There's a lot of Danish people in Denmark.

Day 13 and on.

So I think I’ve taken too much time to write these entries and I’m starting to forget some stuff. Also, I don’t think too many people are reading them so I’ll just try to wrap up the rest of the trip in one long entry. Sound good? If anyone’s seriously interested about any of it then call me and I can fill you in on the deets.

On Friday I got up and ran some errands with Uncle Pete before going across the island to Rønne around noon to pick up Aunt Maibritt. Then we went back to the studio and they did some work while I sanded down and etched a bit into the glasses I’d made. Also, Uncle Pete packed up all of my glasses along with an urn he and Maibritt had made for my grandmother. It’s absolutely beautiful. Greens and yellows swirling from top to bottom—Pete said they got the inspiration because my grandma loved gardening. Now let me tell you, my grandma hadn’t passed yet and they’d actually made this urn a while before but they wanted to send it back with me just in case.

We headed back across the island because they had a meeting a little north of Rønne and while they were in it I took the car and went to a beach and walked along it for a little while. Man was it beautiful but chilly. I looked for amber for a little while but all I found was orange glass. When I met up with Pete and Maibritt again we drove up to the northern part of the island to just see some scenery and, again, it was really beautiful. If the food was better I’d consider living there. Hell, maybe I just need to become a better cook and make all my own meals. I’m sure I could get green chilies overnighted for a small fortune. Anyway, we went back down to Rønne, had some coffee and then they dropped me off at the ferry terminal. I was a bit sad to be leaving but I still had some more time in Denmark so it wasn’t too bad.

The ferry ride was fine and I got on the train pretty easily and read for a while. I decided to get off the train at the airport instead of going all the way to the central station because it made it easier to get to Tess’s that way. My plan for the night was to drop my stuff off at Tess’s and then head up to Lyngby and party with Ben. As I was walking to the metro at the airport I got a call from Tess and she off handedly said “I’m looking forward to seeing your glass.” At that moment I realized I’d left the box of glass on the train. FUCK. Naturally, I immediately started freaking out. I met Tess at her apartment and she tried to call the lost & found but, also naturally, they were closed for the weekend. We ran back out and caught a bus to the train station. We looked for my train but it was already off the screen so we frantically ran around the station (which isn’t small by the way) until we found the information desk. Tess explained that I’d forgotten a box of glass on the bus and she said something along the lines of “Well go to the office before it becomes a bomb threat!” We ran over and behind the glass of some office of some sort I saw the nice wooden box of mine. Thank jeebus.

Tess and I really needed a drink at this point so we went to an Irish pub in the station which was authentically decorated with Boston Red Sox pennants, Boston Celtics posters, and New England Patriots logos. No joke. Anyway, the two of us racked up quite the tab there and in doing so we had numerous conversations with Maibritt, Ben, and my dad. Turns out my grandma was taking a turn for the worse so Uncle Pete was flying in to El Paso the next day. He wanted one of us to meet him at the airport the next morning so we could give him the box of glass to take. Again, thank jeebus we found it. Tess and I then went back to her neighborhood and went to the little neighborhood bar across the street from her apartment. We proceeded to get pretty hammered there and talk about quite a bit. When in Rome, eh?

The next day we got up super early and met Pete at the airport. Ben ended up coming all the way from Lyngby too and none of us were feeling too hot. We had some coffee with Pete, though, and then saw him off. Ben and I then went up to Lyngby and got some groceries along the way. Once back, we had quite a good cooking day. I cooked some traditional Scandinavian sausage and then slow cooked some onions in butter (along with the sausage, a little stout, and a little bit of chili powder) for about 40 minutes. We had an amazing hangover meal. Maybe one of the best hangover meals I’ve ever had. Then Ben decided to make some beer bread and we also decided to bake a cake. After we baked the cake we had a couple generous pieces and sat down to watch Hellboy. Man that movie is so ridiculous. After that we watched an episode of Anthony Bourdain and ate a bit more cake. Not too long after that, Ben’s bread was ready so we ate it with some awesome peppery gouda cheese. I think we finished off the cake after that and then since it was getting kinda late, we went downstairs to the basement bar and had a few beers, then we “rolled” for drinks which, if you will remember, is when you roll dice to see what your drinks become. Mine didn’t turn out too bad. A little bit later we went back upstairs and hit the hay.

