LegoLand!

Well after a very successful business week I've returned to a hotel next to the airport in the town of Billund to catch my 6:30am flight home tomorrow. That means I'm up at 4am or 10pm Friday in Atlanta, yikes. What softens the blow is that I'm right across the street from LegoLand! To top that off I walked over and they let me in for free since it was only open for 2 more hours and I essentially got to see the whole park. Essentially think Disney made of Legos from animatronics to castles, something like 45 million legos that live and breath and move. I've included some pictures to give you a flavor with 2 at the end of the town of Silkeborg.

Been a great trip. Learned a lot about Danish culture, tried some wild food from snails to lamb to eel and business was great. Tomorrow is a long day, but it will be good to get home

I am a Doctor, but I did get kicked out of the Radisson tonight

Because I'm the wrong type of doctor. So when I arrived they had me there until Thursday and I said, no, Friday and the lady was like, "not a problem." I've learned in Europe that, "not a problem" usually means problem. I got a call on Thursday saying they were packing my things because they needed my room, I guess there was a doctor's convention there, but they made me a reservation across town. What a riot. My new hotel was very nice though and had a nice view of a lagoon. It also had a Cadillac Eldorado parked out front, a rare sight in Europe. It had a sign on it in Danish that said, "This car is like another man's wife, you can look, but not touch!" Had a great dinner too, my first experience with snails, not too bad, I believe in trying almost anything once. The health reports here are hilarious too, you can tell the rating by how big the smile is.

Differences and a Chinese Tradition

So I think today I might have finally understood "left behind" as I walked to dinner. It was 6pm and the streets were totally empty, almost creepy deserted, as I guess it's a government mandate that all stores close at 5:30pm to protect the family life of workers. It's just one of many subtle differences you see over here.

Some others?

• Coke is almost universally sold in recyclable glass bottles.
• The people are very friendly, but private. Small talk everywhere, but personal details at work aren't considered proper. Desks are plain, no decorations or even pics of family. People generally talk about work at lunch.
• Cars are taxed 180% at time of purchase, so a small car for $20,000 really costs you $60,000
• They pay ad valorem tax on their cars too, but it's based on fuel economy, not value or age
• No tipping at restaurants or cabs, the price is the price
• ToGo boxes are non-existent and so is asking for it "your way" on the menu
• See the previous entry for some more philosophical differences

So I continued a tradition and went out for Chinese in my 5th country (USA, Portugal, Germany, Uganda and now Denmark). Chinese actually differs quite a bit across the world and from what I hear it really doesn't have much to do with local tastes. Rather, it has to do with emigration patterns of different regions of China to different countries. It would be like the Southwest USA and their food emigrating to France and the Southeast USA emigrating to Brazil. It was very good and maybe one local touch was that it was all forks, not a chopstick in sight.

Was a slower paced day today, but did get to meet the CEO of a $2 billion company (which I can't name for confidentiality), can't say I do that everyday. Well looking forward to a low key night in my hotel room. Oh, and the first Nordic cardiac convention is having a conference here tomorrow, I'm surrounded by doctors, feel pretty safe.

Eel and Socialism

So my host took me out for fried eel tonight, a traditional Danish dish. He said I'm only the 2nd guest in 7 years to go for eel with him, the other was Japanese. The restaurant kind of felt like a German brew house. The eel was actually pretty good after you got past the look and psychology of it. It was served with potato pieces in a cream sauce and pickle slices on the side. My host insisted that I get a glass of schnapps to go with it. They poured a tiny glass and I was expecting something light and fruity like in the USA, but I think schnapps is Danish for firewater. Had a great ice cream dessert with tiny pieces of fruit candy in it, overall an excellent meal. For dessert they also had a "Greenland Coffee" which "created a warming sensation." I asked what it was and was told it was coffee with 7 shots of booze. They asked if I wanted one and I was like, um, no.

Host took me on a nice driving tour. Showed me the house of the 3rd richest guy in Denmark, actually seemed kind of small and humble compared to what I've seen on Peachtree Battle. I guess they said wages are set here so that the gap between rich and poor is much smaller than most places.

