Drinking In The Kattegat
A few years ago, I was in Denmark with Tyne Tees Television filming “Fishing in the Kattegat“. We got the ferry from North Shields to Odense.
The first thing one of the cameramen did when we got on board was to go to the bar, plonked £50 down and said to the barman …
“Do you sell cocktails – if you do start at the top of the list and work down.
If there is any money left at the bottom, go back to the top of the list again”.
Bear in mind that drinks in those days were a lot cheaper than they are now. I think by the time we got to the Tyne Bar on our way out to sea, he was drunk.
When we arrived at the hotel that we were staying at for the next few days, we went into dinner on the first night and after the soup and the main dish, two of the waiters carried in this huge bowl with prunes floating in a clear brown liquid. When we asked what they were, we were told “prunes marinated in brandy“. The whole camera crew said “forget the prunes just give us the ‘sauce’” By the time we were ready to go out for the evening they were all sloshed.
They managed to find a bar and after accidentally breaking a chair, they were politely asked to go. (I’m T-total by the way, so was the only one still sober).
Staggering back to the hotel about 2 o’clock in the morning, one of the guys spotted what looked like a cigarette machine on the wall, but what it contained wasn’t cigarettes, but pornographic books, which they all proceeded to buy.
I was following with a group a couple of hundred yards back down the road and, as we got nearer to the machine, this chap came running out of the house beside it and proceeded to re-fill the machine – remember this was about 2 o’clock in the morning !!!
