The Herd

I have probably mentioned before about the Danes and waiting at crosswalks. If I have forgive me, as I seem to be getting forgetful in my old age. The Danes do not cross the road, ever, until the green walking light comes on at the crosswalk.

You may think you understand, but till you have been here you cannot possibly understand. You can wait up to 5 minutes on one side of a single lane road, without any cars passing by the whole time, for the light to change. I think they would stop running from a spreading wildfire if the red "don't walk" light was on when they got to the street.

It catches on quick though. When you travel a lot outside of Denmark you are reminded of how stupid it is when, for instance, in France or Italy, people are crossing the street if no cars are coming and you are standing there waiting for the light to change thinking, "what a hot-headed bunch of punks" about the people who crossed on the red light. When my friends from San Diego were here they took to "baaahhing" like sheep while we waited faithfully at every crosswalk for the light to change.

This is a way of living that the Danes take everywhere it seems...give them a rule to follow and they will, they will follow it over a cliff if that's what it takes.

In the subway stations they recently painted yellow lines to indicate where people are to stand upon waiting to enter, and the space where people exiting the train are to walk. In any other country this would make no difference at all, but in Denmark you can see people's faces light up with joy at the prospect of having a new rule to follow. As if they had all been fretting lo these past few months at the "chaos" in the spacious, clean and uncrowded Danish subways.

A French friend and I were returning from a cafe yesterday, and when we got to the subway we saw people herding themselves into the boxes painted in yellow on the ground and we both burst into laughter. We actually saw one guy walk up to the front of one of the boxes, look down and check to see his feet were inside the line, and then adjust accordingly so his toes were not a few inches over the line. The whole station was near empty and the Danes were squeezing in 3x4 ft. squares painted on the pavement! My friend and I decided we would just walk right up to the glass doors and wait in the "persons exiting" section, just to blow people's hair back a little. You could almost feel the collective unease!

"Are those two foreigners crazy? That's not the little yellow box. Sven, do you see what's going on here?"

"Ja Bjornsen, I do. What do you think is going to happen to them when the train arrives? Will they be crushed by the oncoming rush of exiting passengers?"

"Well, Sven, if that happens, and by Thor and the gods of Valhalla lets hope it doesn't, then it will be their fault. They can see the yellow boxes painted plain as day on the ground too!"

Then when the train arrives you see the mixed looks of disgust and surprise on the faces of the deboarding passengers.

"Trine, do you see what's going on outside!?"

"Ja, Helle, I am scared too..."

"How are we going to get off the train with them standing in the yellow 'Exiting Passengers' box?"

"We must be prepared for the possibility that we either won't be able to get off or, God forbid, we may have to walk through the 'Wait Here to Board' yellow box Trine."

"Are you out of your mind Helle? What would your father think if he heard you talk like that? Lets just play it safe and walk up the train to the next door."

Has anyone ever heard of "ground-tying" a horse? You can sometimes train horses so that they will think they are hitched to a post eventhough the rope has been dropped to the ground in front of them. The Danes are ground-tied!