Up until this week ago, the only Australian I’ve spoken to in Copenhagen is…NQDII. Seriously, I hadn’t met any. So when an American friend of NQDII invited us to an Australian wine tasting night at some fellow-American friends of hers, I was rather excited.
And then yesterday morning (before 2pm, of course!) I went to buy some new glasses at an optical shop near here.
This place sells frames that are much cheaper than anywhere else I’ve found here in KBH. I was served by a Danish woman, ordered the glasses and then the very tall man who ran the shop walked up to me with some machine and said something in Danish. He was an older guy and I had no idea what he’s asked me. He repeated it in English in what I thought was an Australian accent. It transpired he’s been here for 30 years! Imagine that. Up until then I’d met no other Aussies here I suspected there weren’t many around, let alone one who’d been here that long.
Then last night we cycled off to the mainly American expat party and were told about the wines produced by the Portet family in the Yarra Valley. The vineyard is named after the father, Dominique Portet and one of his sons sells the wine over here in Copenhagen. In another coincidence the winery is only half an hour away from my family’s farm and I’d been there a couple of times to buy wine.
The chef of the night was also Australian and amongst other Australian-themed food we tucked into crocodile (really does taste like chicken) and kangaroo, which I should add, I’m not to keen on. What was interesting was hearing the accent again after such a long time. It felt quite weird – but nice.
The interesting titbits about wine sales in Denmark are that Danes are very conservative about how a bottle is sealed and tend to hold up the crucifix to screw tops, although, I was not surprised to hear that 97% of the wine sold in Denmark is consumed on the same day! ☺
3 comments:
Cool..another Aussie! I met a New Yorker on the bus in Århus a couple weeks back. She was talking on her phone in Danish that sounded very American so I asked her where she was from and she's from Queens and has been living here for 27 years! Jeez. But says that if she hadn't been able to travel so much for her job she would've gone nuts. 27 years. I can't think that far ahead. As for wine. screw top, cork, whateva so long as it goes down to my belly ;)
Its nice that you got to reconnect with a bit of Aussie culture. My grandad bought a holiday home in Perth when I was younger, and I used to spend long holidays there. I loved that laid-back vibe, having good wine while watching the brilliant sunset at the beach.
How great!!!
Of course, we American expats are EVERYWHERE!! LOL. So I know you were excited to find some connections to home!
and there is no better way to connect than over WINE!!
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