Weekend in Copenhagen, Denmark

From Denmark II

Friday at noon I went to my favorite cafe for my favorite sandwich (they only have 4 menu items) and ordered it to-go for the bus-boat-bus to Copenhagen. It's the same system I used to get to/from Copenhagen during my last visit. The boats are funny looking, as you can see in my pictures, and super duper fast.
The public transportation system (trains & buses) is widely used by the teenagers, and somewhat regular for adults as well. The teenagers bring their laptops everywhere. They talk in Danish, however 80-90% of the conversations will have some English terms. Sometimes mentioning people (Justin Timberlake), but usually it's a phrase and at that, mostly derogatory slang not to be repeated here. They pronounce these phrases with a perfect American accent... not a slightly British accent like the rest of their English speaking skills. So, I suppose the happiest country on earth lacks sufficient words to express "cool" derogatory slang.

My friend Nick met me at the bus station w/ his extra bike & we pedaled off to his place. Like last time, I had a bedroom in his landlord's place. She's in her late 60s or probably 70s, owns a large 4-story + basement house from the late 1800s, and she resides on the first floor. She seems a bit lonely, in the artsy/"intelligent social scene" (per her words), a smoker, and never cooks. She has a couple funny behaviors too. It's all tolerable for a short weekend stay by myself. Nick lives in the basement w/ a Danish roomate. After a trip to the store, we cooked a dinner in the landlord's kitchen, while she was at a party (she didn't mind). Pretty mellow evening & catching up.

Saturday I was off on my own at 9am. First stop, bageri (bakery) for a danish & OJ. Next rode my bike a couple blocks for the Carlsberg brewery tour. It's not as good as the Jack Daniels tour, but was still a worthy trip. It follows the history of beer in Denmark, starting from around 900 A.D. It ends in a nice large modern bar and the tour holder w/ a ticket for 2 free beers. Being the beer drinker I am not, I ordered a small taste of their Christmas label. I drank it while smelling yeasts from different items (banana, smoke, toasted bread, vanilla bean, etc.)... quite interesting. Half a glass later (that's all I wanted), dare I say it was decent for beer. It was the most beer I've ever had in my entire life.
After the 1/2 beer I followed the exit signs out of the bar, down some stairwell, and to a door that a lady was frantically knocking on. Apparently she had gone outside (for a smoke?), and the door was locked to return in. I let her in & went outside to the courtyard with gated sidewalk exit. I went and pushed on the 7-ft gates to exit & it didn't budge. Now I was locked outside in the courtyard (they lady was not locked out due to a smoke). It took some internal negociating before I hopped up a short stone wall, up to the 7 ft stone wall, and carefully belayed myself down w/ one hand on the gate, dropping the last couple feet to the sidewalk. Yep, I basically had to break out of the brewery! I think they must have forgotten to unlock the gate & I was one of the first people who wanted to leave that morning.

Nick & I met up for a lunch at a down-the-alley french place. It served all items on buckwheat pancakes (think crispy whole wheat crepes) and some unique apple cider. Good little find. Then I was off to Tivoli Gardens. Tivoli is usually closed after the summer, but it reopens for December for xmas festivities. It was really well decorated, very crowded, and cold. There were plenty of kids doing the rides, plenty of families in the restaurants and jolly-ness in the air. I browsed the xmas huts for items not to be lived w/out & didn't find much. Overall good experience, probably more fun w/ a friend though.

Sunday morning I boarded a train from the main station bound for Roskilde, the Viking age capital of Denmark. It's been on my Danish list of places to visit for their Viking Ship Museum. There was a great bakery in Roskilde... awesome danishes, rolls, and chocolate balls (eaten later). I walked through the still-sleeping town, and down to the Viking Museum. So much history is there! I was walking on a grassy hill, and there was an old town buried beneath the hill from 900-1000 A.D. The Viking ship museum was neat. The 5 ships that they had pieced together was only discoverd 60 years ago, sunken at the bottom of the fjord. In the Viking age they sunk ships to create water blockades to control a ship's path (for defensive purposes). After seeing some grown naked men jump into marina water of the outdoor museum, I headed back up to town.
Shops in Denmark are open on the first Sunday of the month, and they are closed on all other Sundays. Roskilde had some decent shopping. There was a great little cafe for lunch and even better people watching. There was a Santa Claus that was carrying a reindeer around, a Santa Claus winding a music box, boy's acapella group, boy's brass band, a xmas train for kids/families that was trucking around town, and plenty of festive people. Once all the shops started closing (3:30ish), I caught a train back to Copenhagen. After a little packing up and chatting, got on the bus to come "home".

It's good to be back to the holiday home. I'm finally used to being there by myself. I'm not freaking out at the creaks and pops that it makes at night. Still enjoying it!