Denmark, and the Little Mermaid, Part II

I headed back to Denmark, excited to meet up with my buddies from California for a quick warmup lap before heading out to Amsterdam and Munich for Oktoberfest.

Copenhagen, as with most of Scandinavia, is quite expensive, and I am happy to report that from this point forward, things will get cheaper as I head towards Germany, Greece, Turkey, Africa, S. America....etc. etc.. But if there is a place I would return to again to actually live and work outside of the US (besides Spain and Hong Kong,) Copenhagen would be at the top of my list. I had a conversation with a local and she mentioned that the unemployment rate in Denmark is 1.4%, and that is not only considered high, but the majority of that 1.4% choose to stay unemployed. The social welfare system here is quite generous, apparently. Given that people at McDonalds make $20/hour, I was curious what kind of jobs were available. I quickly found a gig from a technology company (salesforce.com) which had an open requisition for an account representative that I could easily qualify for..... but I read the list of job responsibilities, and returning to a 9-5 schedule at this point in my trip would make no sense. But for the record, Copenhagen is a beautiful city that I would come back to and can see myself living in. For those of you who go to Europe thinking London, Paris and Rome is the ideal two-week vacation, try to squeeze in Copenhagen for a few days as I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

My time in Denmark was a blast-- had the chance to see Snoop Dogg in concert. We arrived a couple of hours early and luckily found our way to the front of the stage. I have never been that close before for ANY concert so this was a definite highlight for me. In the US, you'd have to line up early in the morning to get into our position, but apparently Snoop (and hip hop in general) is not that popular in Denmark. The funny thing about the set he went through is that everybody knew all his new stuff, but when he busted out Gin and Juice or anything from his first or second album, I think only Ron and I were the only ones singing along! I looked around me and everybody looked like they were still in high school!

Another highlight was getting lost one day and subsequently having what I would call a perfect travel day. I stumbled into a bakery (Lagkagehuset) filled with tons of baked goodies and desserts. I then walked down a main street and saw a restaurant just packed with people. Curious, I stepped inside to take a look at their menu and it was only about $15 for a vegetarian buffet-- took a look inside and it was a pretty good looking spread. Well lemme tell ya, if there was ever a time I would consider being a vegetarian for the rest of my life, it was after having that meal at Riz Raz. After that meal, I walked over to the Marble Cathedral for a free live classical concert I had read about earlier in the day. Listening to that kind of music with those kind of acoustics in a setting as inspiring as a cathedral definitely stirred my soul. I thought to myself that I could very well have died and gone to heaven. When I told Ron about the two places I ate at, he told me those were the most popular places to eat! And to think it all just happened because I got lost. Never underestimate the power of getting lost and going with what your gut tells you, or in my case, your stomach!

My friends from LA arrived on the 10th, and were ready to rock. I have been excited to see these guys for quite awhile, since two of them are getting married and I probably won't get the chance to see, much less beer with them again. We headed out one night to a club, Emma. On our way there, we met a Danish soldier in his full uniform on the train ride into town. We were passing our pre-party bottle of rum and coke around, and I stuck to my shampoo bottle of vodka. He kept refusing at first but then he started telling us that he works 25 hour shifts, 7 days a week yadda yadda yadda. Soonafter telling us this, we offered our rum and coke to him again and he said, "I don't want that... I want THAT!" and pointed directly at my shampoo bottle. Needless to say, we got him pretty drunk prior to showing up for his guard duty. I was a bit concerned though, because he polished off half of my bottle and he said, "If they ask me if I have been drinking I will tell them yes, that I have been drinking vodka out of a shampoo bottle and they will understand that I could not refuse." We took a picture of him drinking as well, and shortly after it sounded like he dropped a gun out of his bag. At that point, I turned to my friend Mike because he heard the same thing and looked a bit concerned. I told Mike under my breath, "Looks like fun time's over. He's going to kill us now for taking that picture!!!"

From Denmark Part II

Club Emma was fun-- Long Islands cost about $30, not so fun. We did, however, meet a couple of Danish girls, Louise and Melissa, who were both incredibly hilarious. When I asked Melissa what happened to her bell on her pink bike and she said, "I don't need a bell, I just say 'Move bitch!'" Classic! And they say that Danish people are reserved.....

I labelled my first post in Denmark and the Little Mermaid, Part I, because I knew there would be a Part II with my friends in town. When I told my friends that I took a picture with my hand on her boob, it was a given that we would have to take another picture, this time with all of us violating her! I don't have that picture yet since my friends took it, but will definitely upload it later. Good times!!