Scandinavian American. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1945-1958, 1950-05-24
Denmark
THE Kings City"

Copenhagen you buy Danish silver
or porcelain of the royal manu-
facture, in addition to all the
other objects that people buy in
big cities all over the world.
Food is good in Copenhagen,
and when meat is available the
restaurants serve such copious
helpings that it is almost too
much, particularly because people
are expected to pick their plates
clean, a habit acquired during the
war years and calculated to re-
duce the quantity of food the
Nazis could get at.
The beverage that goes with
the food is beer, national favor
lite if ever there was one. Profits
made on beer serve to subsidize
Danish science, art, literature,
commerce and industry. Another
favorite is snaps, a potent and
very tasty drink, if you like it,
which Copenhageners most de-
cidedly do.
The expensive restaurants are
not much more expensive than
the cheap ones, but don't draw any
hasty conclusions, for the cheap
ones are rather expensive. They
all serve smorrebrod or open-face
sandwiches. In one particular res
taurant they hand you a regular
scroll, one and a half yards long,
listing LAT different editions of
the open-face sandwich. If you
keep it you may get through the
list in two months, but at the
end you will need a new suit;
there won't be room for you in the
old!
Copenhageners are friendly and
helpful and infinitely curious. They
will stand for hours looking at a
man digging hole in the street
or painting fence.
The young girls are smiling and
gay and so friendly that visitors
have been known to be wrong
about them. Not always, though.
Foreigners arriving in Copen-
hagen will often be amazed at
actually understanding good deal
when taxi-drivers, walters, police
men, the man in the street, or a
bicycle-girl talk to them. This is
not because Danish is like English,
as some people seem to think, but
rather because Copenhageners in
sist on speaking English or some
thing resembling it every time
they meet a foreigner. If the
visitor is Frenchman he is quite
convinced that the language really
is English.
In the summertime Copenhagen
ers like to dawdle in the sidewalk
cafes that give the town Paris
ian air. There they will sit and
look at each other and say hello
to people passing in the clean
street outside. Some people be-
lieve the streets are clean because
the wind Immediately blows away
the dirt. They are mistaken. The
streets are swept and washed
every morning like all nice chill
dren. Some even say that the trees
are combed, At any rate, they
are trimmed
The temperature in Copenhagen
is moderate. Winters are not too
cold and summers are certainly
not too hot. A visitor from Florida
once said that Copenhagen had
two winters, a white one and a
green one. That statement is a
bit unjust, for spring and summer
are really nice and pleasant and
friendly and right - the weather
actually permitting you to take
a stroll in fine new streets with
ugly houses and in amusing old
streets with fine homes, and to
gaze at lovely shops in ugly build
ings and at ugly shops in lovely
buildings and smile at your fellow
men who always have a smile to
spare for one another and for the
visitor from the world outside. You
can also take a walk in the parks
and look at the children play. or go
to the zoo and see the animals do
likewise. Or you may go down
to the harbor and dream of sail
ing the seven seas - or say hello