5 Things I Wish Were Easier to Find in Denmark

So many things that seem commonplace back home home in America seem weirdly and unnecessarily difficult to find here in Denmark.

I've already posted my rant about how difficult it is to get cold medicines that aren't someone's grandmother's home remedy packaged and sold at the local Matas.

But there's more.  Here are a few:

1.  Painkillers:  Sure, you can go to the local apotek and pick up some painkillers there, but they're much milder.  And as I mentioned in my last post, if you don't live near a 24-hour apotek and happen to have a horrible headache or backache or whatever, and it's past 6pm... you're kind of our of luck.  

2.  Office supplies:  I was looking for binders today so that I could organize my music for my a cappella rehearsals, so I hopped onto Google, expecting to find something like a Staples or an OfficeMax like I would find all over the place back home.  No luck.  So, I jumped into the Facebook group dedicated to Americans living in Denmark and asked them.  They suggested a few websites that sell office supplies online only, or suggested I go to a bookstore.  I ended up finding a few flimsy ones at a local Tiger (which is similar to a Dollar Store back home), but I don't think they'll last very long.

3.  All of your groceries in one store:  There are 4 grocery stores near me, all clustered in a two-block area.  Plus several convenience stores.  I find that I go into 3 of them on a regular basis, sometimes in the same shopping run.  There's really no reason why they shouldn't just all combine into one big store and have everything all in one place.  And that right there is me sounding like a spoiled American wishing everything was like Walmart... Oops.  I don't wish they were like Walmart at all, actually.  I wish they were like Wegman's.

4.  Real nachos:  I've mentioned this before, back in this post.  I've been to 3 restaurants in Copenhagen that have served Doritos with cheddar cheese and called them nachos.  This must be stopped.  It's so bad that I don't even want to try the nachos at other restaurants, for fear of losing it and chastising some poor waiter/waitress.  Seriously, though... This is what nachos are supposed to look like.  Work on it, Denmark.

I recognize that some of these things become a bigger issue than they would be otherwise because I don't have a car.  It would, for example, be no big deal to hop in a car and drive the few kilometers to the nearest 24-hour pharmacy, or to head out to Føtex (which is as close to a Walmart-like store that they have here), but a car is out of the picture.  The reason for that is my number 5 on the list:

5.  Reasonably-priced cars:  It's not the cars in Denmark that are expensive.  It's the registration fees.  A car can easily cost you twice the list price or more just because of the fees to put the car legally on the road here in Denmark.  I'm not saying I'm complaining, exactly.  To be honest, not having to buy gas or worry about driving a car in the snow, or if the car will break down... it's a huge relief.  And the public transportation system here is the cream of the crop.  But sometimes... it would just be nice to be able to hop into a car, hit a store a few miles away, and head back home.  All within a span of 10 minutes.