Day 43 - Post Danmark

The Danish Postal system, like most things in Denmark, is both efficient and expensive.

There are two classes of mail in Denmark - brev; A, or first class and økonomibrev; B, or economy class. Stamps, for mailing domestic letters 50 grams and under (1.75 oz), cost 8 kroner for brev ($1.44) and 6 kroner for økonomibrev ($1.08) . Generally speaking, any letter mailed in Denmark domestically via brev is delivered the next day. Økonomibrev class stamps take 2-3 days for delivery.

Obviously, the heavier, the costlier. It comes out to 35 kroner ($6.30) for a one pound package. Domestic.

To mail letters brev to the US, it is 14,5 kroner ($2.61).  For comparison, to mail letters internationally from the US it is $1.05.

Above is the international stamp featuring Queen Margrethe II, the reigning queen of Denmark.

Today I went to a posthus. It was inside a supermarket.

For our American friends, be happy to know that Danish postal employees are as curmudgeonly, if not more so, as their American counterparts. Upon mailing my letter, I asked about the electronic touch screen / self mailing station I saw on my way to the posthus. "I don't know about any of these things!"

They are called døgnposten. They look like this.

It was unclear what kind of things you can mail here. The touchscreen was less than helpful.

A major flaw / failing of the Danish system is translation. Websites or kiosks, like the above, often have UK / English language options. Unfortunately, they are almost always  A) incomplete or B) horrible. 

Most of the time, the translations are not direct translations of the content. The union jack icon generally takes the user to a different version of the website / menu that is designed for an English speaking audience. Generally, these alternate versions feature less / different content and are inferior to their Danish counterparts. I'm not sure why it is done this way.

A better tactic is to use google translate. Unfortunately, this only works for plain text, not embedded stuff, pics, etc.

At any rate, I hope to learn more about the døgnposten. 

A cool feature of Post Danmark is mobilporto. It allows you to do all sorts of postal related stuff on your mobile phone. This includes paying for postage via SMS. You send a text. They send you a code. You write the code on your letter. Pop it in the post box.

To finish - at least in Copenhagen - mail carriers deliver mail in these.