I've heard from more than one person here that Denmark is essentially a socialist country. There is a national belief that the rich should take care of the poor. Something about that seems very Christian, but I guess there's a difference between a choice and a mandate. They also discourage pride and people saying they are the "best", rather the national motto is we're all equal. They say many people quietly favor the "you can rise to the top" USA spirit don't really like the 60% income tax most upper middle class people pay now (graduated on income), but wouldn't say it's a strong conviction. While they believe it discourages advancement in some ways, they like the government benefits/safety net and equality where "garbage men and doctor's kids play on the same playground naturally." Houses here are crazy expensive too ($700,00 for the one pictured and that's in an average town, maybe you can do $200,000 in the middle of nowhere). I know it would probably go for that in downtown Atlanta and I'm in a beautiful area, but it's a town of 42,000.

They look at us as somewhat irresponsible and kind of barbaric at times. Healthcare, college (you even get $1,000/month living expenses), nursing home and retirement are all taken care of. They just find it hard to believe that a civilized country would let money determine if and what type of medical care or schooling someone receives. They just see it as a human right that everyone has the best and they claim it's very good, but not sure what their point of reference is. Looking around at shapes and sizes they do seem to be a healthier people though. They also can't believe our big cars for 1 person. They drive small cars because they're cheaper, but also because they just see it as environmentally responsible. The government also "protects" people they even mandate hours certain stores can be open.

I like the community feel here, but yikes, 60% tax plus a 25% national sales tax doesn't leave a lot and that's a lot of government in your life. They however are very proud of their country and nationalistic. I guess that's the great thing about a diverse world, they like it and they're very happy people, so points for them!

Going Out for American

So last night I went to Bone's for dinner. This is essentially the same Bone's as in the USA, but it's a family restaurant. How is this possible you might ask? Well some of the prices are a bit lower, but here it's a "theme" restaurant where people go for the "American" experience and it's decorated like a Fudruckers. I had the "Tour of the USA" platter and it was actually pretty good mix of ribs, chicken and steak. They import Heinz ketchup and only give you a tiny bottle and charge you like a $1 for more. They also have Heinz mustard which they claim is great with beef (steaks), anybody ever hear of that? They also offer "imported" american wines, stuff that sells for like $10 in the states in $40 to $60 here. Overall it was a fun experience.

I'm finally getting used to quickly converting price between a Danish Kroner and Dollar, about 5.2 to 1, but wow is the dollar weak as this is a small town and stuff feels pretty expensive. Oh, and if you come over this way be sure you know your pin number for your credit card, a lot of places require it instead of a signature.

Well the people here are sure friendly and you can tell you're in Scandinavia, lots of tall blonde hair and blue eyed people. Not universal, but a much higher percentage than you're used to seeing in the states and I'm guessing all those aren't natural either. The people here love to tell about their culture in a very modest way. This is a farming and water country and they even have a King and Queen that are symbolic. In fact a prince just married an Australian girl so now the countries have excellent relations which has led to a large import of Australian food, items and culture. They have a strong sense of community and a strong sense of stewardship, especially to the environment. One funny example, they raise more pigs here than just about any part of the world, but the Danes used to be very picky eaters, only eating the best cuts of meat and sending everything else to China in the 50's. This was seen as wasteful. The government started a program promoting recipes with the other part and conservation awareness and now that campaign has actually made those cuts the most popular.

Speaking of food, it's all been spectacular. I had one of the best pork chops ever yesterday at lunch in the work cafeteria here and breakfast is amazing too. The other thing you notice is that the coffee is excellent everywhere. In the US you can get a good cup of coffee, but you also find some lousy ones too. The coffee here just seems more consistent and good.

Well after some beautiful weather there's a mist here today. Have an interesting dinner coming tonight, more on that later!

