EUROPE
April 2006 - England, France, Germany, Denmark
Just before I started my (gasp!) full-time job, Lili and I went to England to visit her old flat-mates in London. Then Paris for a week. Then Denmark, where we met our friend Allan Petersen, who is Danish and was also there on vacation. We played footbag in the park with "Hane Danes" from the good old days when the World Footbag Championships used to always be held in Colorado. We had a blast!
The most interesting thing from this trip culturally was the free bicycles in Copenhagen. Yes, free. If you want to travel across town, find a bike and ride it. Lili said if it were Brazil, the scheme would last about ten minutes. Denmark is socialist, and that cooperative attitude permeates the culture. The trains are impeccably clean. We noticed as a rule that pedestrians didn't cross the street when the lights were red, even in the complete absence of cars. This is a society that works! Yes, taxes are high, and rich people grumble about that, but they also appreciate the low crime and high quality of living. A survey found that Danes are the happiest people on Earth. Everyone we met seemed pretty happy! The Danes are also the world leaders in sustainable wind energy.
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