Booboo Magoo

Archive for the ‘Denmark’ Category

First thing Sunday morning, I got up and went for a walk/run. Mike had pointed out that Kastellet was shaped like a star, and well…IT NEEDED TO BE DONE!

After that, we showered and had some free hotel breakfast, then packed our bags and checked out. The hotel had a luggage room, and was nice enough to let us rent bikes for the day, so that’s what we did. We rode around pretty aimlessly – Copenhagen is amazingly set up for biking. I think I mentioned before that pretty much every road has a bike lane, and all of the drivers are super aware and super friendly to cyclists. It is pretty much the only time I’ve ridden on streets without being super nervous. The only problem I had was that the bike had back pedal brakes, and I appear to have a bad habit of backpedalling when I just want to coast, so I ended up accidentally stopping a few times. I actually managed to throw my hip out pretty badly by accidentally backpedalling. The good part of that was that it was still comfortable to sit and bike. Walking sucked though.

We managed to find Hans Christian Anderson’s grave. Lisa, lover of books, enjoys this.

Mike uses it as an excuse to rock out.

Then we went to the zoo. We tried to blend in with the monkey biography pictures. I am apparently a constipated monkey.

And Mike is a special-needs monkey.

We got bored of the zoo after a while, so we grabbed our last amazing Danish hot dogs, then went to check out Christiania. We don’t have any pictures from here because there are enormous signs that say NO PHOTO. Christiania…smells like Vancouver. I hope I’m not being too vague when I say that. It is very well known for smelling like Vancouver, but they are not fans of photographic evidence. We enjoyed a drink in Christiania, bought a super ugly sweater for me, and it was time to head back. We dropped off the bikes and grabbed our bags, then made it to the airport with plenty of time to wait in the long Easyjet line up. Only…there was no line up. We made it straight to the counter and checked in, then went through a security (Mike got extra screened for not having the sunscreen in a plastic bag). We sat around and enjoyed beers for a while. My back/hips were getting progressively worse by this point, so I tried to keep them loose with walking and leg swings and gentle stretching. I also took a painkiller, which I usually try to avoid.

The flight itself was pretty awful because of the backpain, but our luggage made it to the carousel quickly, and we had no problems with security. I ended up calling in sick on Monday and seeing a chiropractor. She popped my hip back into place. Since then, I’ve been in pain, but not as bad as before I saw her, and it’s been getting better and better all week. I hope to be able to be back to running again next week. Mike’s rash has all but vanished (thank god). We also came home to the news that my cousin/family friend/whatever Buddy and his girlfriend are coming to London and are going to stay with us for a few days, so hopefully we’ll get some interesting blog posts out of that. Viva la weekend!

We had decided that there wasn’t a band playing on Saturday or Sunday that we wanted to see more than we wanted to explore Copenhagen, so after we got up Saturday morning, we packed our stuff. Mike needed room for the gas masks, and we decided we could sacrifice our air mattress to make the space. I gave it to a group of guys who were still lying in their tent with no mattress beneath them. They seemed pretty stoked. We also had about 8 beer left that we didn’t want to haul, so I put on my grass skirt and leopard-ear headband and played beer fairy to a bunch of confused Danes. Their English was very strong, but they kept trying to reaffirm in different ways that the beer was, in fact, free. This was a baffling concept to them, but once they were sure they understood, they insisted on giving me hugs. Basically, dudes in every country can be won over quickly with beer.

We did the short walk to the busses, and made our way back to Copenhagen. We hung out for a bit until we could check in, making use of the hotel’s public computers to book and extra piece of checked luggage (tent) and check email/facebook. Then we had a brief nap. I’d slept pretty terribly the night before because I kept waking up convinced that my sleeping bag had pulled the skin off of my legs. Bad combination of sunburn and hot sweay, lotiony legs. It would only take me a brief second to realize that my legs were fine, just sunburnt, but still a terrible, panicky way to wake up. We cleaned up, then made our way to Tivoli Gardens, a rad ass amusement park. What can I say – Mike knows the way to my heart.

We don’t have too many photos because we put most of our stuff in a locker so we could RIDE THE RIDES. The rides were pretty awesome. It’s not the largest park I’ve ever been to, but the rollercoaster was awesome, and they had this plane ride that is all fast and loops around like you’re an insane WWI fighter pilot that was super rad. Here is one of me by the little garden on one end. You can KIND of see rides in the background.

Before moving on, we stopped for a relaxing beverage in a super ritzy looking patio. I had the most delicious chai tea latte I’ve ever had. It was so delicious that the first thing I did when I reached English soil and had mobile access was text Katy to tell her how delicious it was. So good.

Then we decided we needed a few couply photos.

