my  block

where uzairs roam

I’m back. And the Chinese-American dude with the Apple Powerbook whom I talked to briefly in the lobby this morning is exactly where I left him, still looking at anime…talk about the ultimate advertisement for not getting a Mac. (Actually, two guys who are bunking in my room are also exactly where I left them this morning: in bed. Now that’s a real vacation.)

I’m doing this in bullet points, because I can’t collect the energy to go chronologically right now: * It’s HOT. I went out in jeans and a t-shirt with a sweatshirt in my backpack, because it had rained during the night and I expected it to be somewhat grey. Nope, sun and humidity reigned and I was sweating by the time I crossed the bridge from Norrebro into the City (or Centrum, which sounds a little familiar…). The Danes, true to form, were all stripped down to the bare minimum… * I walked through the same park in the morning and just now, on my way back. I love Danish parks — they’re much less manicured than English parks, which gives them a lot more character. And, based on what I just saw, you can apparently strike up a barbecue wherever you like. * I asked for directions to a bookstore ( to pick up my pallor, which is actually spelled parlør with the accented ‘o’) at a 7-11. The guy looked vaguely ethnic, so I asked in English and was met with a confused look followed by, ‘Tusee Pakistani ho?’ I answered yes and was greeted with ‘to yaar Urdu ya Punjabi bol na!’ This is after an episode yesterday when I asked a shalwar-kameez clad woman in a carpet store whether she spoke Urdu and was told, ‘Nej, kun Dansk!’ * I bought the Berlitz company’s English-Danish parlør (at last!) for a fairly reasonable 80kr, but I don’t think it’s going to be as much use to me as a Danish-English one — I keep reading Danish words that I want to translate to English, whereas when I want to actually say something, I just say it in English and generally get answered straight away. * Prices are pretty much in line with those in the UK, which makes sense given the conversion rate. It’s about 10kr to a pound, and things are proportionally expensive. So a Coke is 10kr, ice cream can be had for 17kr, etc. * I LOVE THE WALKING STREET. Sprøget is the walking street I remember, but apparently the designated walking areas have grown to include several streets around it, including notably Købmagergade, which leads to the Round Tower. In fact, that’s where I walked into Sprøget from, after buying the parlør. (I’ve copy-pasted the ‘ø’ from the Character Map, so I’m trying to get maximum mileage…all other accented characters be damned.) About a minute after I got there, just when I was in front of Illum, Ammi called. Talk about amazing timing :) * So I walked to the end of the walking street, then walked back to the beginning (ie, the Tivoli side). I ducked into Magasin and found it as useless a store now as it was before. I didn’t see the Bang & Olufsen store I remember…they have another location off the walking street now apparently. The old shawarma place I used to eat at is still there! There were fewer street artists than I remember, though there were a couple of other performers. There were a lot of cycle-rickshaws, by the way. Don’t remember those being there before. There are massive sales everywhere, BTW. * After the walking street, I decided I should find myself a city bike and go check out Christianshavn/Christiania (which I have no memory of at all). I found a city bike (with great difficulty — they’re in great demand, for obvious reasons) in front of Tivoli, and discovered it’s not as awesome as I had thought. First, they’re fixed-gear; second, they’re a little rickety; third, they have pedal-backwards brakes, which bring back unpleasant memories of me losing my front tooth in Odense. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I rode towards Christianshavn, got lost, found my way, decided it was too hot, chilled out for a while near the Copenhagen harbour (where I resolved to school some white boys playing basketball, but then realised that wasn’t going to happen in jeans and walking shoes), and then returned the bike to the place in front of Tivoli. I had hoped I would be able to return it somewhere closer to the hostel to cut down the walking a little, but I couldn’t find any stands closer than Tivoli. * Oh well, that meant I was left bang beside Skala and the Palads cinema (the weird pink/white/blue building). I figured a movie would be a great way to take a break, so I watched the new ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movie at the Palads. I have a very vague memory of going there to watch a movie when I was a kid, but it involves a circular stairway, whereas the stairway today was fairly regular. Hmm. * I walked to the Little Mermaid after that. That meant walking through the walking street again, which was cool since the early afternoon rush had cleared out. I walked along the pubs and restaurants in Nyhavn and then along the boardwalk to the mermaid. * The mermaid was infested with tourists. I was being all cool and detached and decided to wait until they cleared some space, but then a large Czech contingent arrived and suddenly mayhem broke loose. At one point, I counted three people posing in different directions in front of the statue. I kid you not, I didn’t manage to frame it in time or I would have had the most awesome picture of it. Anyway, I managed to snap a great picture of the mermaid by herself while the teeming morons were distracted. [That picture above isn't it...I'll put it up at some point.] * And then I walked back, through the art district (where I reasoned that ’samtidskunst’ means ‘contemporary art’ and have just been vindicated by the hostel attendant) and Købmagergade and Ørsteds Parken and across the bridge.

Tomorrow’s the designated day for doing things that I missed today. That means Christianshavn and (maybe) Bellevue Strand (recommended by SK…but I can’t think what I’m going to do there). I might decide not to leave Hellerup till the last day and do that tomorrow, but I’m not sure.