2) If you don't read German, you're pretty much screwed. The translator app on your American iphone is useful only in America. Although "Toi Toi" is self-explanatory!
3) The transportation system in Europe is FAR superior to anything I have experienced in the U.S. However, it's best to figure out and agree on a schedule before boarding a train. There isn't much time to make a decision, as the trains stop at the station for just a couple minutes and then off they go. In Bern, I had learned enough German vocabulary to figure that the train we wanted was delayed, but we were at the right gate, so when the whistle blew Handy hopped on the train, pulling me in after him. The door clipped me on the heel...that's how close I came to plunging to my death under the wheels of the wrong stinkin' train!
4) If you get on the wrong train, don't panic. There's always another train to where you really want to go.
5) Life without a constant barrage of advertising is blissful. No billboards, no neon signs, no McDonald's, no Walmart. Love.
6) You don't have to pay $2 for a clean bathroom. All the bathrooms in Switzerland are clean. In fact, everything in Switzerland is clean. We saw a park employee scrubbing an ashtray in a bucket of soapy water; an ashtray that in the U.S. would never be cleaned...ever.
7) Speaking of ashtrays, everyone smokes. Everywhere.
8) If you're the kind of person who wouldn't be caught dead in a pair of sturdy, "sensible" shoes, you need to rethink that position. Even cute flats don't cut it. Take your hiking boots.
9) The Swiss are reserved, much like Yoopers. But if you make the effort of communicate, you will find them to be charming and fascinating. Even the children, who speak several languages.10) Don't approach a police officer with a machine gun. Just trust me on this one.
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