and the money just gets zapped from bank to bank, and from account to account. If you decide to pay at the post office, you take your bills and enough cash to cover them, take it all to the post office and hand it in, and they make sure the money goes where it’s supposed to go. Imagine walking into a post office in the States with a fistful of cash and your cell phone bill, handing it to the harried person behind the counter, walking out, and believing that your bill will be taken care of.
Street Parade next week; some friends and I are planning on Swissing it up a bit, so tune in next week to see how it all goes.
A few notes for future generations: absinthe is never as brilliant an idea as it might seem; keep everything (kitchen appliances, electronics, people, cleavers, candles) on the floor, because it will all end up there eventually; beware of confrontational Polish men in bars known to be Nazi hangouts; even if you aren’t taking pictures, chances are there are other people who did; nothing good happens after someone says, “Watch this!”; and ordering falafel can be trickier than you might think. So thanks to all who made it out to make things a bit less civilized around here. It was a birthday weekend to remember. Will collect pictures to post in a while.
So a few of my friends came in from out of town and had to get to my apartment from the airport, and while giving them directions, I realized just how absurd cabs are in Switzerland. It costs less than five dollars to get from the airport to my apartment, and all it involves is taking a ten-minute train ride and a five-minute tram ride, and the trains and trams run very frequently. Taking a cab takes almost the same amount of time, but it costs about fifty dollars, which makes no sense, unless it’s because almost all of the cabs here are Mercedes or BMWs. Maybe they could offer slightly more competitive prices if they would use normal cars.
But then, the Swiss don’t seem too fazed by over-priced goods and services. In fact, in many cases, they are more than happy to pay a huge premium, because they see higher prices as a sure sign that the product is better. They also like to pay a high premium for Swiss products, either out of some sort of economic patriotism, or out of a certainty that an egg or a computer or a light switch made in Switzerland is bound to be better than one from Germany or China. My friends who work at a Swiss manufacturer of light switches report that their company has 86% market share even though they charge double the price of their closest competitor… come on, they’re just light switches!! On, off, they all do the same thing, and I have never seen a light switch that made me think, “That is clearly a superior light switch, I’ll pay double for it!”
In order to pay for all of these expensive cabs and light switches, the Swiss carry a lot of cash. Credit cards are not so popular here, as many stores don’t accept them, and so most payments are made with cash or debit cards (but stores often only take Swiss debit cards). Zurich sometimes seems to have more ATMs than people, and they like dispensing cash in as few bills as possible. Withdraw 100 francs, and you usually get a single 100-franc note. Never fear, though, as everyone is always quite happy to make change for large bills, and you can go buy a candy bar for one franc at a newspaper stand, and the cashier will give you 99 francs change without blinking an eye.
There is no such thing as a checkbook here, and I don’t even know how you might go about depositing a check in your account. Instead, you can pay your bills online or through the post office, and the money just gets zapped from bank to bank, and from account to account. If you decide to pay at the post office, you take your bills and enough cash to cover them, take it all to the post office and hand it in, and they make sure the money goes where it’s supposed to go. Imagine walking into a post office in the States with a fistful of cash and your cell phone bill, handing it to the harried person behind the counter, walking out, and believing that your bill will be taken care of.
Street Parade next week; some friends and I are planning on Swissing it up a bit, so tune in next week to see how it all goes.
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