On Sunday, Ben and I got up around 10ish and decided to have a tourist day so we headed into town and went to the Round tower where his girlfriend works so we got in for free. The round tower is this big, round, tower (crazy, right?) in the middle of Copenhagen. It was built in the 1600’s and you walk up in this big spiral and there are no steps, just like one big, long, turning ramp. It was built like that so the king could ride his chariot all the way to the top. Anyway, there’s also a museum attached to it and it had a photographic exhibit on Christiania, which I’ll get into later. The top of the tower had a pretty cool view, too. It was open air and had an awesome view of Copenhagen as really the only thing that sticks up into the skyline are the odd 400-year old towers that some king(s) built because he had a small pecker and the steeples from old churches(also built hundreds of years ago by kings trying to show their wealth, dominance, and lack of inferiority below the belt). After that, we grabbed a little bite to eat at this place which was called “Sunset Boulevard” and was essentially the Danish equivalent of a Subway. I’m not one who usually blasts fast(ish) food but it was incredibly mediocre. After lunch, we walked around the central area quite a bit, wandering by the Royal Palaces where I got a picture with some of the Danish royal guards. Think of the guards outside Buckingham but with slightly different attire and AK-47s. They take their queen seriously here. We wandered through an awesome church I saw probably about 8 years ago. It was an old marble church, pretty small ground-wise, but towering up once we got inside. Lastly, we went to the Art museum which was much better than I expected. It was the last major museum in Copenhagen that I hadn’t been to and the artwork was actually really good and really innovative. When Ben and I got back outside we discovered it was raining. So much for riding my bike back to Tess’s. While it was possible to ride my bike back, I had my laptop with me which I didn’t want to get wet so I hopped on the metro and went back. Back at Tess’s we ate a little food, watched some TV and then went to sleep.

Monday was pretty low-key. I think I mostly just rode my bike around the city and then spent time with Tess when she got out of work. Maybe wrote a bit too. Tuesday was pretty killer, though. I got up around 10ish and after having some breakfast I set out to the one place I really wanted to visit this whole trip: Christiania. It is this little area where in the 60’s some anarchists overtook some old abandoned army barracks and proclaimed it a free, independent city. The first thing the anarchists did? Legalize weed. Since then, it’s had a pretty weird history with not so many anarchists living there as people looking for a different life than the usual hustle and bustle of mainstream Denmark. People build their own houses there, don’t pay taxes, let dogs wander around, and create awesome graffiti-art (noticed I did use the word “art,” because it is). A few years ago the new prime minister of Denmark vowed to start regulating Christiania and the police came in, there were riots, people were arrested, Christiania won for a while, then lost again, then won, and most recently have kinda lost. The police announced about a year ago that they would start patrolling the streets of Christiania (and by patrolling they mean walking through with automatic weapons and riot gear) a couple times a day and that they didn’t want to see any drugs being sold on the street. So in response, some people put camo-drapes over their hash stands. Pretty humorous but it didn’t last long and now for the most part drugs aren’t widely seen there, though I’m pretty sure at least hash is fairly widely smoked. The Wikipedia site on Christiania has a lot of info too, so check it out. Anyway, I walked rode my bike and parked it outside the walls and wandered in. I found a falafel stand there and bought one for 20 kroner, which is like 4 bucks, by far the cheapest meal I’d bought in all of Denmark. I walked around for a while, taking in the scenery and people standing around at rusted 50-gallon oil drums that had fires going in them. I sat down at a pretty neat carved bench for a while and watched the people walking around with their dogs and some of the residents even looked kinda normal though most had dreadlocks and looked like a mix between a grunge, a goth and an anarchist. Then I walked around along the lake there and it was really cool to see the halls of the Danish Parliament not a kilometer away or the brand new opera house off in the distance. Later, I went back to Tess’s place and turned on the inauguration just before she got back. Ben came down a little later and we ate some burgers, drink some MGD, Tuborg, Hoegarden, and Carlsberg and watched the U.S. get a new president! It was so weird to see that Obama actually got swarn in. I had this feeling ever since he got elected that it was too good to be true, that he would be shot or something before he was able to take office. I was so happy, and so were my cousins. Ben and I got pretty tanked as we played a little f the dealer and actually Ben was really shwasted when he left. Then Tess and I stayed up talking for a while until sometime after midnight when she went to bed and I watched a little more TV.

