The first week in Luxembourg is behind me. What to say?
Well, the facts mostly confirm what I knew already:
– Luxembourg is small – OK, so there wasn’t much room for surprise here
– Luxembourg is expensive – this is not much of a news either. I think that most of the western Europe is ridiculously expensive but after so much time spent in Denmark, not many things can surprise me here.
The truth is, prices in some cases can vary. Take McDonalds which is twice as expensive than in Zagreb. Luckily, there is a cheaper alternative in “burger” department (which actually tastes better than McD) which is “only” 80% more expensive. Coffee is more expensive than in Zagreb but not necessarily by much. Single espresso is only little more expensive than in a better cafe in downtown Zagreb, but if you take double espresso, as I usually do, the price is almost same. Simply, in Zagreb double espresso has a price of 2 espressos. Period. Abroad on the other hand, double espresso is typically 1,5 or less of the single shot price.
That logic works only until you run into Kafka-like situation as I had the other day:
I’ve been buying take out double espresso in the nearby coffee shop for few days and that cost me 2 euro. On Sunday after a walk through town, knowing that I have work to do in the hotel I thought I might get me a triple coffee. At worst, I thought, it might set me back 3,5 euro if they charge full espresso price of 1,5 euro on top of the price for double. Well, that thought lasted until I saw the bill of – 4,5 euro. The cashier’s logic was that those were 3 espressos, times 3 and voila, that’s 4,5 euro. Arguing my calculation I mentioned above didn’t have much effect. “Talk to the boss” she says (who was not there at the time, btw). Not giving up I said I’m paying more for triple espresso than I would if I had 2 doubles. She wouldn’t budge of course, “Talk to the boss”.
Grudgingly I gave half an euro more and left with my precious coffee, Of course, dumb-dumb that I am, it didn’t dawn on me until I left that I could have given the whole coffee thing up as a sign of protest.
As for other prices, eating out is notoriously expensive while the gadgetry is absurdly expensive. To my satisfaction I noticed that Canon lenses are even more expensive than in Croatia (which is way too expensive on its own).
– Luxembourg is boring – this probably has to do with the overall size of the place, but also with the mentality. It might be that in some clubs somewhere in town partying never stops, but if at 9 PM I see total of 10 people on the street, out of which 9 are some shady immigrant characters – the place is boring.
The biggest “moving” I’ve seen was on weekend when people massively went shopping and one evening when we had a dinner in one of X restaurants on the main square while having a brass band playing rock classics on center stage.
About shopping. Realized you have no toothpaste at 7 PM – good luck with that. Run out of cigarettes at 8 PM – great opportunity to stop smoking. You want to buy some presents after 6 PM – too bad. Typical stores close at 6 PM and that’s it. No exceptions. There is one grocery shop at the train station open until 8 PM and that’s, as far as downtown is concerned, all.
Not to paint a totally bleak picture, most of the downtown (including the hotel I’m staying in) is covered with public Wi-Fi which saves me from coughing up some serious money hotel is charging for internet access.
