i'm hav'n kobenhavn

21.07.07:

slept well at S's folk's place (actually slept in S's old room, which only reinforced the conjoined-ness of our twinning. surreal. after a super delicious danish breakfast (with two danishes that were absolutely absolutely definitely definitely wayyyy better than anything else i have tasted in the danish family.) and numerous photo-ops with the uncle/auntie crew, S and i hit kobenhavn. we had much to do and see and buy.

so after checking out h&M in its motherland, i only had two other scandinavian goods to scope out: marimekko & casch. casch is danish. marimekko is finnish. both are more amply available in denmark. i also wanted to check out a new pair of glasses. danish glasses. & S has an amazingly cool pair that i was oooohing and aaaaahing over - they are designed by a danish eyewear company called fleye (which means fine looking eye in danish). so i wanted to check out funky cool "european" design. S and i were talking about how to us hokey n'americaners, every thing is "european" in one big conglomeration and how cool "european" is. so i spent the rest of the trip talking about how i was so impressed by how european everything is in denmark. but again i digress.

we checked out this big fancy department store type place -- illum -- it's super awesome!!! they had kick-ass marimekko stuff. i basically died and went to finnish textile heaven. anyway. S and i did some super fun stuff in copenhagen. we walked wayyyyyy up a circular, steep walkway thingy to the round tower in copenhagen (first stone laid back ago in 1637). the view was really great. 360 degrees of copen-you-had-me-at-hello. we also took a water tour, starting at new harbour and going around to the black diamond, the new opera house, the little mermaid (which really is little and does not look even remotely as big as you'd think -- S pointed it out from our boat at a bit of a distance and i couldn't even see what she was pointing at, but still there were about 8000 tourists flocking around ariel, the baby mermaid) and through christian's harbour, and other water-y places. we passed by some amazing abodes -- including this one area called christiana -- this is an area where, in 1972, people started to squat in an unused military area -- and established a self-governing, independent community - to the point where there were houses built, businesses established & daycares. the area seems to be on an upsurge, since the apartments, houses, houseboats, etc. in the area are supppppppper posh looking. and is apparently (according to many sources, including resident copenhagen expert, S,) the mostest expensivest square meter of living space in europe, or at least it was at one point. who wouldn't want to live there, though. beautiful.

we also checked out the royal palace. the best thing (well two things) about the palace? the fact that you can walk right on up and in fact drive right on up to the palace. but if you drive up to the palace, you can't stop. if you stop, you will be squarely in the marks of denmark's finest sharpshooter. but but but. the second amazing thing about the palace -- are the palace guards. they are practically prepubescent fine young danish lads, expression-less, sombre and give mean salutes. and their foot snaps made me hot.

after kicking around all day in copenhagen and checking out the super snazzy european shops, S and i went to see a movie. we went to see "red road", which is very interesting and bizarre as far as movies go. and has a pretty graphic sexuelle scene. post movie, we went to dinner. a steak'n'ribs place. the steak was okay. the ribs was not. poor S thought she was going to puke. but she held it in.

our plan for the evening was go check out tivoli gardens. tivoli is a bizarre combination of butchart gardens & the PNE all in one spot. minus the 4-H element, of course. but seriously. check out the site: www.tivoli.dk. tivoli has a bunch of gardens, and pleasant ponds, etc. and a mid-way games area + restaurants + rides like roller coasters, and such. we went in to see the saturday night fireworks display that happens all summer long. i was trying to be nice to S and suggesting that i could miss out on fireworks for the sake of her health. but S spun on her heel and said that she would rather puke her guts out in front of the entire population of tivoli than for me to miss the fireworks. so we went to tivoli.

the first thing we saw in tivoli was also the second to last thing we saw in tivoli. the "tivoli big band" was playing big band standards all night long at the band-shell. it was really really really good. and toe-tapping. but the most bizarre thing about the "tivoli big band" show was that i was gifted a super ugly push heart that says "love" on it by a random boy watching the show. i think he was danish. i was partly touched and partly mortified. it's one of those plush toys that they give you as a consolation prize at the midway games area. anyway. thanks to you mr. plush heart. you really made my night at tivoli an extra-special one. the fireworks display was awesome!! it just got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. and then finally finished in a flurry of oooooohs aaaaaaahs and ouches. okay, no ouches, but someone did almost step on my foot.

another great thing about tivoli (and denmark in generally) is this new plan where they charge a 5 kroner surcharge for plastic bottles, which you get back when you return them to a big red machine. so you won't get 5 kroner back for tossing your plastic bottle or cup on the floor, litterbug.

two other cool things i wanted to say about denmark. well actually three. when you buy tickets to a movie, you can choose your seats. you get actual seat numbers so you don't have to do the whole i'm saving this row for 10 people by laying my sweater across all the seats and randomly placing used kleenexes on the seats. and you can buy a parking spot at tivoli the day before, where you only have to pay 40 kroner for the whole day of parking (and there's no way they can really check if you went to tivoli or not). basically you pay for it online and they give you a 4 number code to access the parking garage. pretty amazing. & the best thing ever is the sticker-y thing on danish cars which is a clock face. so when you park your car in a place that is fixed time parking (say, 2 hours maximum), you turn the wheel on the sticker-y thing to indicate the time at which you parked your car. BRILLIANT. i am kind of in love with the idea. and by extension with denmark.

another cool thing about denmark is actually a cool thing about S. she knows the brown guy from bombay rockers! f'reals!!! so now i am 2 degrees of separation from him too. we're like this [insert visual of crossed fingers here].