Coffee shops are a big deal in Denmark and one can learn a lot about Danes by observing them in their natural habitat. Guys, on the other hand, are mostly alone, working, writing, and surfing Facebook on their fancy iPhones and iPads.
Not expecting Danes to ever initiate conversation — especially while sober and during daytime — I was temporarily at loss for words and needed a minute to remember how to use my voice box.
I quickly glanced at her and without hesitation placed her in tier two. Denmark is located sufficiently north that my average height and slightly dark complexion can never mistake me for a local, who are all tall and blonde.
Nevertheless, like a trained soldier, I instantly switched into my game mode. She was the fourth but squeezed herself in expertly, albeit at a cost of my space. Tina placed a thick book on the table but reading it was the furthest from her mind; she was in a very talkative mood. She took it as a sign that I was slightly interested and followed up with about a million questions. It was like a diarrhea of non-stop questions, thoughts and comments. I purposely created silences by delaying my answers and follow up questions, but not being best friends with pauses in the conversations, she deliberately made every effort to fill them in by piggybacking my most previous answers.
And in this particular instance the water was hot, scorching hot. Shortly after we grabbed a drink at one of the hipster bars nearby and few hours later stumbled our way to my place.
