We have a hostage situation here in Denmark... it involves a birthday card I sent to mUm, my mother-in-law.
The day after her birthday I found a letter in MY mailbox which had two pictures of mUm's birthday card along with a ransome note.
OH. Oops. Okay... I just translated my "ransome note" from the post office.
I ASSUMED... Denmark being Denmark and all.... that it said the post office would wait for me to pay the necessary postage and then they would send the card to mUm.
...and I thought this was silly because of the effort involved to send their letter to me. They went to a lot of trouble to take pictures of my letter (front and back), print another letter to me, assign my "case" a 15 digit FAKTURANUMMER (invoice number), and to then mail me all this on a very nice piece of photo paper...
BUT. I just translated the letter. It says "We forgive you this time for not putting the right amout of postage on. We sent it to your mUm."
So I'm sorry about all the bad things I said about the Danish post office in the last 24 hours. The post office is probably one of the few institutions here that hasn't annoyed me (besides their ridiculous prices). HOWEVER, for this particular situtation I had gone to the post office with the sole intention of mailing this one letter. I handed mUm's letter to the post office person and paid her for the stamp. I did not stay long enought to witness the stamp being adhered to the envelope, so ultimately it was my own fault.
Some other highly useful information about the mail here. :)
- Most of the mailmen ride bikes. They ride through the weather with little bags on the back of their bike. When they have a big package to deliver they come in a truck though.
- You can't mail a letter from your home. You can only recieve mail at home. There are mail boxes along streets or you have to go to the post office. Sounds simple, but this one errand is the one I usually put off the longest. Don't take for granted sticking a letter in your mailbox and having someone pick it up.
- It costs ~$1.20 to mail a letter within Denmark ...and Denmark is pretty small
- You can't use envelopes from the US... (of course), or else it will cost alot more. I have to fold over my long envelopes about 1/2 an inch on the end and tape it. ...then it's the right size.
- The post office has really cute little gifts to buy for birthday presents for little girls you don't really know. :)
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4 comments:
That is so sweet - in the UK you would have got the card back a week later with "insufficient postage" stamped on it.
Yeah for the Danish post!! They saved the day!! And I have also learned that the post office is a great place to shop! Makes it easier to wait in the queue!
I got the same darn letter from the Danish police, err post office a few weeks ago. My letter was in a standard US envelope (1/4 inch longer than a standard danish envelope) and I got this picture front and back, blah blah blah, we'll still mail it note from the danish post office.
My poor little letter was going to the US IRS. :) Too funny that you got the same thing. I did the usual...rolled my eyes and laughed!
The Danish postal service is generally one of the few things that I really find much better than the corresponding service in the USA. When living in the States I found that letters _to_Europe would usually take about four days to arrive while letters _from_ Europe could easily take three weeks to come.
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