(not sure if this belongs here or Daily life - but I'll take my chances!)
After my brief stint 6-month in Switzerland 2 years ago, my company wants to move me there permanently from Germany. I was wondering if anyone has experience living in Olten and commute daily to Basel or Zurich for work? The closest thread I could find on this topic is this one but it talks mostly about the taxation.
I will be working near Fribourg but my gf is Austrian and would prefer to stay in the German speaking area. She's currently in the banking industry doing commercial qualitative/quantitative risk and methods here in Germany so we are hoping she can find something in Zurich, where the banking action is centered. In case she's unsuccessful with Zurich, we hope there might be opportunities in Basel. Of course, if she can find something in Bern, we'd ideally like to live in Bern.
For the time being, we are thinking Olten. Door-to-door for me would be 1:15 - 1:30 to Fribourg (based on estimates from SBB). If she can find something in Basel/Zurich, would be ~1:00 for her.
From the other threads here, it seems that living in Olten will result in the demise of our social life. We're 27 & 26 respectively.
Any insight on this topic is highly appreciated. Now the waiting game for my Aufenthaltserlaubnis...
Thanks in advance. Now to transition from ToyTownGermany to EnglishForum.
Olten, where German is largely spoken, is an excellent transportation hub, and relatively affordable place to live in. You can easily reach Zurich / Bern, Lausanne and other places for your enjoyment. Ask member LostInAbroad who lives there.
To be closer to Zurich, you'd expect to pay more for rental.
Hi there, nice introduction...and frankly speaking, you did some very intelligent reasoning. Truth to be told, if I'll ever have a choice again, I'd rather shoot myself in the left foot than living in Olten (or Switzerland for that matter)....I do however like to point out, that you can have some fairly nice apartments for cheap money and you are very close to most "important" cities (30min train ride to Basel, Bern, Zurich, Luzern). It is a matter of convenience...everything here is walking distance and they got a half decent hockey team.
@LIB - Funny that. From the way you were walking last Friday evening I thought you'd shot yourself in the left foot already or was that the brukfoot walk resurrection style-HE?!
Oh and what you doing bringing shame on da bredren dem wit yo' new Denzel avatar?! Cha!
I had to keeps it reel, thus my walk....an a wha ya seh bout mi nu pic..cho, yuh kno seh di man favor mi...so mi nah kno ow yuh fi start all di ruckus.
Love the banter, but I lost what's going on by post #5.
Thanks for the info, jrspet and the insight, lost_inbroad. If we do live in Olten, it would have to be within 5 minutes walk to the hauptbahnhof. I check Homegate and it seems that a 2.5 apartment close by train station would not be too expensive. Some rudimentary calculations suggest that money saved from taxes vs in Bern would compensate for the SBB Abo commute.
Back to the topic at hand, is the Olten - Zurich commute realistic? Or would it better to tough it out and find a bank in Bern for my gf? Just seems there's not (as) much banking activity in Bern as there is in Zürich.
LOL! I felt bad about hijacking your thread when I read through afterwards and feared you may not return, possibly after having been left thinking what the hell was all that about! Hehe!
I can make an excellent dentist recommendation based either near or direction Olten (all I can remember is my train journey there involved Olten at some stage ). They are in Oftringen and have trained in America. The dentist I saw spoke excellent English. I hope I got it right on the geography and am sure LiB or someone else will soon point it out if not!
Those two words, banking and Bern, should probably not be used in the same sentence. She should have much better oppourtunities in Zurich, or a second area to consider, Geneva, for banking. While you said German language is better, if she speaks English, Geneva could also be a possiblity. The Geneva - Fribourg commute is not impossible, or some place in between. As others have said, Olten is a decent transportation hub, but that's about all.
...it certainly is realistic. There are lots of people comuting from this area to other cities. Olten is also trying to market itself as the place where "clever people" live...because of its central location. One disadvantage about communting is, that everybody will be moving to the same place at the same time...but you'll quickly get used to it. Picture sheeps doing the same thing at the same time due to stringent opening hours.