Booboo Magoo

There is just WAY too much stuff to say about our trip to Denmark for one post, so I’m gonna break it down by day. Here’s Day One!
Wednesday, June 30
For some reason when we booked the flight to Copenhagen, we thought 8am was a great time to fly out of London. And on paper, it sounds great, but when you actually do the math – be there minimum of one hour prior to departure, train from London center to Gatwick takes 30 minutes, it’s a 15 minute walk to the train station…it basically means getting up at 4:30am to catch the flight. Which is the SUCK. We flew Easyjet, which is pretty much known for being cheap but not exactly awesome, and that was pretty much our experience. We got to Gatwick, and the line to check in was about a bazillion years long. Basically, nobody made it to the front of the line in time for their flight. Everyone just stood in a line that moved super slowly, and when it got close to your flight time, an Easyjet employee went around yelling your destination city, and everyone going to that destination stepped out of line and was served next. The flight itself was pretty uneventful – it is a budget airline with seats that don’t recline and no in-flight entertainment, save for the comedy-show stylings of safety announcement attendant.
Easyjet is super proud to announce that they’ve gotten us into Copenhagen an astounding 5 minutes early. Unfortunately, there is a snafu with everyone’s baggage, and the baggage is another 90 minutes later hitting the carosaul. So, we got to wait 95 minutes instead of 90 for luggage. The highlight of the airport wait is listening to a woman chastise her son, Dingus, for playing with the luggage carosaul. Yeah, you read that right…Dingus. There is a 3 year old child somewhere named Dingus. Ha ha. Dingus.
Anyway, once we had our luggage, we realized the second bit of folley to our GET TO DENMARK SUPER EARLY PLAN – we can’t check into the hotel until 2pm. We take the Metro to central Copenhagen and walk around for a bit. I get to experience Danish drunk food for lunch, even though it is only noon and I am nowhere near drunk. Basically, Danish drunk food is a bagette with one end cut off and a hole cored in the middle. Then they squirt in your choice of toppings and jam in a hot dog. A bacon-wrapped hot dog, if that is your wish. I approve of this.

We kill a bit more time taking photos by a fountain in the main square. We tried to get a couple picture, but people kept walking in front of the camera right before it snapped, or Mike was too slow getting it balanced, or it fell over…basically, couple photo just wasn’t meant to be at that time.

Finally it is time to check into our hotel, and we love our room. It is lovely and has a huge big king-sized bed that is super comfy. It’s also done in a purple and white color scheme, which I love. We had a quick nap and a shower, then hit the town again, this time without big heavy bags.
For some reason, we decide to eat Mexican food. In Copenhagen. It is gross. Advice: don’t eat Mexican food in Copenhagen.
We walk around a harbour area. It looks like pictures of Newfoundland

After a while, we stop for a drink (I have water. Mike has beer). We also buy a bag of the local delicacy, salty liquorice. It’s actually pretty good!

We walk around some more, then finally settle in to a pub. Mike has a beer and gets me to try the local party shot, sma gra, which is salty liquorice dissolved in vodka. I know, right? Sounds vile. I love it and decide it needs to be poured over ice and sipped like scotch.

We ended up sitting with a middle-aged guy from Texas for a while after this, shooting the shit. His name was Mark. He worked for an oil company who had offices in Denmark, and was out on business (read: alone). Seemed like a nice guy.
Danish people are, in general, all tall, thin and blonde. I think it’s because they bike everywhere. Pretty much every street in Copenhagen has a separate biking lane, and even young children (think, like, 6) bike on city streets. They also all speak English, in general, and all of the signage is in both Danish and English, which is handy, because I don’t speak Danish. They all seem to know that Mike won’t speak Danish and address him in English, but think I am Danish, which is weird because although blonde, I am not tall and thin.
By now it was night, and even though we’d had naps, we were still pretty tired, so we headed back to the hotel. The square was much quieter though, and we managed to get a couple photo by the Fountain.

I read for a while at the hotel while Mike watched stuff on his iPod, then we crashed for the night.

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