Saturday, September 11, 2010

Day 24, cont. - Scandinavia Travel Musings, Part One

This post may go to a couple of posts, but this one is one of those amazing and unbelievable stories. When we were in Norway, as I posted earlier, Ivan and I bought some "authentic" Norwegian sweaters. These, thank heaven, were NOT made in China. They are lovely and were not cheap. The lady in the shop where we bought them said we could get the tax on them refunded, we just needed the receipt, our international ticket and passport. She said this could be done at any airport or international ferry or train terminal. Since we were to depart Norway on a ferry that went from Oslo to Copenhagen, we collected the paperwork and had it at the ready. When we arrived at the DFDS terminal, we were hot and tired from dragging our luggage there and we forgot all about it until the ship was leaving the harbor. We took our paperwork to the Customer Service desk on the boat and they said they couldn't help us, but that we could get it done when we arrived in Copenhagen. We looked at each other and thought, "Norwegian tax refund in Copenhagen?? Right." Well, as you might imagine, this Gang That Couldn't Remember Straight once again forgot all about it once on terra firma in Copenhagen. So, we dragged our bedraggled selves to our hotel in Copenhagen where they told us we could get the refund at the airport when we departed for home. Once again, the consensus was - Right.
Well, here we are, at the airport and Ivan has in his hand a bunch of American dollars which he received when he submitted the paperwork for the refund! Go ahead - read that sentence again! Denmark gave us the refund for taxes paid on Norwegian goods. Is this a great country or what?!

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