Copenhagen

Day one of real hard-core backpacking and my first thought, my feet freaking hurt. That being said, today was amazing. Copenhagen is this strange and sensational city where bicycles seem to out-number people (which clearly makes no sense), and the artchitecture is beautifully old, but modern high fashion roams the streets.

The finals for the European triathalon took place when I arrived so I snapped a few photos with the cyclists behind me and was suitably impressed w. their muscles. Then I bumped into the french mother of the woman who came first for the french in the women's final, we chatted (en francais bien sur) and she took pictures of me and these crazy painted cows that are all over the city..I keep trying to find the deeper meaning behind these very art nouveau cows...turns out they may just advertising for chocolate. But are seriously trippy anyways.

I walked out the city center and met up w. some Danes who kindly informed me that German is a hated language here, immediately switched to English. I joined them for their "Monopoly Game" (where they drank a Heinekin in every pub and got a "house" for it)the basis for my joining being free beer, which tastes surprisingly better when tired and foot-sore. Happy hour in Denmark begins at 11am, no joke.

Then I rode around in this insane bike-taxi driven by a Portugese guy into Cristiania, an alternative, fully bohemian community formed in the 70's. No cars, little sugar-shack houses build from old army reserve bricks, old people (the original 70's hippies), little kids, business men, hard core anarchy punks....it didn't matter, they all mingled. I started chatting to this group of Danish punks who were contemplating commandering a paddle boat on the Cristiania lake...we savored the view and swapped stories in a very unreal bohemian setting; I would love to say I have pictures of this place to show you all what it was like (its also totally self-sufficient and they recycles everything, periodically theres a "give and take" clothes box, everything is swapped, resused, transformed some how) but photos are forbidden to protect the privacy of the people living there, so hopefully my descriptions will do.

At night I checked into the Tavoli amusement park, in the heart of Copenhagen where hundreds of fairy lights lit up people dancing to the big band. The fireworks were exploding like spiders across the stars.

Now, back at hostel, it's 1am. Dead tired, ready to sleep, because tomorrow is the little mermaid, more Copenhagen, back to Hamburg on route to Amsterdam to pick up my raincoat which I, like an idiot, left at Danas. Then on to the night train to Brussels for some R and R...and finally, AMSTERDAM.

I'll fill you in on what I remember. Ha, kidding parents!
Cheers,
Petra

PS - If you get a chance, visit Copenhagen, totally worth seeing. But bring an mp3 player or earplugs because sleeping in a mixed dorm w. 60 people and carboard beds is anything but easy. Thank god I brought a sleeping bag and linens, that's all I can say.