Denmark
August 27, 2017
After a two and a half hour delay in Portland and two long flights, we finally made it to Copenhagen. It was an easy train ride into the hotel; however, we were unable to get an early check-in. As usual, I had zero sleep for the past 18 hours of travel and was hoping to get some sleep right away. After three hours of hanging in the lobby, we were able to get our room and then two hours of sleep.
After a two and a half hour delay in Portland and two long flights, we finally made it to Copenhagen. It was an easy train ride into the hotel; however, we were unable to get an early check-in. As usual, I had zero sleep for the past 18 hours of travel and was hoping to get some sleep right away. After three hours of hanging in the lobby, we were able to get our room and then two hours of sleep.
Our first event was a free walking tour that was advertised as a tour of Christiania (a large, eclectic, hippie commune). However, I was surprised when he said we didn't actually go into Christiania at all. Apparently the people who live there had complained about the tour groups staring at them like zoo animals. So we walked around the canals and ended the tour at the outskirts of Christiania instead. Freetown Christiania was originally a squatted military area back in the early 1970's with artists and other displaced persons. Over time, it became best known as an area that you can buy drugs. However, they supposedly only do soft drugs, and they disdain drugs like heroin and meth. The main road is called "Pusher Street" and you can buy hash and many varieties of pot. There are booths that line the street (like kiosks) with the product all lined up so you can "shop". Although drugs are not legal, they are tolerated. What is not tolerated in Christiania is taking anyone's picture on Pusher Street. You can take all the photos you want away from that area.... Multicolored graffitied walls, strange sculptures and peculiar-looking people. You just can't take photos of anyone selling drugs.
The whole area was colorful and vibrant. But since we live in Portland, it wasn't really all that different than our own neighborhood with the marijuana dispensaries and unconventional people!
The best part of the day was meeting this very interesting woman named Ree. We met her at the walking tour and she was the only other American there (from CA). She was wearing a cap with 'Vilnius' written on the front and had just been in both Riga and Vilnius. She was quite the world-traveler. There was not a single country we named that she had not been to. Poland? Been there. Iceland? Been there. Salt Flats in Bolivia? Been there. Machu Picchu? Been there. Antarctica, Israel, Egypt, Japan, Vietnam, Jordan, New Zealand? Been there. Even when we asked her about Morocco she originally said she hadn't been there, but then she remembered she was just there two months ago! Every time we start to think that we are in the echelon of world travelers, we meet people that REALLY travel and we are just the amateurs. Anyway, we walked through Christiana and then on to what they call Paper Island... this busy waterfront food hall with hundreds of people. After getting food at one of the stalls, we had a VERY enjoyable night conversing with her in front of a bonfire about the world, politics, and life. Always in our travels, we meet so many kindred spirits.
Got up late and didn't leave the hotel until noon. We went to the really touristy area called Nyhavn with all the multicolored buildings lining both sides of the canals. It’s a big party area, and I took a great photo of a docked boat with the evidence of the previous night’s festivities.
Saw the Ai Weiwei exhibit with all the life preservers that the nearly 1.4 million refugees used when they fled their war-torn countries and headed to Europe. (We are in the worst refugee crisis since World War II, with 62 million displaced people).
I love the parking lot at the train station!
Afterwards, Robin wanted to see a neighborhood that was listed as trendy, but after walking 2 miles I'm not sure we ever reached it. We were just walking along a very busy main road. We eventually made our way over to the Torvhallerne area because they had a.... (drumroll, please).... Farmers Market.
The market was a permanent hall that had many ethnic food stalls. Robin was happy to have fresh Baltic Sea Fish and Chips.
When we got back to the hotel we had to sit in the lobby area to charge our phones (we had checked out hours ago) and we encountered a couple that really embodied the phrase "ugly American". They were talking to two Norwegian men and evidently were talking about Trump when we walked in. The woman was especially obnoxious. She was loud, opinionated, and a total racist. I heard her talking about Hurricane Katrina (because Hurricane Harvey is happening right now) and she said Katrina was a "cleansing that New Orleans needed". She talked about some general that Trump agrees with about "mowing down all the Muslims" and the fake news outlets like CNN jumped all over "poor Trump" for it. She also said that Trump was doing a great job and that the world again sees the US in a favorable light, (so NOT true, but people see what they want to see). She said she was grateful that she no longer had to look at that "hideous face" of Hillary Clinton. She told them she didn't know how the polls had Clinton winning since everyone in Florida (where she lives) had a Trump sign in their yard. We were in a separate area of the lobby, but she was so loud that you could hear everything she said. She told the two Norwegians that she was glad that they could "see the forest for the trees". I had to walk through the room at one point to get a newspaper and she was telling them "the worst decision the US ever made was giving women the right to vote"! I turned around and shot her a look (WTF!) and shook my head in disbelief but she didn't even notice. One of the Norwegian men smiled at me. I have a feeling they were not as like-minded as she believed. Contrast her to the wonderful well-traveled Ree that we met the day before and it was certainly night and day. Thankfully, in my 30+ countries, I've never encountered anyone like her. To assume that people think like you think is supremely arrogant, especially in a very progressive Scandinavian country. Plus, I wouldn't talk that way with people I didn't know even if I thought they were like-minded. I guess when you’re a proud racist, you let your racist flag fly.
BACK IN DENMARK
September 4, 2017
Flew back to Copenhagen after being in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Since the last time we were here, it is as if it has moved from summer to winter. I'm not sure it even made it to 60 today.
Flew back to Copenhagen after being in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Since the last time we were here, it is as if it has moved from summer to winter. I'm not sure it even made it to 60 today.
We are on the 24th floor of a beautiful Crowne Plaza hotel near the airport. We had every intention of taking the train to Malmö and spending the afternoon in Sweden. It's so close. I've been to Stockholm, but not Malmö.
But we were starving and so we went to the giant mall next to the hotel for lunch. It ended up being a whopping $71 for a chicken Caesar and a Club sandwich! We decided not to go to Malmö with $25 train rides each way, as well as several hours of walking (plus it is cold!)
So we actually went to a movie... American Made (true story about Medellin cartel, contras and CIA). We were the only ones there besides 2 other people. Today was probably our most expensive day. The movie was $28, and dinner was $44. Denmark is expensive like the rest of Scandinavia (as well as Iceland). We are also both tired from all the walking.
So gearing up for 20+ hours of travel. Ugh! Wish they could just knock me out and I wake up in Portland. Nonetheless, this has been another fantastic trip. I'm so appreciative of the opportunity to travel and am already planning where to go next year!