Week 3 - Should I start scratching off days on the wall?

Three weeks and it's still feeling a bit like a prison sentence and I can't help but thinking it shouldn't. I'm still disappointed at every turn. From finding out that you need to "earn" vacation over a year before you actually get your vacation entitlement the next year to finding out that the online banking uses an archaic paper based code system.... seriously!

I am also starting to learn that for a Scandinavian country there is a little more racism than I expected to see lurking in the shadows. You can sometimes feel it in the background and it's not a comfortable feeling. By contrast I have never felt this in 15 years of living in the Netherlands.

There is more and more that surprises me here and I wait everyday to finding out more. The apartment hunting and specifics to renting here are also quite interesting and probably worth a separate article when I get a little more time and complete the process. First and foremost it is expensive. Expect to have to provide 3 months security deposit, plus at least the current months rent in advance. Heat and Water are on top of any rental quoted, but you pay that at a fixed amount with your rent and the account is reconciled for these up or down yearly. Like I said a separate article for any fellow expats coming over.

I'm flying back to the Netherlands today for a weekend visit and can't say I am too upset. I am really hoping I grow to like it here.... but I find that difficult to believe at the moment :-/

2 Weeks - (Sunday) OMG the cost!

I'm in shock! I am used to going out at least for a drink on weekends and this weekend I have fallen off my chair almost twice!! On Friday two glasses of wine came to 110DKK which equates to nearly 15 Euros... for two small glasses!!!!

Then on Saturday we went to a restaurant we would consider mid range and a little trendy anywhere else in the world. Two glasses of wine, two pizza's and some tap water ended up costing 90 Euros once the tip was factored in at 10%....... so looks like life in Copenhagen will consist of work, metro and drinking in the confines of the apartment. Can't say I am overly happy about this.

Still considering that this life move has not been my best decision to date.

What I am really very interested to understand is how wine in these Supermarkets is the same price roughly as in the Netherlands but how a drink in a bar or restaurant is like 100% more!

At the moment I can not understand (a) How the Danes actually live here and (b) How they came out as the happiest people...... something is not computing... perhaps I am missing something?

Enjoy the Pizza (below)

Day 4 - (Tuesday) Getting used to it

Tuesday morning and the daily morning shower ritual in the dinky bathroom which soaks the entire place doesn't seem so bad anymore. 

I'm even getting extra exercise, squatting afterwards to squeegee up all of the water and wipe off the floors and tiles around the sink. The cleaning is down to a 5 minute after shower process that I now do without a thought. 

I can understand a little now - if you've lived with this kind of bathroom your entire life, how you would not even see the problem... people adjust and adapt I guess.

Time for work... let's see how today pans out. I think I may need to start cutting back on Blog Posts soon when I start running out of things to complain about :-) :-)