Dunn Talking About It: July 2014

Tamed Heron

Well here it is July and we are in our third country; Denmark. The Netherlands was a great month, and a relaxing month, Friesland is a beautiful and quaint part of The Netherlands unlike Amsterdam. We spent 2.5 days in Amsterdam and although it had its charm and beauty I can honestly say it was not my favorite. Maybe it was because of the constant rain or the short amount of time we had there or the need to constantly be on the lookout for cars and bicyclist. Had I become a country girl? I am not sure but I was ready to go.

Rainy day in Amsterdam

Canal charm

We are house/cat sitting in a wonderful neighborhood in a nice apartment that sits on top of a 7-Eleven. We arrived here the night before we were scheduled to start our duties so we booked a room through Airbnb down the street so that I could meet the owner. By the time I started my journey to the apartment it was close to 9pm, I decided I didn't need a bus I could walk the mile and half in no time. Well after picking myself up off the sidewalk and leaving some elbow skin behind, over walking by a half mile I finally arrived around 10pm. The owner was waiting for me outside on her step, she led me inside to where I was pleasantly surprised with 72 stairs to the apartment. So here I am, sweaty, bloody and out of breath and here to watch your fur kids...uggg. As I walked home all I could think of was how were we going to do these steps with our backpacks and Tatum but quickly changed to look at it as an opportunity to burn some additional calories - trust me I remind myself over and over as I climb the stairs with bags of groceries swearing I will not buy this much again. Oh and taking the garbage out through the backdoor is like a Mt Everest expedition...steep, steep steep, I feel like I need to tether myself to something or I am going to tumble to my death.

The stairs out the back door - aka Mt Everest

Besides the physical challenges Copenhagen is beautiful, full of water, canals and pretty people. It is also very culturally diverse, much more than I could of ever expected. Had a wonderful conversation with a Danish couple in the park that made me proud to be from the US. As we spoke about where we were from and how much we enjoyed Europe, the couple stated they loved the US, the energy and President Obama, I could do nothing but smile (okay we had a political conversation but not blogging about it). No matter what your feelings are about our POTUS, how awesome is it that other countries have a fondness for him and what he stands for. We chatted about health care, education and taxes. How cool would it be to complete medical school and not owe a single penny? The flip side is the amount of taxes they pay but as they put it they don't have to worry about saving for their children's education or worry about health care..gave me something to think about.

My two favorite dragons

Hammock swinging in the park

So far the downside to Copenhagen is how expensive it is. The US dollar is strong here, $1 to 5Kr but a loaf of bread from the bakery is $7-$9, a Coca-Cola is $6, the average price for a grab and go lunch (without a drink) is $12...sure you can find things less expensive but so far we have not seen any "deals" and thankfully our housing is free. Check out the price for a bottle of Baby Ray's BBQ sauce, this was not in the import section, it is in every grocery store as a standard item.
Looking forward to seeing much more of this beautiful country, a train ride to Louisiana for some art, a day in Tivoli (where Walt Disney got his inspiration for Disneyland), a picture next to The Little Mermaid oh and we can't forget all the parks.