Denmark, and the Little Mermaid, Part I

I arrived into Copenhagen from Helsinki, excited at the idea of staying with Ron, where a few more of my friends from California (hereinafter referred to as the A-Team) will rendezvous, where we will head out to Amsterdam on the 15th, rent a van and drive to Munich for Oktoberfest on the 19th, and somehow survive with our minds and livers intact. Sprinkle in a little Snoop Dogg concert on the 4th, and, well, I think September's going to be a pretty decent month!

It just so happened that Ron had a couple of other friends in town the day I arrived. One of them, Melanie, originally from the UK, but currently lives in LA, wanted to check out the Little Mermaid statue and the Royal Palace. As you all know by now, I am not necessarily keen on touristy things (nor do I ever read ahead of time about what to see and do) but I went along for the ride because you just never know what kind of fun you can get yourself into....

On our way, I saw this huge fountain with a woman whipping four huge bulls. I recalled thinking to myself, "Wow, this is surely a different Little Mermaid than what Disney would like us to believe...." and saying something outloud to Ron, "Dude, this Little Mermaid is whupping some serious bull ass!" Ron just kind of laughed a bit and we kept walking a bit. Then I asked him, "Where are we going now?" To which he responded, "To see the Little Mermaid, man!!" "Oh, you mean that woman whipping the bulls wasn't her.....????? Right." Such a sophisticated world traveller I am, eh?

Anyway, so we finally get to the real Little Mermaid after a few more paces. There were probably about 100+ tourists surrounding this statue, snapping away with their little cameras. I should have taken a picture of all these people taking a picture of a statue! I just found it a bit strange because, well, it's a very small statue. And it's not like she was some heroine who defended Denmark from Hitler (there wasn't one, I checked) or the lady who invented wooden clogs. It's a statue of a little mermaid, for crissakes! I guess the only interesting thing about the Little Mermaid, thankfully, is that it's perched on a few rocks just about a few feet off the shore. "Easily accessible," I thought to myself. I told Ron that I was going to jump on those rocks, and have him take a picture of me with my hand on her boob or something. Ron kind of laughed a bit and sort of rejected the idea that I would actually do something like that. He obviously does not know me that well. So I give him my wallet, cell phone, camera (just in case I slipped and fell into the sea) and hop over no problem (Still got it!!) I see Ron, he snaps the photo, and runs off into the crowd away from me! I finally catch up to him and the first thing he says is, "I can't believe you did that!!!"

"I told you I was going to do it, Ron!"

"Yeah, but I didn't think you were serious....As soon as you put your hand on her boob, I just heard the crowd breath in a collective sigh of astonishment, like so," as proceeds to demonstrate with his hand over his mouth.

"I wanted to take another picture, man!" I countered.

"Do you realize the Danish consider the Little Mermaid statue sorta like a national monument??" He states this, of course, AFTER the fact.

I paused for a bit. "Well, that's why I didn't go behind her and grab BOTH of her boobies!" Besides, the way I figured, if she was that important, they would have roped her off or something. After further consultation with Ron, the Danish do not need to rope things off to deter hooligans like me, they just know when something is ok and when it's not. Go figure!

All I know is, I hope it was as good for her as it was for me.