Dear Frau: Explain these strange Swiss laws!

Welcome to another edition of Dear Frau. It's kind of like Dear Abby, except with an international twist. If you have a question about life in Switzerland or moving to Switzerland, don't hesitate to contact The Frau.

Dear Frau,

I hear there are quite a few quirky laws in Switzerland. For fear of being arrested, can you please let this soon-to-be American expat in on some of these strange laws? Is it true you can't flush the toilet after 10pm? And why?

Thanks,

Confused in Connecticut

Dear Confused in Connecticut,

There are a lot of things that are a bit strange about living in Switzerland. The Frau does not pretend to know all of them, but here are three strange Swissisms she either has some personal experience with or knows someone who did:

Quiet Time

Flushing the toilet after 10 p.m. Forget Heidi, this is the real Swiss classic. The Frau does not believe this is an official Swiss law, but rather a clause that may be in your apartment rental contract. Many apartment buildings have strict quiet hours and these may include specific things a non-Swiss person may not typically associate with loud noise. Such as: not being allowed to flush a toilet after 10pm, not being allowed to do laundry on Sunday (or during the lunch hour—some buildings actually shut off electricity to the machines at this time...), or not being allowed to do gardening on Sunday.

Also on the quiet hour front: you can’t typically recycle glass bottles on weeknights or on Sundays without being yelled at for disturbing the peace. Never mind that yelling also disturbs the peace or the all night parties that go on right outside your window during Carnival or Badenfahrt…

Trash Talk

Make sure you get a copy of your city’s garbage calendar and try to understand it (for help, read this). If you put your garbage out too early (or in the wrong bag, oh my!) you may be subject to a fine. A friend of the Frau was once called to the police station where she actually had to identify her trash. She was then charged CHF 250 because she had set it out too early the night before.

Recycling paper (see photo) is another strange Swiss ritual. You let the paper pile up for at least six weeks at your apartment and then ceremoniously tie it up with strings in neat packages no higher than about six inches before putting it outside. Don’t slack and just think it would be easier to stick all that paper in a paper box or bag and put outside. It would be easier, but this does not matter. If you don’t do it correctly, your paper will not be picked up and it will be plastered with a sticker stating your error. If you’re like The Frau, you’ll then be tempted to just throw it in your regular trash rather than wait another six weeks to redeem yourself.

Transport Pitfalls

Speeding

Driving a car is expensive in Switzerland. If you go more than 5 kilometers over a speed limit, you’ll receive a CHF 40 fine in the mail for each offence. If you travel way, way over the speed limit, you will be charged a fine that’s a percentage of your salary.

Not paying the night ticket supplement

Typically beginning at 1 am, depending on the public transport network, you must buy a CHF 5 nighttime supplement in addition to your regular train ticket. If you don’t buy this and they check tickets, you will be fined as if you didn’t have a ticket at all.

Ok, the Frau has run out of energy. Anyone else have experience with some of these things or want to let Confused in Connecticut in on some additional Swiss laws or customs that are not fun to discover after the fact?

The Night Train

It took me almost four years to finally take a night train in Europe but I decided I couldn’t properly call myself European without at least doing one overnight train trip.

Anyhow, the problem with trains in Europe is that depending on where you are going, they can cost as much or more than a flight. Our round-trip from Zurich to Bled on the night train, "The Balkan Express", cost CHF 728 total for 2 people. In second class. With GAs. Yeah. Not so cheap. Even when paying with REKA checks. I might not have bought the tickets at all, except that I had gone through the whole transaction while speaking German and was not about to have done it for nothing. Even when told the price.

The advantage of the night train is that you potentially “save” money on a hotel night and have more time at your destination.

So what’s the verdict?

The time part was good. We could leave late on Thursday night from Zurich and arrive Friday morning at 7.30am in Bled, Slovenia, only a 10 minute bus ride from our actual destination. Only problem? We arrived jet lagged and wasted our extra “saved” time by taking a nap.

Then we could leave Monday night and still get back to Zurich by Tuesday morning in time for work.

However.

Sleeping on a night train is kind of hard. Even if you have a private room with beds and a sink like we did. The train stops and starts constantly all night. It squeaks. It squawks. And people are boarding and blabbing pretty much all night long.

My advice? Nyquil. Benadryl. Or a big bottle of wine (yes, Americans, you can).

Or just take a flight.

How about you? What do you think about night trains in Europe?