Wednesday was my last full day in Copenhagen and I made the most of it. I got up and threw a bunch of my stuff in my big backpack so I wouldn’t have to pack as much later and then headed out on my bike to downtown. I ended up at a museum called the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek which was created by the founder of Carlsberg beer. Way back when Carl Johansen (or whatever his last name was) was one of the richest men in Copenhagen and he collected art like few others. He went on big trips through France, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Greece, you name it, and collected tons of art. At one point he decided to put up this big museum to house his art and it’s pretty wide ranging. There’s a lot of Greek, Egyptian, Roman, and Byzantine art and being the ancient history buff that I am I got a kick out of all the Roman stuff, especially as there were rooms and rooms of it. I also saw a large number of Rodins and quite a few impressionist works too, mostly Gaughin. They love him in Denmark as he was married to a Dane and lived in Copenhagen for a few years. Anyway, I spent a number of hours there and then headed out and parked my bike near the big round tower. I was jonesing for some coffee so I went walking around the walking street and ended up in this café I had been to two years ago (though this time it was by accident). I remember the food was really good but at 13 bucks a sandwich I’ll just have my coffee. There were a couple cute German girls sitting at a table next to me but they seemed pretty snobby so I didn’t hang around too long.

I wandered around the walking street some more and started to realize this was the last time I was going to see Copenhagen for at least 3 years. Probably more. That area isn’t my favorite part (no, that would be reserved for Christiania, or maybe some of the side streets from the walking street like where the Moose is) but it’s still kinda cool to walk around in. It’s always interesting to see how old cities adapt to modern times. I met up with Ben around 5ish and we wandered around before deciding on going to a pretty good burger hut for dinner. It definitely wasn’t an American burger but it was probably the best one I’ve had in Denmark. It’s so hard to describe the subtle differences but they’re there, they’re persistent, and they’re somewhat distracting. Tess met up with us there sometime around 7ish and then after that we went to the Moose for some drinks…which turned in to many drinks. I was enjoying some Jacobsens (a brown ale) and then I decided it was time for Ben to try a Jaegerbomb. They don’t have Red Bull in Denmark (it’s illegal) so we asked what type of energy drink they had and it was some raspberry flavored one so I said that was good and we bombed away. We also played some drunk driver, some f the dealer, and a little of some dice game. After we were all feeling pretty gone we decided to take some pictures of the three of us, one-arm-out-holding-the-camera style. What was originally a group picture turned into 40 (seriously, I still have them). After the first couple we started saying stuff like “Hawaiian!” and then throwing up a hang-ten; “Japanese,” peace sign-age; “Russian” giving a low brow and looking stern; “Swedish!” and then looking retarded. Around midnight we decided to head out because Tess had work, Ben had school, and I had a plane to catch the next morning. We said goodbye which was kinda sad as I had no idea when I would see Ben again and then Tess and I went back to her place where I finished packing, drank some water, and went to sleep. The next morning wasn’t too special, nor were my flights, though I will suggest you try to find a flight that only has one connection when flying oversees—any more than that is a real pain in the ass.

My trip to Denmark was much different than the other ones I’ve done. On one hand I feel like I didn’t do as much but when I look back on it I actually did. I think I felt that way because I wasn’t constantly on a go-go-go mentality like I was the last couple times I was in Europe, which is fine with me. This trip was to visit with my cousins who I won’t see for a while. Next time I go back to Scandinavia I think it’ll be just a few days stop in Copenhagen and then on to somewhere else.