Hey, It's Ice Cream, No, Not Coke

August 12, 2010

Before I came here, I told Eva that she did not need to take any time off work because I would need at least a day to wander around town looking at the tediously touristy sights that I was sure she did not feel the need to see again. Still, she took off a day and a half, which was very kind. The first half of this day was the part where she was still at work.

While she got up for work at 5:30 a.m. (I did not even notice this happening), I did not wake up until about 8:00 a.m. I am somewhat surprised at myself that after years of hardly ever even changing more than 2 zip codes over, I have been waking up in a different place every 1-3 nights and it does not feel so unusual or disruptive. I am also somewhat surprised and disturbed that my sleeping problems over the last year or two do not seem to have gone away. I held myself over for breakfast with a handful of All Bran spilled into my hand (after years of not eating it, I forgot that I used to enjoy cereal very much), slid past the small dog that sits outside the door to the garage, the attic of which I am staying in, and got on the bus and then train for the approximately hour long journey from Eva´s place in the suburbs to Copenhagen. I got off at Norrebro Station.

And I followed a very good suggestion to try out Ricco´s Coffee, supposedly the best coffee place in Copenhagen (I did not go to the Vestbro location, however, because it was not convenient for what I would be doing that day). It was very good coffee, but then again, a lot of the coffee I´ve had (not all!) has been pretty bad or at least just not what I had in mind, so this was a welcome change. And a croissant. There was a guy working there who seemed to be American, had tattoos on his face and was very loud. At first I felt envious of this guy´s ability to just pick up and move somewhere else and become integrated into the society, but then I realized that he had failed to transcend his typically American loudness so maybe he wasn´t so impressive after all.

From there, I walked to the National Museum, and guess what, it was probably my favorite museum experience of the trip so far. First of all, it was free. Second, I mostly stuck around an exhibit about prehistoric Denmark, which had all these super awesome artifacts like flint and bronze tools, swords from the B.C. days, an ancient ship, some dead peoples skeletons that had been buried, remains of some peoples´clothing, some old rocks, and best of all, very clear and thorough explanations in English for everything, as well as for the evolution of human culture in that region from the hundreds of thousands of years ago days through about 500 A.D.

Then I bought another hot dog, this time of a slightly different variety than the one I bought the night before, and from the currywurst I had the previous afternoon in Bremen train station.

And then, the Rundetaarn (Round Tower). In central Copenhagen, it´s a major touristy attraction. Instead of a narrow spiral staircase as in most of the cathedrals, it has a wide spiraling incline on the inside that makes it easier to walk. I kept thinking that it would be fun to ride a bike up it. Fun or maybe I´m getting too ambitious. Halfway up the tower there was an exhibit for the African artist Tingtinga (who apparently is much less famous than I had imagined -- it took me forever just to find this link on him).
Here is a picture from the top of the Round Tower:

Here is a picture of the interior (see how the floor curves):

I walked from there to the Rosenborg Slot (Rosenborg Castle), which was heavily guarded buy Danish dudes in military uniforms. Because the entry was expensive, I decided to not go in and instead sit in the huge park outside and read.

I met up with Eva for lunch and the following things happened:

1) I ordered the "American Burger" and it had jalepenos, salsa and guacamole on it and it was served with nachos. Tasted good but didn't seem particularly U.S.A.

2) There was a pigeon who kept flying inside and going crazy!

3) It started raining very heavily outside.

4) A waitress carrying milk bumped into our waiter and spilled milk everywhere.

Really good lunch though.

Eva and I then walked to where she gets haircuts (from an Icelandic lady) and I got one. Here is a picture of me before the haircut (the after picture is later):

We followed this with a drink at the Irish Rover (I tried the cider/Guinness combo recommended by the guy I met on the train from Copenhagen --not bad), and started to notice that there seemed to be a lot of Navy types in town although we couldn't figure out which Navy.

After this an ice cream -- since everyone in Copenhagen seems to be eating ice cream all the time, even if it is raining (which it was).

Finally, we met up with my friend Anders, whom I met 14 years ago as a junior in high school, and haven't seen since the end of that year. There was some catching up to do. Good to see you Anders! Here he is (also serves as an "after" haircut photo:

Fiery Furnaces -- Tropical Iceland