What I learned during another 2 weeks in Europe

• Lufthansa kicks Cathay Pacific's ass.
  
• Scandinavian countries still use their own currencies.
  
• Scandinavians are generally good-looking. Their babies and children are especially adorable. =D
  
• The Danes really know how to make the yummiest pastries. I'll never regard a danish the same way again.
  
• The Little Mermaid is... little.
• Denmark's biggest hero is a fairy tale writer.
  
• Scandinavians speak excellent, almost accent-free, English.
  
• Scandinavians like the sun. A lot.
• Don't believe everything the weather forecasts tell you.
• Good cheese is really, really good.
• A McDonalds burger in Norway will set you back about P400. That doesn't include fries and a drink.
• A Pinoy waiter working in Oslo earns about 3 times more than I do in a month.
• Edvard Munch's painting The Scream is in the National Gallery of Norway. It's much more evocative than the Mona Lisa.
  
• Vikings never wore helmets with horns. Surprise, surprise.
  
• Yogurt can be addictive.
  
• H&M is surprisingly hard to find in Stockholm.
  
• Souvenir stores in Sweden don't sell Freddie Ljungberg jerseys. Boo.
  
• Finland is not part of Scandinavia, and it has the 3rd highest crime rate in the world. Maybe there really is something to be said about monarchies.
  
• Finns drink like beer is going out of style (someone told me 50% of their crimes are alcohol-related).
• Washing carpets in lakes is a form of "celebration" in Helsinki. They have got to get a life. Or more kegs of beer.
• Digicam batteries run out faster in cold weather.
  
• Russia is white China. It's rigid like China, it's dusty like China, it even smells like China.
  
• Russians don't smile. And a lot of them don't bathe either.
• Swan Lake can give you LSS.
• Somewhere in China is a very rich guy who owns a factory producing matryoshkas (Russian stacking dolls) and knockoff Faberge eggs.
  
• Relative to Russians, the French are a very friendly lot.
• Paris smells like a delightful combination of crepes, perfume and raw sewage.
• "Louis Vuitton" is pronounced with a silent S and a silent N, "Lancel" is pronounced "lawn-CEL", and "Louvre" is pronounced with the R, in the throat.
  
• French palaces are not as flashy as Russian palaces. And my mom was right, Versailles is overrated, but still worth waiting 2 and half hours in line for.
• 15 people can fit under 4 umbrellas.
• The Mona Lisa is disappointingly small, but the Louvre is mind-bogglingly (and feet-achingly) huge.
• The Louvre pyramid is not ugly.
• Charles De Gaulle is ugly (the airport, not the founder of the French Republic).
• All Chinese restaurants in Europe serve oranges for dessert. Except for this one place in Russia that served us sliced bananas.
  
• No matter what I do, I will always have a siopao face. Especially when I'm wearing turtlenecks.

[click for pix]