Post number 50!

In honor of my 50th post I’ve decided to make a list of 50 things I’ve learned while in Europe that are in any way related to Europe, the countries, people, food, etc. These items are in no particular order just 50 things I learned. :)

1) Europe is AMAZING - I loved every second of being here.

2) When in Rome, do as the Romans, that means take your life in your hands when crossing the street if you ever want to get anywhere.

3) And speaking of Romans Italy is not a place I would want to drive. The drivers there are crazy!

4 ) People in Spain do not know how to make a queue. They tend to just form a big bunch of people and move in a large mass .

5) Danish pastries are amazing and wonderful and I will miss them a lot! My favorites are these things called Hindbærsnitten. It’s the glorified pop tart I’ve talked about many a times!

6) It’s super cool to be able to speak several languages. I wish I knew how to speak more than one language. I don’t know exactly how many languages I’ve heard while here this whole time but enough and I suspect that since I’ve learned how to tune it out in a way I might be in trouble when I get back home and almost everyone is speaking English and I’ll need to pay attention again.

7) Speaking of languages after this trip I know how to say Thank you in Danish, French, Spanish, Italian and German (Fail on the Eastern European languages, they’re hard!)

8) Tivoli Garden’s Star Flyer ride is the most amazing ride I’ve ever been on.

9) Chopin was totally emo! He complained a lot and just had that air about him. In some ways he may have had a right to complain considering that he was sick most of his life but I thought it was kind of funny. An emo rock star of his day!

10) Salt mines are really awesome. And salt apparently has antibacterial properties which made it ok for us to lick the wall in the salt mine (I didn’t actually lick it but rubbed my finger on it to taste some).

11) There’s ruins and artifacts in and around the Prague castle that are from 3000 years ago. That’s OLD!

12) There’s also ruins that old in Rome! Can you imagine what people will say about us in 3000 years?

13) One can enjoy all of Germany’s fine culture at the Hofbräuhaus in Munich for not a lot of money, music, traditional food and outfits and beer.

14) The best food I ate on all our trips was in the following places: Avocado in Krakow Poland, Malostranská Beseda in Czech, Braunauer Hof in Munich, Melicde Gothic in Barcelona and Rom Antica in Rome.

15) The best places we stayed were the Chmielna St. B&B in Warsaw and the Principe Eugenio in Rome.

16) When they built the Barcelona metro system they didn’t not plan well for transfers. To transfer from our hotel (blue line) to the beach (yellow line) we had to walk for 5-10 minutes to get to the next train, hardly ever making it and almost always having to wait for the next train.

17) In Rome there’s only 2 lines on the Metro which works great if you’re actually going some place on that line but God forbid you have to transfer at the train station, you’ll be walking for 10 minutes to get to the next train.

18) If you were to add up the amount of raw materials used to make the churches in Vatican city and in Rome I’m pretty sure the Catholic church would be the richest organization in the world, but since those churches are priceless it doesn’t matter how much raw material is used in all of them but what they mean to the people who worship there.

19) It’s pretty awesome to have daylight for 17 hours, 29 minutes and 34 second at the longest day of the year in Kolding.

20) Watching baby ducks and swans grow up in a pretty cool experience.

21) Summer really does seem to only last 2 weeks in Denmark. We had a few great weeks with nothing but sun and heat and then it went back to cool and rainy.

22) But with the amount of rain Denmark gets you also see a ton of rainbows and on several occasions I’ve seen double rainbows which is even cooler.

23) I wish that in the States the roads were more equip for bike riding. I love that you can get almost anywhere on your bike in Kolding and I’ll miss being able to do that.

24) Public transportation in Europe is awesome. I loved being able to ride the train to place and have it be so easy. In every city we visited including Kolding it was easy to get around with the public transportation. We totally lack in that department in the States!

25) Back to food for a second. Musli is the best breakfast ever! I love eating it, especially since I discovered a chocolate flavored one, mix it with a little bit of fruit yogurt and you’re all set!

26) I appreciate that people are respectful of other languages in Europe. I have a whole new respect for people who come to America and struggle to learn English. As much as I tried to learn some Danish while I was here I found it very difficult. Thankfully everyone speaks English and is nice enough about it but I’m glad that people were respectful of that. If I had been here longer I would have taken the classes like Joe is doing but Danish is a very difficult language to learn.

27) This will not be the only time I come to Europe. There’s still several places I would like to go including somewhere in France (doesn’t have to be Paris, maybe Nice or Marseille), more of Germany including Bavaria and the Swiss Alps (throw in Austria and Switzerland while we’re at it), Dublin, Greece, Venice, Pompei and Naples in Italy, Croatia and more of Spain. I guess I’ll need to plan several more trips!