It was right about this time that the man in the tutu started running around and swimming in the fountain behind us while all his friends cheered. In North America, that sort of behavior gets you evicted from theme parks. Not in Denmark. No security showed up. People just watched and clapped, and when he was done having his fun, he got out. We also noticed that the security restraints on the rides were…somewhat less restrictive. The really dangerous, upside down, crazy ones had 5 point harnesses and locking stuff, but we went on one roller coaster that was seriously just a lap bar like you’d see on a kiddie ride. No real danger – it didn’t go upsidedown or anything, but it just struck me that we are sometimes a little overzealous with the safety in North America. No one got hurt, no one did anything stupid. Was just fun for everyone.

After Tivoli, we went for all you can eat pizza and salad. Apparently all I can eat is two pieces and one salad, but that’s okay because it was pretty cheap. Only 89 Kroner! I loved the prices in Denmark. 100 Kroner is about £10 or $17 Cdn dollars, so you’d get bills for dinner that were comically large numbers – 180 Kroner for two people to eat pizza and have a soda, or 100 Kroner for a t-shirt. Also, you feel pretty rich carrying around bills with numbers like 500 on them.

We then went back to the hotel and crashed. Hard. The air mattress and tent were good as far as camping go, but it’s hard to beat a real bed.

We woke up on Friday and Mike’s rash had just gone insane. Bright red, all over his body, terrible, ugly rash, so we decided to get it looked at by the First Aid Tent. Consensus – sunburn heat rash. Apply Aftersun. He has asthma and breaks out in full body rash at the first hint of sunshine. HE’S TAKEN LADIES!

Anyway, we got him his aftersun, then did a whole lot of…nothing. Wandering around looking at stuff, and stopping to relax and read/watch stuff on iPod.

We walked around the main festival area too. Mike bought 3 WWII gas masks from a random tent. This was apparently a necessary purchase. I bought a grass skirt and a leopard-ears headband…so not exactly in a judgment space here. We seem to have forgotten that we had a camera, which is kind of okay because we didn’t really do anything. I did find this picture of us taken by a random Australian chick that tagged along with us for a while. I have no idea why Mike is being so creepy.

A little bit more hanging out (it was a vacation, we were RELAXING, yo), and it was time to see NOFX, the highlight of the whole festival for me. They were amazing and funny and awesome. We stayed mostly outside the tent. We weren’t scared of death – 9 people died from being crushed in 2000 at Roskilde, and the event was being super strict about not pushing and no body surfing and basically NO UNSAFE MONKEY BUSINESS. It just was way more relaxing to sit outside and enjoy the show and not get our ear drums blown out. Anyway, NOFX was amazing. Highly recommend.

After that we went back to the tent for our second night of tenting it.

After our fabulous sleep in the amazing hotel of awesomeness, we woke up bright and early and enjoyed our last civilized showers for a few days. We had noticed the day before that the hotel had bikes available for rental and decided to take a couple out for a spin. They are not the most amazing bikes ever, but they did the job. We rode around for about 2 hours taking in the sights of Copenhagen.
Here we are by another fountain.

All of Copenhagen looks like a real life Disney movie. Makes sense, it is the home of Hans Christian Anderson, who the Danes are pretty obsessed with. There are statues and whatnot of him everywhere.

Finally, we decided it was time to go to Roskilde. We caught the train at the Metro to the town of Roskilde, where I made Mike pose under the train sign. He was not terribly thrilled, but I maintain that someday, he’ll be happy I made him pose there.

From Roskilde the town there was the option to take another train or a bus to Roskilde the festival. We picked the train. We should have been a little bit suspicious when we saw that the train looked like the WWII trains used to haul people to concentration camps, but it was all nice and cute on the inside, even if I did have to use a luggage strap and a case of beer to keep the window open.

WE SHOULD HAVE PICKED THE BUS. It turns out that the train takes you to one entrance, and the bus takes you to a completely different entrance. On the opposite side of the festival. Where the tenting area is. Which is where we needed to be. Roughly 3.5 km if you know where you’re going, but if you’re us and DON’T know where you’re going, it’s more like 5 kms. Across uneven terrain. In the baking sun. While carrying all of your clothes and camping gear. Basically awful. Really and truly awful.
By the time we made it to the tenting area and got set up, we were ready to just chill the eff out. So we grabbed the bedsheet and headed to a nice grassy area near a lake and spent the afternoon drinking (me: coke zero, Mike: beer, both of us: water) and hanging out. I read Emma. Mike watched stuff on his iPod. Super chill. Super necessary.

After a while, we ventured off to get some food. Here is me by tent city, which was relatively close to the food. See how tent city looks shitty and terrible? Imagine that in food form, and you have the festival food. The best meal I had there was cheese and jam on a bun. I wish I was joking.

We found a human-sized hamster wheel. Mike tries it out.

We also notice that the small rash that started appearing the other day is getting worse. Here is the back of one of his arms. This was also on his legs and stomach, and was apparently very itchy.

Mike takes some antihistamines, and we go back to the lake, where we find some woman’s birth control. With one pill left. Are we seeing the start of a new little Roskilde Dingus?

We spent the rest of Thursday relaxing and exploring at our own relaxed pace, then crashed around when the sun went down.

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.