alas poor yorick, i knew him, horatio

20.07.07:

after having the sleep of 10 000 suns last night, i woke up this morning and S had made a traditional danish breakkie -- yummy bread, cheese, juice, coffee, more cheese, fruit (sounds shockingly like a non-danish breakfast, right? but it was freakin' danish, k?) after breakfast, we hit the road.

first stop: hamlet's castle = kronborg castle. this place is superfantastiko. seriously. if you have even a passing knowledge of who shakespeare is, you should check this place out. if only for the prison cell tunnels under the castle (two floors under) where prisoners were dumped to serve out their sentences. the whole castle is a unesco site. & seriously cool. the prison tunnels have no light, save a few that they have put in for the tours. you can buy a flashlight to explore, but of course, S & i cheaped out and decided to go for the "authentic experience" of stubbing our toes and bumping our heads, just like the real prisoners would have (oooohhhh, aaaahhhhh). the inside of the castle - the living areas of the various kings of denmark - is also really interesting. S pointed out how short the beds were back in the 1420s. i think the rapid growth in human size from the 1420s to today can only be attributed to growth hormones in milk & genetically modified chromosomes in non-organic hydrogenated oil products and variations thereof. but seriously, if i was kicking around back then, i would be tall(!) the other super amazing thing about the castle is all the original woven textiles hanging on the walls. how how how how how (S & i wonder) did people do all that weaving with so much detail on such larges swathes without the benefit of adobe photoshop? how!?! another freakydeaky thing about kronborg castle is that it is the resting place of holger danske -- who is he? he's a big slumbering lug of a man who will wake up and beat down anyone who tries to invade denmark. i'm serious. i saw him sleeping, tip-toed by, and trust me he's got pipes like nobody's business. so there. holger danske is also the namesake of a danish furniture company: www.holger-dasnke.dk. [on a side note, why doesn't anyone name a business after a canadian hero -- like louis riel plumbing? or tommy douglas movers? capitalize on canadian historical lore & pride.]

ok, so next. since, S & i found sweeeeeeet parking. for free. oh yeah. so suck on that people with "alternate side parking rules apply" woes, we walked over to the ferry to sweden and walked on (after paying, of course...after seeing that prison under hamlet's castle, there's no way i'm breaking the law in denmark).

what is the ferry to sweden? it puts bc ferries to shame for one. it has a huge shopping area on deck (and not just for crappy magnets that say victoria on them) and a nice bar (full bar, no self-service watery coffee & hot chocolate here!). basically, this 20 minute ride takes you from denmark's helsingor to sweden's helsingborg and back again. 20 minutes, and there is more to entertain on this ferry than you'd believe.

the ferry ride over was pretty uneventful. two things of note. 1) S realizing or rather re-realizing how cheap things are in swedish kroner on the ferry & in the swedish town we were going to (helsingborg) & 2) watching a stabbing incident -- greasy-looking long-haired german ne'erdowell teenage punka*ses stabbing one another and bleeding all over the ferry. S was going to leap up to help them, but then the ferry stopped and we ran off in search of shopping bargains.

the main event of the afternoon was eating chocolate and shopping at h&m (in sweden!!) and basically just basking in the swedish sun.

after returning to denmark and then back to S's house, we drove closer to copenhagen to visit with her family. freakishly, S & i are twins. even more freakishly, S's family and mine are twins. seriously. it was like meeting the alter-ego parallel family i always sensed i had in denmark. f'reals.

our friday night plan was to go have dinner at this amazing sushi place in copenhagen -- called umami. wow, the food was amazing. the tuna tataki was second only to ebizo in victoria. S and i ordered loads of sushi and then did a re-order for 8 more pieces. i can't even begin to describe how delicious the food was. so i won't. but if you are in copenhagen and you don't go to umami, then i'm going to send holger danske after you. fo'sho.

the best thing about umami. well, after the company (S rocks) and after the food (which also rocks), it had to be the 2 couples from iceland sitting at the next table. S noticed they were staring at us. i looked over, and the two guys (the guys were sitting closest to us -- one was cute in a nerdy way, the other was cute in a jock way) were trying to figure out how to use their chopsticks by looking at me and mimicking. however, they were not doing so well. at first i thought they were german, based on their accents - and so did S. i was convinced they were german. anyway, i indicated how to hold chopsticks from my table. they kept looking over and trying. still looking really awkward. so i, being the super helpful lady that i am, hopped over to show them how to use their chopsticks. expertly. if they were not with their lady-friends, then S and i would have been happy to show them how to use their chopsticks using a patented over-the-shoulder-chopstick-help-age method. but alas. anyway, we had a total repartee with those peoples. & it was super fun. they had totally bizarre hard to pronounce icelandic names. but i'm adding iceland to my list of places to visit.

oh before i sign off for today, i have to admit that i took my dirty laundry to S's parent's house. yes, i am all class. & i have no shame.

til nachstes time.