Small, but powerful

by Hendrik Leibrandt
(Germany)

Switzerland is a direct neighbor of Germany, and German is also the main spoken language there.

Unfortunately, people there have a very unique accent, and that makes you instantly notice where they are from. Switzerland is famous for its beautiful nature and mountains. This makes it a favored traveling goal for many people to go hiking in summer and skiing in the winter season.

The second thing that comes into my mind is the Swiss finance and bank system. It is huge and very wealthy, despite the relative small size of the country. They are involved in much international business and are somewhat infamous for being used for illegal activities like money laundering. There's a reference to this in a lot of Hollywood movies, but is also a real problem as well.

Many rich people from Germany carried their money there to avoid taxes, so there had been a big razzia some years ago. The Swiss franc is also one of the most important currencies in the word and they have the most valuable coin with 5fr. (5 Swiss francs), that is even worth more than the 500-yen coin.

I nearly forgot about two things. The first thing is the cheese, and the second one is their fantastic chocolate.