July 8-9
After a bit more sleep, Michael and I got moving and grabbed a bus to Copenhagen. These bus rides are not getting any easier, but they are cheap! And since Scandinavia is so expensive, now is a great time to cut costs while we’re flying solo.
We didn’t spend much time in Copenhagen – we mostly popped in because we could find reasonable flights out of the city compared to Oslo. We arrived, dropped off our bags and went out to find some dinner. Our plan was to check out the Tivoli Foodhallen. Just walking the mile or so to get there, we were already jazzed about the city.
The city was alive with a lot of people walking around and great street performers.
https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/img_3263.trim_.movThe food hall did not disappoint either. We had bao (steamed buns filled with stuff like a sandwich) and they were awesome.
We were pretty exhausted after our bus ride (and the fact that we’ve been moving nonstop for weeks), so we went to bed fairly early that night.
The next morning I had an errand. Spoiler to avoid my mother and sister having anxiety while reading this: I’m completely fine. But here’s the story. A few weeks back, in Russia, I fell. It was while we were in a huge crowd of people and I just missed a step. It left me with a banged up knee, a banged up elbow and a busted wrist. The knee and elbow healed quite nicely but the wrist was still giving me some problems. I was starting to get nervous that there was something wrong with it, and didn’t want to have to deal with a “health issue” in Asia, so I figured Denmark is a great place to get it checked out.
I called into the emergency room phone number and got an appointment. In Denmark, you have to call in advance or they won’t see you. I got an 11am appointment, so I showered and headed over. This is it:
I arrived 15 minutes early. They took me immediately and checked me in. I had to show them my passport and provide contact info. Then I went into a waiting room. The building reminded me of an old city hospital – the kind that would be really scary if it was night or if you were in it alone. But it was fine during the day. Sterile, old feeling, but clean. I shared the waiting room with one other woman. About 2 minutes into my wait, a nurse popped in to ask me if I’d like a juice. I declined and she smiled and walked away. About 2 minutes after that, she came back and asked if there was anything else that could make me more comfortable. I said no thank you. I was in an examination room within 10 minutes.
The doctor (or nurse?) was really nice, went through some standard questions, and then sent me off to get an X-ray. Now the service has been really great so far, but the weird thing is that they just sent me off. No one accompanied me – he just pointed at a yellow line on the floor and told me to follow it to X-ray and return when I was finished. I did follow it past open rooms with supplies sitting out. My first thought was: aren’t they worried about people stealing this stuff?
The x-ray room was a bit more crowded – 10 or so people ahead of me, but it was my turn within 10 minutes. I got the scans and headed back to the emergency room. Only thing to note about this was that they didn’t give me one of those pads to make sure the rest of my body didn’t get radiated. Apparently that is not standard practice abroad. They also didn’t ask me 45 times if I’m pregnant or could be pregnant. No litigation in Denmark?
A new doctor saw me a few minutes after I returned and told me the X-rays were clean. Great! I went to reception to find out what the damage was. FREE! I had to ask the question a separate way to make sure we weren’t working with a language barrier (with two women who speak perfect, unaccented English). Totally free. I said: Denmark is the best! To which one woman did remind me that their taxes pay for it.
Now to compare quality of service, I would say everything was as good, but faster. I was out the door in under an hour. However, in the US, the doctor would probably order more tests – send me off for an MRI or something. Or at least say that it’s probably a sprain, wear this brace for a few weeks and follow up. Nothing like that here. He gave me a compression slip which just made me feel silly and sent me packing. So I guess I’ll just wait for this to get better on its own.
After my free healthcare experiment, I met back up with Michael at… another food hall! Torvehallerne.
This one was chosen because it has a specific restaurant in it: Hija de Sanchéz.
This taqueria is owned by chef Rosio Sanchéz who is first generation Mexican-American from Chicago, who moved to Copenhagen to work in two-Michelin-starred NOMA which is considered to be one of the best, if not the best, restaurants in the world. It’s hard to get reservations there and expensive, so we grabbed these tacos instead! This taqueria is routinely included in best restaurant lists for Copenhagen and best taco joint lists around the world. It has also been called the best street food in Europe by EasyJet Traveler magazine. Remember that airline – I have a story about them in my next post. Hija de Sanchéz also was highlighted on the new Netflix series “Ugly Delicious” which I think just came out last week.
They might not look like much, but these tacos did not disappoint. Hija de Sanchéz makes their tortillas from scratch using Oaxacan corn. The tacos were so good, that later in the day when we walked by their other location, we stopped in for more tacos. These are the first really good tacos we’ve had since leaving the US eight months ago. That is a long time to go without good tacos.
After tacos, we grabbed a few beers from Mikkeller. We have visited a handful of their brewpubs around the world, but this was a bit special as they are actually from Copenhagen originally. The bartender there told us that we had to go check out Christiania. So we did.
Christiania is a self-governing “free town” established in 1971 in in the city limits of Copenhagen. Apparently some hippies moved into an abandoned military barracks to create an alternative to mainstream culture. The area is “green friendly” despite it being illegal in Denmark. We did see cops walking around, but it seems like they just let people do whatever they want. It is a very strange place. They claim to be anarchist but the area is equipped with rules, stores, even credit card machines. They use electricity and water, I’m assuming from the city, and I’m also assuming they pay taxes. So it seems to me to be less anarchy and more of a community that wants rules that are different than the city in which they are located. Weird place.
No pictures are allowed (to avoid anyone getting in trouble for illegal activity), but we did manage to snap a few while being screamed at for doing it.
The area was surprisingly safe and clean. The internet told us it was safe before going, but I was still nervous to go in. However, as soon as we stepped foot in I knew there was nothing to be concerned about. We hung out for a bit and wandered around before calling it a night.
And, no – it doesn’t get dark here in the summer either.
Copenhagen – you are a cool city and we at least need to come back to see if this is truly a blockbuster video store.
