Jeg vil gerne ride min cykel  

Posted by Colin Fahy

Classes got underway and I like it. Learning another language is fun. I'm too delayed in posting this to remember what I may have had to say, so lets just get to the pictures.

Us Californians had our own fourth of july barbeque.

I couldn't take the waiting anymore on the danish version of craigslist, and just went to a used bike store and bought a cheap bike. It was 600 kroner and he gave me a free lock. It's the BEST.
And the chain only fell off once on the ride home!

Drunkenly walking home from something. There were a couple nights of going to the bars with no pictures. They generally end with walking home in the morning sun such as in this picture.

The Jazz Festival. It was going on for 9 days in Copenhagen, at various locations throughout the day. Herbie Hancock was playing at it, but I missed it. I caught a couple different performances. It was good music, but nothing to write home about.

This is another delicious sandwich. That's all I have to say about that.


Daaayuuumm!
It's actually identical to a skor bar, but still delicious.

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Smagen af ost  

Posted by Colin Fahy

More walking around downtown let me discover some new things (although mostly food).

These were delicious 'ribs,' or currants, from a fruit stand.

There were mysterious brown bags being sold by a guy with a giant bowl shaped stove. I had to buy one. They turned out to be delicious coated and roasted almonds.

These little buggers are everywhere. They make the sound of Boo from Super Mario. (for your reference) It can be creepy when that sound is coming from all sides. Just make sure not to look away, thats when they come and get you.

Taste of Cheese

The only food here is Shawarma, hot dogs, and pizza. They pizza is very good and quite cheap. I ordered a slice of pizza for 22 kr. They handed me exactly half a pizza and folded it in half.

The most famous thing in all of Denmark, The Little Mermaid, is in Shanghai right now. In its place they put a live streaming video of Ariel's current resting place.


Danish icecream. With whipped cream and warm marmalade on top. You have to tell them how many 'kugle' you want. Kugler is also the word for balls. As in I've got two scoops in my pants.

King Frederick. Every king is either named Frederick or Christian. His head is covered in bird shit.

Traditional danish pølse. They are dyed bright red. You eat it by itself with mustard, this delicious spicy ketchep that is a million times better than our ketchup, or remoulade. Alternating bites of sausage and bites of bun.

Peruvian pan-flute bands? A very cheesy tourist attraction, synth drum beats and backgrounds that they played panflute over with an echo affect to make it sound super fake and overproduced. But they wore pretty feathers.

A Fransk Hot-dog. This is a bun with a hole drilled through the center of one side. They squirt sauce inside it and then push the hot-dog in.

Carlsberg had a big fancy house that he stored all is stuff in. Now its a big museum. Everything in the country is owned by Carlsberg. And every building is a mansion/castle.


It was quite creepy being alone in the basement of this mansion surrounded by sarcophogi in dead silence save the faint sound of people screaming. The museum is next to the amusement park.

Those are birds with faces and a pair of balls.

I met Crissy at the first day orientation (the other girl that missed the first day of class, oops.) She knew of a house party that night her friend was throwing for the international students that were going back home.
Again, the party didn't really start until after midnight. We left at about 5 because we had class at 9:00, and we needed to show up early and make sure everything was alright because we missed the first day.
Most the trains are running 24 hours, but the one train we needed was not running at the time. So we stayed and drunkenly harassed the 7-11 cashier for an hour. He gave us some free stuff which was nice.

I wake up on the train, Crissy is asleep. I look up and notice the place we started is two stops away. We had gone all the way around, when we really only needed to take the train 3 stops. A security guard comes by to check our tickets. Disoriented I freak out because I didn't remember buying a ticket and I hand him my old one. Luckily Crissy points out that I gave him the wrong ticket, I reach in my pocket to find the new one.

I didn't want her to have to walk home by herself, so I end up crashing at her place at 7:30. It would have taken me 2 hours to walk home and back to class by that point. We are both half an hour late to our second day of class. But everything worked out fine.

