Just Another Day Shopping

On the weekend I went to an area in Copenhagen I like to call, "China Town". Pictured on the left are the foods I purchased. Whenever I say to anyone where I am going, they slowly nod their head, and if they are danish, usually have a look on their face of confusion that I know more about Copenhagen than they do. But in the infamous China Town of Copenhagen you will find the most interesting food items in the most cramped, old stores, themed Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Indian, etc. I love going into all the small shops and looking at the food from all around the world. I love the smells, the people, and the extremely small spaces in which to shop in. Many of the shops have small rooms leading into smaller rooms- kind of like a maze in which just around the corner through the dirty clear plastic drapes are rooms with animal carcasses sitting on bloodied white cutting boards ready to be chopped and sold. Shyly and ignorantly coming from Canada where sanitation is on steroids, I pretended not to see and carried on, passing the fish room similar to the room where the dead cow was. Hey, at least they are keeping the animals separate.
I was happy when I found frozen Falafel from Egypt made with the most natural ingredients, and I was even happier that they wrote the ingredients in English. Just as I found my diamond food item in the rough, to my left in the "Canned Food Aisle" as my mom always called it, was a Muslim man praying right there, in the middle of the store. He was so focused and serious. I felt his presence and his devotion, and it was something to be admired. I couldn't help but smile my way to the registrar where after making my purchase was offered a walnut (my favorite!). I chose the biggest one and popped it into my mouth and made my way through the group of Middle Eastern men speaking words I will never come to understand. I was completely out of my element, but felt right at home.