YAH: Yet Another Holiday

Danes love their holidays and they should. During the first sixth months of the year they have so many holidays that I've lost track of the count. (This is on top of their 5-6 weeks of vacation and their 37 hour work week!)

From an American standpoint, we like the occasional holiday, but hey, if you keep having them, how are you supposed to get any work done? Indeed, whenever there is a holiday, we are faced with a triple whammy: 1) the schools close (so the kids are home), 2) all the stores close (so there is no place to take them) and 3) none of our babysitting contacts want to work (“Haven't you heard its a holiday today?”)!

Today, we have yet ANOTHER holiday, a bank holiday, so rather than getting some work done before the baby comes, I'm going to be taking the kids to Tivoli again (fortunately, its open and recall that we bought a season pass, so it doesn't cost me much to take them now). We did go just yesterday but Tivoli is fun for the kids AND its close to our apartment, so I can rush home if Leysia needs me.

Now, I should mention that when I say “all the stores close” that's true of almost everything EXCEPT bakeries. Indeed, it must suck to be a baker in Denmark because then you NEVER get a day off. If you mention to a Dane who has just said “And remember, because its a holiday, all the stores are closed.” that that's not completely true since the bakeries are open, they will look nonplussed and say “Well of course the BAKERIES are open; it would be uncivilized if they closed!”

Anyway, I went to our local bakery this morning to get milk and some of our favorite bread and our favorite pastry and of course it was absolutely packed because there were all these Danes home today and nowhere to go BUT the bakery! :-)

Enjoy!

Ken