Dave's Travel Journals
Nonsense at the Border
Copenhagen, Denmark: June 2, 2000
By Dave Fox
I flew to Copenhagen Friday and spent the night at my favorite B&B in Christianshavn, a trendy, non-touristy spot 10 minutes from the city center. Sonja, another tour guide, was in the kitchen with Britt, the owner of the B&B, drinking wine when I arrived . I was ready for dinner. It was already 8:30, but Britt laid a friendly sort of "you are going to do the polite thing and drink another bottle with us first, aren't you?" guilt trip on me. It feels good to have done this job long enough that I know people like Britt along the way. Familiar faces make a big difference when living out of a backpack for three months.
In a mixture of English, Norwegian, and Danish, we talked about language confusions between Norwegian and Danish. In Norwegian, the word for breakfast is "frokost" and the word for lunch is "lunsj." In Danish, "frokost" means lunch, not breakfast. The word for breakfast is "morgenmad"... literally translated: "morning food."
I had phoned my friend Ivar in Copenhagen the day before and asked if he wanted to get together for "lunsj" on Saturday.
"What?" he asked, not understanding "lunsj."
I remembered my Danish. "Do you want to get together for 'frokost?'"
"Oh," he said, figuring I meant the Norwegian frokost. "Morgenmad?
Yeah. I
could do that."
"Nei, lunsj. Lunch." I finally said the word in English. "Okay... eat what you want. Do you want to eat some food with me at noon tomorrow?"
We finally got things straightened things out.
Things get more amusing when you drive from Norway into Sweden. The Norwegian word for customs, as in going through customs when you cross a border, is "toll." It's where we get the word for toll booth. In Sweden, the word is "tull." But in Norwegian, "tull" means "nonsense."
So when Norwegians drive to Sweden, they see big signs at the border that say "tull" -- "nonsense" in Norwegian. Norwegians crossing the border into Sweden consider the sign appropriate.
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