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Hi everyone and welcome back to Happy Hour. 欢迎你又回到酒馆。

Hi 安澜。

Hi Lulu. Hi everyone.

You notice I did not say Britain Under the Microscope today？

I did notice yes.

因为今天不是《闲话英伦》。对了安澜，你知道酒馆有个铺子对吧？

Yes.

And in the store, we have all these interesting and delicious products from different countries. And in the past, we have done different episodes talking about these destination countries. 比如我们之前就做过关于澳洲的节目，关于土耳其的节目，还有关于西班牙的节目，跟我们酒馆铺子有一些联动。

And recently we got this really yummy biscuits from Switzerland and I have been looking for someone to talk about Switzerland.

Oh, ok, I can do that.

Yeah, you've told me that, but why? I mean based on what I know about you, you are through and through Londoner.

That's right, it's because part of my family is technically Swiss and I spent a lot of time when I was a child in Switzerland during the summers.

But I suppose I mean Europe is not really that big.

No, to fly from London to Geneva where I used to go, it's about an hour and a half by plane, it’s not far.

所以伦敦到日内瓦…

It’s that where your family live?

Yes, my uncle and his family they lived in Geneva for years, and when I was a little child, I used to go to Switzerland a lot to spend the summers with them.

Sounds brilliant.

So what's your general impression of Switzerland? Do you like it?

I love it. It's a really interesting country, it’s obviously very small but I really enjoy being in Switzerland.

It's got to be very different feel to London to the hustle and bustle of London.

Well, not really. Geneva is an international city, 60% of the population of Geneva, I think, are foreigners. They are not Swiss.

Actually brings me to the next question about multilingualism.

So different languages, I bet a lot of people in China if you ask them what language do people in Switzerland speak, I can guarantee you a lot of people would give different answers.

Well, I think that's the same for the Swiss themselves. In Switzerland, there are four official languages, Swiss German, French, Italian, and also another language called Romansh or Romance.

Is that a minor language?

It's a very minor language, but it's still an official language.

所以是4个官方语言，瑞士是法语，意大利语，还有瑞士德语。

Yeah.

Is it a bit different from German?

Um…very different.

So I studied German at school and I could speak it, but if someone spoke to me in Schwyzerdütsch, I couldn't understand what they were saying.

Did you just say Swiss German in Swiss German.

So for example like hello is Grüezi .

Oh, I mean I learned a little bit German and that did not sound familiar.

Well, that could also be my pronunciation, my Swiss German is absolutely awful.

You know what I realize is because of this multilingualism, a lot of Swiss people I met they do speak different languages. 瑞士人简直是，标配就是两门三门语言, for them it’s very natural.

Well, that's the thing. When you're actually in Switzerland, if you're on the train or even on a bus, all of a sudden you notice that the language completely changes.

Another stereotype about Switzerland, a lot of people have in mind, is that it's a place filled with money, Swiss banks…

Oh Yeah.

And it's a lot of rich people. But why is that? Is it just because they are a country of neutrality就是因为是中立国的原因吗？

Partly, basically Swiss banks were always known for being very stable, and Switzerland just becoming this haven for people from other countries. And it's also on trade routes as well.

Of course, central Europe.

Central Europe. For example, lots of the trade that went from Italy to Germany had to go through Switzerland.

Umm…since there are so many rich people, so much money there, the cost of living is very high, isn't it?

Very high, it's even more expensive than London.

Really, because we talked about London before, I mean I lived in London as well, London is already very high.

Geneva and places like Zurich are very expensive, so for example, just like a regular nice meal is about￡60 for two people in London, but it can go up to￡85 or￡90 in Geneva.

And that's just like a regular meal.

Just a regular meal

I've been to Geneva before, I don't remember a lot because I wasn’t there for very long, it was a beautiful city, but what I did remember was how expensive it was.

Oh, yes, when I was a little child, also I didn't have a great deal of money, so I used to walk to France.

What?

Geneva is surrounded by France.

You would actually walk to France to buy grocery?

To buy groceries, to go to the supermarket, it was a lot cheaper. It's about maybe fifteen, twenty-minute walk away, it’s not far.

Is that what people do?

Most people do that, they are a few border restrictions. So you can just walk across the border, you have to take Euros, and then come back quite easy.

So you just basically can do your daily grocery shopping in France in the other country.

Lots of people who work in Geneva actually live in France.

I think talking about Switzerland, another thing that attracts people is the landscape, you know, a lot of the movies or documentaries you can see those really picturesque, outline, landscape.

