amazement
today, I was craving some food. You see, here in Denmark my diet consists almost entirely of pasta, gummi bears, tomatoes, and croissants. These are more or less the ONLY things I have found that are fit to eat and less than 5 million bajillion dollars. I must admit that I have been reading the new york times' dining and wine section RELIGIOUSLY ever since I've been in Denmark, because, well...I dream about having something other than gross Danish food. But anyway, today I was hungry and starting to resent gummi bears, so it was decided that a small group of us would go to an Indian restaurant in the 'ethnic' area (if Copenhagen can really be said to be ethnic in any way), Nørrebro. Well, the Indian restaurant that we had intended to go to was apparently not open, because restaurants and things like to randomly close sometimes. Ohhh, European work ethic, why must you be so cruel?? SO after that disappointment we decided to keep walking a bit to see if we could find another Indian restaurant nearby, and lo and behold we actually did. Everything was looking really good, if a little pricey, and we decided on our orders. We gave our waiter our food orders and such and then it came time for drink orders. We all wanted tap water, as this country charges absurd amounts for anything else, but our waiter informed us that tap water cost 15 kroner! Which is like $3!!!! My jaw dropped. I was CHARGED for TAP WATER?! good lord, their tap better be made of gold and attached to a pipe that dishes out the coolest, freshest mineral spring water in all the land. Like what's next? Will I be charged for using their plates and silverware? Oh, but wait. We kind of assumed this 15 kroner charge was a flat rate for the pitcher of water that was later brought out to us, but when the bill came, we saw that it was 15 kroner PER PERSON, thus 45 kroner ($9) for a small pitcher of tap water. Needless to say, I am NOT going back there again (though they did have decent Indian food, in relative terms...really not saying much considering the standards Danish food have set for me).
So, that incident is pretty much indicative of the Denmark experience. I do not mean to downplay how lucky I feel to be on this trip, because I am VERY lucky and I have had an amazing time thus far. And I guess it is important to see how people live in other cultures, but it has kind of left me craving America in a way I never knew I was capable of. There are lots of things in America that I'm not fond of, but it's still home, if ya know what I mean.
Anyway, I guess I haven't updated lately. I did lots of stuff, like going to Paris, London, and Amsterdam. I am sure that I'll feel the need to share my experiences of those places later, but right now I am going to take a nap because I have a splitting headache (this is probably the result of my adverse reaction to paying money for tap water). But there are plenty of visuals of my travels on flickr.
So, that incident is pretty much indicative of the Denmark experience. I do not mean to downplay how lucky I feel to be on this trip, because I am VERY lucky and I have had an amazing time thus far. And I guess it is important to see how people live in other cultures, but it has kind of left me craving America in a way I never knew I was capable of. There are lots of things in America that I'm not fond of, but it's still home, if ya know what I mean.
Anyway, I guess I haven't updated lately. I did lots of stuff, like going to Paris, London, and Amsterdam. I am sure that I'll feel the need to share my experiences of those places later, but right now I am going to take a nap because I have a splitting headache (this is probably the result of my adverse reaction to paying money for tap water). But there are plenty of visuals of my travels on flickr.