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Hygge  

Posted by Colin Fahy

Knowing nobody and with roommates that are never around I figured I should just try to find the party on my own Friday night. Reading about the bars online I found that there was going to be a free show of this band that was described as electronic with a middle eastern sound at this one bar that was about an hour and 15 minute walk away. (Yes, there is excellent public transit, but I have all the time in the world and no reason to waste the 4 dollar equivalent per ticket.) The Danes don't party until midnight. Although they might hang out at a relaxed bar for some hygge before that. Hygge is an untranslatable word, seems to be like a state of content, or relaxed quiet happiness. I left at around 10:30. Some of that blue before I left and an elephant(7.2% beer) for the walk equals tipsy trying to find this bar. I heard some loud bass coming from blocks away and thought perhaps that could be it. But when I checked it out knew it could not be the bar I was looking for, this was an outside party. I kept walking and found the place. Went inside to find 4 people sitting at the bar, and one DJ. He was playing some pretty good music, but this was obviously not what I was looking for. The four people clearly all friends moved over to the couch section and I got out of there. Regrouped with a falafel across the street, watching a british movie featuring(but not starring) that guy from Crank and etc. Between the heavy accents and the Danish subtitles I could not understand a word except `bob´ which was said about every sentence.
After much consideration, I decided to head back to the place with the bumpin music. It had a 60 kroner entrance fee, about 10 dollars. It was definitely worth it.
It turned out to be a reggae show. I bought two Tuborg Golds which set me back 40 kroner, you don't have to tip bartenders in Denmark, and hit the dancefloor. The German reggae dj just arrived at the same time. Although he really wasn't a dj. There was a dj behind playing many recognizable reggae and dub dance songs, and the shaved head German guy just stood up front with a big smile on his face and told us what dance moves to do. This included:
(you can imagine all these in a German reggae voice)
'Put your two hands in the air'
'Put your one hand in the air, and move it from the left, to the right. Left. Right. Left. Right.'
'Lighter! Lighter! Fire! Fire!'
'Helikopter! Helikopter!' (This one is where you put one hand in the air and spin it around)
'Put up your ten fingers for (Denmark, Africa, etc.)'
'Gunfinger! Gunfinger! Let me see your Gunfinger!' (This is where you make a gun out of your hand. Possibly shoot at something or someone?)
And people would actually do these moves like they were legitimate dance moves. At least for about 10 secs after he said it.

It of course had about 15 minutes of clips from all of Bob Marleys top hits. Some Michael Jackson? Just because they love him I guess. Other wonderful nineties hits like Nirvana. And was so much fun!!
I did not make any friends there, you couldn't really talk over the music. I did dance to thriller with the cutest danish girl there though, but she lost interest quickly.
The party ended at 5, long after the sun was up. This guy had just handed me his bottle of Smirnoff a couple times, which was not really the best timing, but certainly made the hour walk home easier. It is quite nice to be able to walk home from a party in the warm morning sun.

Some girl put this sticker on me.
Apparently it is a clothing brand. Not nearly as exciting as I had hoped.

I slept most the next day. My ears still ringing for over 24 hours afterwards.

I bought lunch from the sandwich cart guy close to my apartment.
Delicious cured salmon sandwich, of course with dill sauce. And a Faxe Kondi. Its a clear soda much like sprite, but way better. Coke and Faxe Kondi are definitely the two most popular soda drinks here.

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Somersby  

Posted by Colin Fahy

After a day of mostly sleeping off jetlag, I went exploring. It is an hour and half walk downtown. Clearly I am out of shape, at least my legs are. But this is just a taste of the walking I have yet to come in my stay here.
Downtown is a street named Strøget. It is the longest shopping mall in Europe. Mostly it is a tourist attraction. It has McDonalds and Burger King and Ben and Jerrys. But it is not just for touristes. I was mistaken for a Dane twice by people my age with pamphlets trying to get my signature or get me to vote for something was my guess. Once they realized I wasnt Danish they just left me alone though. The most popular food here seems to be Shawarma. There was a shawarma place about every 4 stores on this street, and they are also all over town. So of course I had to have one. It was delicious, but nothing new. Except they have the most delicious thick hot chili sauce. And to think the last thing I did in Santa Cruz was get a falafel thinking that was the food I would miss.
Apparently this dude carved Zealand off from the rest of Sweden.
After another couple hours of aimless walking I was lost. I stumbled upon the changing of the guards.
I like that there are normal police protecting the guards. The police were really friendly.

