And you people are just noticing the empty beer cans? They're typically strewn all over the place.
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)
Well swiss or not swiss ... its real ! www.tesladownunder.com (crazy aussies)
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.
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.
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.
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!!)
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.