Eels, Handball and English

It's fun to do international travel for business. I find that you actually learn more about common culture than you do as a tourist as you get to have prolonged conversations with locals about some of the more mundane aspects of life and still get to sample the food and see the architecture. An example of this is their view of the English language. On TV and in the theaters everything is in English so I can sit back and watch some MTV or Discovery channel and just have some Danish subtitles obscuring parts of my screen. I at first though it was the fact that there are only 5 million people who speak Danish (that's right, this whole country is about the size of Atlanta) and it just wouldn't be worth the effort for Hollywood and I'm sure that's a part of it. But my colleagues here said they have a strong belief in artistic integrity and if it was meant to be seen in English they watch it in English with the original actors speaking the words rather than dubbing. They also said Danish has a small vocabulary compared to English so many Danes think in English and use English to convey thoughts where words don't exist in Danish. For example, Danish has words for hate and love but nothing in the middle to convey when you're just not keen on something. Well click on the link above to try to learn the basics.

So another topic of discussion of local foods. They want to treat me to dinner a few nights this week and asked me what I wanted. I told them I can have steak and chicken anywhere, take me for something local and I'll eat anything all the way to sushi. Now I had steak last night (with a local flare) and probably will tonight too, but if I go out with locals I figure it's a better time to find hidden gems. So what is this area known for? Fried eel. I guess the lakes here have large populations of eel that they catch fresh. They told me about the Sargasso Sea where I guess all eels migrate to give birth, really interesting and still a lot of mystery too. Just click on the above link to learn more. Well that's dinner tomorrow, so look forward to that update :)

On the way back to the hotel my host pointed out a "world famous" handball player getting out of his car at my complex. For starters, are there famous handball players? I guess the Silkeborg team just paid top $ for him and he was headed to the health club here for a massage. Fame is a funny thing when someone can be famous to millions and a total stranger to me.

Oh, and from a business perspective, the reason why I'm here, the day was excellent too. Looking forward to a really good week, the people here are great.

Well I'm headed to Bone's restaurant in this complex with my hotel. It has a similar logo to the fancy Bone's steakhouse in Atlanta, but I guess here it's a family restaurant, so I guess we'll see and amend this later.

Arrived in Denmark

The first white here that I just added is the airport hall in Copenhagen, pretty cool! Also added a pic of the fountains in the lake across from my hotel.

Well I'm in Silkeborg, Denmark for a week overseas. I flew first from Atlanta to Copenhagen and was thinking nothing like 10 hours of movies and food on the way over, but then uhg, no personal video screens, and thought it might be time to knock myself out with ambien for 10 hours, but never ended up sleeping much, as after dinner there was only like 3 hours to sleep until breakfast anyway. Landed in Demark. Is it a hard landing when luggage bins open and O2 masks come down? Noticed I forgot my belt at security after going through passport control, not as big of a deal as I thought. Copenhagen is a nice airport. I g0t to fly a prop plane from Copenhagen to Billund on an airline I've never heard of, yes! So small no assigned seats, just gets better. It was an ATR, the one they banned in the US because of safety issues! Ended up landing safely and was a pretty flight, you really get an appreciation of how much of a farm and island/water nation this is. Got a cab and ended up walking around a Danish flea market in the plaza outside my hotel waiting 60 min until I could check in. Same junk as in the US, food, obsolete electronics, VHS tapes, records and garage sale stuff. The hotel is in kind of a neat area, kind of like Atlantic Station area, except it's an old paper mill that's been converted. There's my hotel, condos, a movie theater (movies in English with Danish subtitles), arts center and a bunch of restaurants. Had great mexican steak dinner, so weird to not have the HUGE US portions, kind of felt cheated at first, like is that all there is?, but was perfect. Now I'm sitting in my room, actually streaming the Braves game, feels like home. Still basically light outside at 10:15, gotta love being this far north, a little cold though, 65F during the day and 45F at night. Off to bed in a bit for a 8:30am start tomorrow, but should be a pretty easy day. European hotels, especially this one, have good breakfasts too. Good night, drop me a note with any Questions about Denmark!