​Today’s Miles: 34

Total Miles: 2,138.9

Near Hørby, Denmark – October 7, 2016

A long curve of sand stretches south, rising to grass-covered dunes on one side and falling into the ocean on the other. I follow the coast, walking on the thin strip of sand hardened at the edge of the waves’ reach. 

Lights glow in the distant ocean, bright white against the grey dawn. They almost look like a city hanging there, but they are ships, eleven of them, anchored and waiting for their time to enter or leave port.

The sun rises as I walk, swallowing the ships’ lights, leaving the silhouettes of their hulls, and revealing the arc of the coast stretching south. I can see Frederickshavn, hazy and far away.

I walk on, passing through small towns, along harbors and docks, down little village streets. It all seems off somehow. The building design is different. The street signs are different. The words I don’t understand are different than the words I didn’t understand before, back in Sweden, back in Norway.

It leaves me feeling uncertain.

I reach Frederickshavn and find a grocery store. The Danish krone is worth about thirty percent more than the Swedish krona. The math annoys me as I walk the aisles. I can’t see at a glance what is more or less expensive. Then I reach the chocolate aisle and find them selling chocolate for the same price as the chocolate in Sweden, ignoring the more expensive currency.

I sigh and pick one up then realize that the weight is off too. I look at the packaging again, 150 grams when it should be 200.  

I glare at it for a moment and put it back, leaving to find something else to crave. 

“New country, new challenges,” I think to myself.