28) European women are almost always dressed to the 9s. They always have great shoes and if I had a ton of money I would have bought a whole new wardrobe in Rome!

29) Everything feels close in Europe. Even if you’re on a train for 8 hours to get to another country you eventually get there without any problems. It was so easy for Joe and I to travel between countries and cities because of the excellent public transportation and cheap flights.

30) Ryanair may be a cheap airline to fly but their luggage policies are a pain in the butt. They don’t allow for the standard carry-on size and it’s really expensive to check bags, thankfully Joe and I were able to check just one bag but we were always adjusting what was in it so we didn’t go over the weight limit (15 kg).

31) It is always cheaper to book a round trip flight somewhere than to book a one way trip.

32) Danish strawberries when in season are the best strawberries I’ve ever tasted! :)

33) The Kolding Fjord is about 4-6 meters deep (13-20 feet) and is an excellent place to sail in the tiniest sail boat I’ve ever been on. :)

34) I’ve been on the soil of 8 European Countries and visited 8 major European cities.

35) Backpacking around Europe is not the way I would want to travel. It’s an excellent way to see even more of Europe than we did but the idea of not showering, sleeping outside and not having some of my creature comforts just doesn’t appeal to me.

36) Despite the fact that a lot of people consider his work to be gaudy I think that Antoni Gaudí designed some beautiful and amazing buildings and I really enjoyed seeing a lot of his work.

37) People in Europe like to smoke. I was actually pretty surprised by this, especially since a lot of the smokers were about the same age and Joe and me.

38) Open container laws are an interesting thing. In Denmark there’s no laws about open containers and so people can just hang out at the park or beach or in the center of town and drink some beer. The interesting thing is that it doesn’t seem to cause any problems. The people I’ve noticed seem to be responsible in their drinking and I never really saw any problems because they don’t have a law about open containers. But, if you do happen to be drunk it’s totally cool to sleep it off in the bushes.

39) Apparently it’s totally cool for a guy to just pee some place outside without really concealing himself. Several times when we went to the lake for concerts on Thursday people would just pee right into the lake off the main path. One would be totally busted in the States for doing anything like that but here no one seemed to mind.

40) Of all the European countries Denmark has the highest taxes; however, they the happiest country in Europe, have the highest suicide rate (how does that make sense?) and get a lot of benefits from those high taxes, like college being paid for and receiving money each month to live on. Getting 1000 DKK each month while attending high school and excellent maternity and paternity benefits. Oh and 6 weeks vacation, which I don’t think has anything to do with taxes but is still pretty awesome!

41) I have handled 4 different kinds of money during the time I was here (Danish Kroner, Polish Zlotych, Czech Kornuy and Euros) and will go back home with 5 kinds of money in my wallet, I think that’s pretty sweet!

42) In Denmark one can make a living working at a clothing store or in a restaurant without too much trouble, complete opposite to America unless you’re the manager or something. They apparently have the highest average income in Europe (this according to a family I met at the beach who lives in France)

43) Packing your own groceries at the grocery store appeals to my organization and I think I might have a hard time not doing it when I get home...shopping at Aldi might be in the future :)

44) The Geographical Gardens in Kolding were founded in 1917 by a man names Aksel Olsen who had a big influence on Danish Horticulture. Some of the plants in the Garden were planted by him dating back to 1918 Aksel lived to be 95 years old! Maybe all that gardening was good for his health! :)

45) Hans Christen Andersen was a weird guy. He wasn’t very well liked, was considered ugly, had terrible luck with women and was born into an extremely poor family. But he was one of the most successful writers and his works have been translated into 157 different languages!

46) Beaches in Europe can be an interesting place. I’m completely Ok if you want to go topless at the beach but when we got to the nude beach it was another story. I felt a little strange walking along the water there, especially since it was more guys than girls who were nude.

47) Socialized medicine isn’t so bad. Having to go to the hospital because I feel off my bike wasn’t that bad of an experience. I literally got glued back together and was told that I would like pretty bad for a few days but it would get better after that. All in all and experience I didn’t want to have but a positive one.

48) Don’t be stupid when riding your bike...If you don’t think you can do something or if you have thoughts of doing it another way, listen to them and you won’t have to learn about number 47.

49) The Danes do not like deadlines. In talking to one of Joe’s co-workers we found out that if you ask them to have something done by a certain time they don’t like it. They would rather get everything done and make sure all the problems are taken care of before giving you a report or answer. It’s better to ask extremely nicely if you want something done in a certain amount of time.

50) Everyone should have the opportunity to go to Europe at some point. It’s one of those things that everyone should experience and spending 3 months here has been truly amazing!