Oh, yeah. It's beautiful, if you go to the south of Switzerland, you have famous mountains like the Matterhorn, you have lots of lakes as well, so Lake Geneva as an example, and it's beautiful, lots of mountains, lots of meadows.

It's also known for being a major destination for ski holiday.

That's right. And it's actually the British that really invented the ski holiday.

Why?

In the 19th century, most aristocrats, most rich British people used to go to Switzerland for summer.

Oh, you could see those in some of the old movies.

Oh, Yeah, Sherlock Holmes for example. It was one of the hotel owners that actually persuaded some of his guests saying if you come during the winter, it's really pretty it's really nice.

So British tourists then also went in winter time.

Exactly

To ski

To ski

瑞士也是滑雪胜地。讲到滑雪，这里有一个词叫chalet c-h-a-l-e-t.

Oh, yes.

When I think about Swiss ski holidays, I think of chalet.

Chalet basically is just a mountain hut, it's just a sort of cottage but in the mountains…

就是那种滑雪小屋you can stay in there, when you say cottage they sound like these very small inexpensive things but they are actually quite expensive, aren't they?

They can be. I used to stay in chalets when I was a kid.

And speaking of ski holidays, I just imagine cold winter night you're staying indoors with nice wine and with some good hearty Swiss food.

Yep, Swiss food is not known for being delicate.

No, they actually do a lot of cheese, a lot of really high fat things.

Yeah, that's because they got so many cows in Switzerland.

A lot of dairy products.

Exactly, so for example you have fondue which I think everyone knows.

Fondue被翻译成瑞士火锅，所以有的人会想瑞士有火锅吗？But it's not our idea of hot pot.

No, there is actually a version in Switzerland called fondues.

Oh, ok, they call it Chinese hot pot.

Or Chinese fondue.

Chinese fondue.

And so the traditional Swiss fondue is just a pot of melted cheese?

Melted cheese, a little bit of spirit, a little bit of alcoholic spirit called Kish, and lots of white wine.

Actually extremely easy to make, if you want to try it at home, you can just get ingredients online and then melt it yourself.

Yep, the one thing I would say though lots of people when they eat fondue for the first time, they think it's sweet or they don't think it's actually what they think it is. It's actually a little bit sour because it's got lots wine in it.

It's sour and salty.

Yeah.

所以如果没有吃过瑞士芝士火锅，小伙伴们你如果只看那个图片，就会觉得那是香浓可口甜品的感觉，但实际上吃起来是臭臭的。

Yeah, I always remember in Beijing, there used to be a Swiss restaurant, and they were actually on 甜品, and they had to remove their 甜品 account because so many people complained about the fondue because it was so authentic.

It’s not what we expected, but another typical Swiss food or Swiss dish relating to cheese is Raclette.

Yes, I love Raclette.

Raclette, 我不知道怎么翻译，我觉得有点铁板芝士烧那种感觉。

So again it's cheese, but it's like melted cheese and then you put on potato, cooked potatoes or meat or other vegetables.

Yeah, you have your little grill, and you just melt the cheese and you pour it over maybe meat for example or potatoes.

It is like party food, like people would gather around to eat it together, you don't really do it yourself. It's a bit sad if you Raclette yourself.

Yeah, it's a little bit like hot pot, it’s like going for hot pot for one, sort of thing.

上一次我跟安澜都到上海去见酒馆的其他小伙伴的时候，上海有一家真的还是挺不错的一个Swiss restaurants，在这里不打广告，我们就不说名字了。

But it was quite authentic, wasn’t it?

So lots of cheese and then obviously lots of chocolate.

Oh, yes, of course. After mentioning all those salty, cheesy treats, Switzerland is also known for its chocolate for its dessert type of things.

Yeah, that's because there's lots of milk, and also Swiss chocolate is a bit sweeter, they specialize in milk chocolate especially.

It's quite interesting that you mentioned landscape and you mentioned Matterhorn. One of the Swiss biscuits that we have right now actually has got the image of Matterhorn in chocolate on top of the biscuits.

Would you like to have a try?

Yeah, let's give this a try.

Pretty good.

We're gonna dive in now.

Is there another one?

Well, you have to fight me for it.

Ok.

Anyhow, if you guys have ever travelled to Switzerland or if you have anything to share about Switzerland, let us know in the comment section, see you next time, hope you enjoy the biscuits.

Bye.

Bye.