When you have the highest taxes in the world and no army to waste money on, you can afford to spend tax payers money on purposeless guards, with their own police to guard the guards.
Walking home, my legs completely sore, still an hour from home, I decide I should stop at the 7-11 for snacks and a refreshing drink. (7-11 is everywhere here)
They had many chips. (Fun Fact: French fries are pomme frites, but potato chips are Fransk Kartofler, French Potatoes) But of course I had to decide upon Jøorgens favorit mix, which had all the best ones together, and smelled like poop. Straight up poop. But tasted delicious.
Somersby with cranberry looked like a delicious cranberry drink. After downing half the can in one gulp I realized it had an odd yet familiar taste. This delicious and refreshing apple cider is 4.7% alcohol. The cider here is amazing.

First grocery store purchase. The store is huge and confusing as hell. But I had to get some more chips, the weirdest alcohol I could find (small blue) and some staples to hold me over, bananas bread and jordbær marmalade.
Breakfast at the mall foodcourt. This has been the best thing I have eaten thus far. Vegetarian bagel sandwich with dill sauce. The assortment of vegetables they have is amazing, and definitely somewhat pickled. And to think this was right next to another burger king and kfc.
This giant windmill is right by my apartment. When I see it I feel like I am close to home, but in reality I am still over a half hour walk away.
I kept seeing people wearing these white hats. Then one day I saw them all gathering up near my apartment and they took off in these trucks with beer in hand and screaming and honking all over town. After asking my flatmate she told me they are highschoolers that just graduated. I dont know how long they wear those white hats, I dont see as many of them anymore.

This is a trash can in the park next to my apartnment.

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The Voyage  

Posted by Colin Fahy

I hate flying. But the trip was not that bad. The plane to Atlanta had a touchscreen on the back of every seat with games and free tv. This was nice, since the battery in my noise-cancelling headphones was dead, and I realized I accidentally deleted half the songs on my ipod when trying to move them onto my laptop.(I would later buy AAA batteries for $6 at the airport and then figure out that the battery was just in upside down.) I asked the old lady next to me where she was headed and she told me Rome. I was excited for her, but realized a while later that there is a city close to Atlanta called Rome. She called Denmark a fairy land. Told me how the people there won't think twice to jump in a pool naked, but are very reserved when it comes to conversation and strangers.


At the Atlanta airport I took a subway to the opposite side of the airport in search of kroner. After waiting in line, I found out the guy immediately in front of me just purchased all the Danish Kroner they had left. The woman was not very helpful and only after my suggestion thought to call up one of the other currency exchange locations and ask if they had any. She also realized this was something she should have suggested to the guy in front of me who clearly wanted more than they had left. The other location also did not have any, but I was not convinced and decided to try one of the many other locations. The place I tried did have some, but only 300 Kr. (about $50) I took it and paid $64 for it, when she realized the other teller at this location had more on her side. I switched sides with the promise that I could get more without paying a second fee, but after calling her supervisor and a long wait she told me they cannot charge my credit card twice. My plane was about to leave so I decided to just stick with what I had. It was enough for a meal and public transportation.

Long sleepless flight. Free beer/wine. 3 terrible movies. And a little danish kid who slept the entire way and likes to kick and put his feet on my lap in his sleep.

The first thing I see upon landing is windmills. It was easy enough to get a train ticket, my apartment was very close to the airport. Just the second stop on the train and a 5 minute walk. But finding the place took forever. They don't really have street numbers in Denmark. The address I had was just the name of the street. After asking people who were no help, I realized it had to be the building that looked like people could live in it. Everything else looked like giant business buildings.
But it is protected by a moat.
Luckily, there is a bridge.


This is my room:




I have two flatmates, Camilla and William, both Danish. One just went on vacation for summer. The other does not seem to be around much. The fourth room is yet to be filled.

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