By this time I was getting hungry so I thought it only proper to partake of some traditional Danish Viking food. Asking some of the locals where such a meal might be found I was told multiple times to dine at the Blokhuse (I think I got that right), and that is precisely what I did. Stepping into that building was historic, timewarp sort of stuff. It looked, smelled, felt old world. The menu offered several tempting dishes, but I was determined to have the most traditional Vikingesque dish they had, which as it turned out was minced Ox tail, with gravy. Yes Ox tail. If that was traditional Viking food then I want to be a Viking. That food was perhaps the most amazing meal I have ever eaten, and I have had hog meat with wild onions and eggs. The meat was tender and lean, and that gravy – good lord that gravy could heal the sick it was so miraculous. I must tell you my friends, that meal alone is worth a trip to Ribe, Denmark. Drop what you are doing, get on the next plane to Denmark and head straight to the Blokhuse in Ribe for minced Ox tail. Tell them Les sent you.
OK, now I had to get back to Esbjerg. So back to the station I walked through what was by this time a light mist. Twenty minutes wait was all I had for the next train back to what has become my home town here in the land of the Danes. By the time I got to Esbjerg it was around 8:30pm and the rain was heavier, not yet a downpour but certainly much more steady. Rather than waiting for the bus, which I was uncertain of their frequency at this time of night, I decided to catch a cab back to my house. I believe I mentioned in a previous posting that the Fulbright Commission had established for me a bank account in Esbjerg and deposited into it my first month’s living stipend, so I had access to an ATM account; I withdrew some funds and hailed a cab. The driver got me to the house within ten minutes, and I paid him, tipped him and went inside. The house was cold, well this was the first time I had been here in five days, so of course it was cold. I turned on a couple of the space heaters and readied for bed. Thinking all was well I drifted off to sleep, but I would find later that all was not so well as I thought. You see, I did it again. Time for a back story: I tend to forget small things; my mind is so preoccupied on larger issues that I can be forgetful of many things that others handle as commonplace. For example, I cannot even begin to count the times I have had to call Tori and have her drive by and unlock my vehicle because I locked the keys inside. Also, once in Albuquerque I had ridden the Amtrak to a conference there. On the way back (I was still at Kansas State at that time) I had purchased a Subway sandwich, a six-pack of Dr. Pepper and paid with a one-hundred dollar bill, all I had on me. I tossed the change in the bag along with my sandwich and DPs. On the short shuttle bus ride from the conference hotel to the train station I managed to leave my bag with all its contents, sandwich, sodas, and about $85.00, on the shuttle bus. I was in Colorado before I realized it.
Well, I did it again – sort of. I managed to leave my small notebook inside the cab. Now a small notebook itself is nothing to worry about, but inside this small notebook was my Passport, my driver’s license, credit cards, the money I withdrew, and some US greenbacks I still had left from the trip over. In short I had left my entire identity and existence in the back of a cab. I did not even realize it. I was sleeping, quite well too actually when around 3am there was a knock at the door. It was the cab driver; I have no idea how long he had been knocking, but he brought my existence back to me. Had I been awake enough to realize what had just happened I would have tipped him more at that moment, but I was still drowsy and did not think in that moment to reward him. I shall have to find this man and do more than just thank him. What he did was extraordinary. That would not have happened in the US. I now have a quest to find the cab driver who was uberhonest.
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