So with less than two months until I'll be making my way back to Amsterdam for my flight home I thought it was about time I wrote this post that I may possibly have planned to write back when only a cardigan would completely suffice (which honestly feels like years ago and here's the snow to prove it).
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First snow for the winter with a special appearance of Ørestad Park's christmas lights in the background
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As you can probably tell I love Denmark but like all foreign nationals anywhere in the world there will always be things I miss from home, so here's the main ones:
Self-Serve Checkouts:
Yes these things can be a pain but I had completely forgotten about the combination of guilt and shame that comes from buying study fuel at 9pm at night from an actual person. Also...
Having shopping items immediately packed into a bag:
Whether it's done by yourself or the checkout chick having your items packed immediately after having been scanned is something you definitely take for granted until you end up in Europe. Supermarkets here just scan your items through and send them on another belt to the end of the lane, generally too far away for you to pack before you pay, leaving you with your groceries jumbled up and spread out. As you can imagine that makes it really hard to work out what to pack with what and how to do it as quickly as possible. The only bonus is is that you don't have to worry about what order your groceries come out of the basket in.
Cheap Study Food:
No $3 blocks of cadbury's chocolate, or fizzy drinks, diet or otherwise under $4 (yes including 500mL). This is not a friendly country for someone with a diet coke addiction, though health professionals may argue otherwise.
Sorbet:
Is no one lactose intolerant in this country?
*NB I actually found some after I initially wrote this but I'm leaving it since there's (so far) only one brand, it'll cost you $10 and you have a choice of raspberry or raspberry.
Takeout and cheap Asian food:
I think these count as myths here. Asian food, even something as simple as Sushi, is gourmet here. Never less than $20 and not always reliably good. Suffice to say, as a poor student I REALLY miss China town and Renaissance Arcade.
Burritos:
Yes technically these would come under the afore mentioned point but I miss them so much that they deserve their own point. I don't think Denmark has quite caught onto the (tex)Mexican food craze as of yet and god damn it I just really want a simple and delicious and filling burrito for under $10.
Drunk food in general:
Fast food has a couple of different taxes on it here so your wallet is usually better off if you go for the healthy sandwich full of fresh ingredients. From an everyday standpoint this is pretty awesome however no longer do nights out clubbing end with a feast of greasy food before making our way back to bed.
Pubs:
Bar atmosphere whilst nice, just can't compete. Ever. There's also very few nicely priced bars, they're all pretty fancy around here
Affordable Illnesses:
Whilst the Danes may have a sophisticated welfare state and the 100% free healthcare to go with it but basic cold and flu medication does not come cheaply. Strepsils come to between $12-16 and as for cold and flu tablets? Well I'm yet to know anyone that actually went out and bought some. Also, all medication is kept behind the counter under lock and key, including Strepsils and basic paracetamol.
Having laundry facilities in the next room:
I love living on level 5, in fact five is even my favourite number, but on washing day, on my fourth trip down to the laundry room I begin to question that love. Our washing room, on the ground level, has 6 washing machines (2 of which I'm still yet to work out how to use) and 4 dryers, 2 of which are always out of order for no reason. It changes constantly as to which two are out of order but it can generally be guaranteed that at least two won't be working. Now to give you and idea of how many people live here there are about 5 or 6 buildings, each with 9 levels, each level with two apartments per building and 4 people per apartment. As you can imagine often it's chaos and you have to wait forever for a dryer. The dryers are also only in Danish so it took me a few goes to work out which setting only took one go but didn't shrink my clothes. Not to mention the few times I did my washing on the day the lift broke down...
Hot Drinks:
$10 for a Regular sized chai latte? I think I'll be fine with tap water thanks.
