Ded ppl R kool!

Day 4 (Wednesday, 1/7)

I slept pretty poorly that night. Like the night before, I slept for probably a couple hours and then tossed and turned the rest of the night. I couldn’t even close my eyes and get some rest I was so awake. I also felt bad about tossing and turning because I think each time I did I woke Ben up. Anyway, finally I heard Tess leave sometime before 8 and I got up and went out to the couch to sleep. Once out there I slept better but I think that’s because it was getting pretty late New York time then so I could sleep better. I heard Ben get up and leave about an hour later but I slept until around 11:30.

Once up and ready, I headed out on the bike I was borrowing from Ben into downtown Copenhagen. Ben had told me the day before how to get into the city center but I really only had a vague idea. Anyway, I rode through the cold weather that turned into a light snow and managed to arrive pretty close to where I wanted to be. On the way, I rode past the Danish parliament building where the center of Danish power has been since the democratic-monarchy was established. Outside of it looked to be about 50 people protesting. When I got closer, I saw what I think were Palestinian flags being waved and I noticed that all the protestors appeared to also be Palestinians. Furthermore, one guy was on a megaphone and screaming what sounded to me like jihadist chants though I’d bet they were denouncing Israel as well as the Danish role in the Iraq war (they have/had a couple hundred troops there I think). The call and responses from the megaphone and crowd were a little frightening to me because they reminded me of tapes I heard around 9/11 of extremist Muslims chants. I thought about stopping and taking a picture but they were across the street which was pretty big and busy and I didn’t think a picture from the other side would look very good. I figured I’d take one on the way back if they were still there.

So I got into the city center and to the National Museum which is where I wanted to go. I parked my bike and then proceeded to walk around and look for something relatively cheap to eat. Like most things in Denmark, food is also expensive so I settled on just buying a bottle of Squash and a package of Hob-Nobs, the best cookies ever. I must admit that I was quite proud when I realized I was having cookies and soda for lunch. I was even prouder when I realized I hadn’t had anything for breakfast, either.

(Yet another aside:) I’m going to take another step back and say a little about my experiences with Copenhagen. I’ve been to this city like 4 or 5 times now and hit most of the things anyone wants to see, which is part of the reason I’d been taking it relatively easy there (and still am). I’ve seen most of the big museums, the statue of Hans Christian Andersen’s little mermaid, Tivoli gardens, if not all then nearly all of the major churches, the famous round tower, etc. I was looking through my guidebook on my first day here for something to do and thought “Wow, I’ve done just about everything I’d want to do here.” I’ve also been to the next two biggest cities in Denmark as well as the island of Bornholm countless times, which is where my uncle and aunt live and where Ben and Tess grew up. So if it seems like I’m being lazy and not taking full advantage of this trip to Denmark then that’s why; I’ve seen and done so much here already, a lot of it would just be like a repeat for me.

That said, there is (at least) one thing I didn’t do last time I was here that I wanted to. After being in Ireland in 2007 and going to the National Museum there I became very interested in bog people, of which the national museum of Ireland has several. These are people who thousands of years ago were somehow trapped in bogs, which were sometimes considered sacred places, and they were usually killed through sacrifice to the Celtic/Nordic gods (Ireland had a huge Nordic influence from the Vikings) or murdered during some political upheaval in the kingdom. The crazy thing about these people is that the bogs preserved them incredibly well, better than most modern ways to preserve humans. Scientists can still see what was in their stomachs, you can see fingerprints and nails, not to mention eyelids and lips, as well as their hair and rough cotton clothing. I find it incredibly fascinating in the way these things were preserved but also in the darkness of the whole situation that these are dead bodies from over a thousand years ago that were usually sacrificed or murdered. Anyway, while in Ireland two summers ago I found out that many bog people were discovered in Denmark and preserved in museums there. A couple where in a museum in Århus that I wasn’t able to make it to, and one was at the National Museum in Copenhagen. When I tried to go to the National Museum last time, the entire pre-historic wing was under renovation and closed. No bog people for me last time.

But when I returned this time, I encountered no such problem. That wing was fully functional and pretty nice and easy to learn from as all the information was in Danish and English. There was some pretty cool Iron and Bronze Age swords and helmets as well as Viking objects and some Roman artifacts that had found their way to Denmark during the end of the Roman Empire era. I spent quite a bit of time looking at all this stuff and finally came to the bog person. It was pretty creepy and eerie like the others from a year and a half ago but still pretty interesting to see. The feet were contorted and curled in what was probably its death pose and the skin was brown and leathery, pulled tight around the body. It was in the fetal position and the skin on its face was pulled so I could see its teeth and some hair was still on the top of its head. It wore a really coarse fabric for clothes that looked like something straight out of the Viking era—though this woman was probably older.

There were a few other objects from other bogs, mostly clothing or coins, and then a few skeletons (with some remnants of skin and hair) from actual burial sites in the next few rooms. Evidently these coffins used back in the Viking era were sealed in such a way (either intentionally or not) in a way that they preserved the corpse really well too.

Anyway, after all the corpses and dark stuff, I checked out some more Viking artifacts and then decided to take a look at the café in the museum to see if they had anything reasonably priced as far as food went. They didn’t. I was getting pretty hungry as cookies and Squash weren’t exactly incredibly nourishing but I decided to take a quick swing through the rest of the museum. The Medieval and Renaissance areas were pretty cool but were mostly monastic/religious or gold and glorifications of the crown, respectively. I did, however, see some pretty cool ivory carvings and pieces of glass in the Renaissance portion.

After I couldn’t take being without food much longer I went back down to the locker where I’d left my backpack and had a few cookies and then rode back to Tess’s apartment, getting there a little bit after she did. We heated up some pasta from the night before and then went out to rent a movie. We got Thank You For Smoking as Tess had never seen it before and I think she thoroughly enjoyed it, though she admitted that some of the American humor and references were over her head. After that we mostly just watched TV and talked for a while. I think I watched a couple episodes of No Reservations and then went to sleep, though it took me a while to fall asleep once all the lights were out.