Copenhagen: City of Bikes

We arrive in Copenhagen Airport!

Hi all--

Aryan here!

Today we wake up in the cozy home of a Mr. Uli Klumper. I think I know how to pronounce his last name, but still have no idea how to say ''smorrebrod'', which sounds like a frog croaking deep in the throat.

Yesterday remains a bit of a haze, but certainly will be ingrained in my memory as our first day in Copenhagen, Denmark.

July 2nd started with creaky spines for all, after an international flight from Florida to Copenhagen International Airport, non-stop, no connections.

We sluggishly got departed the plane with our new friend, "Mannie" (Manuel). It's incredible how fast it is to go through customs overseas. I've found that only in the U.S. have I ever had to wait more than 15 minutes in customs.

Mannie being excited, as he usually is.

Anyways, we entered the airport and it finally hit me that we were in DENMARK! Which is why I repeatedly expressed that fact while tapping on my friends' shoulders like an excited boy in a candy shop. Except the candy was beautiful blonde Danish women. The airport was clean, green, organized, blah, blah, blah but who cares when my entire visual field is occupied by these angelic sights.

Even the men here are ridiculously handsome and well dressed.

Mannie took some time to find a way to lock up in baggage in the airport for his flight the next morning for Budapest. After much difficulty with finding the proper lockers, he suggested we part ways and meet in the evening. We agreed and wished him a safe flight if we didn't see him that night. And just like that we took our first European train to downtown Copenhagen, where we were to meet a special someone.

Jeff is one of the very few childhood friends that I still am in close contact with. We met during middle school in Washington and were playing in the school band together. It's been 5 years since I last saw him, since he had moved to the U.K. to study genetics abroad.

Today we were reunited at the Copenhagen Central Station.

Jeff had waited for us for a few hours, and still greeted us with a warm smile and hugs abound. I apologized we were late and Jeff, in his typical laid-back way, didn't mind and smiled on, as if saying ''what's a few hours after half a decade of separation!''

Mr. Jeffery R. right here ladies and gents

We make our way past his hostel and towards the river jutting through the city. What a beautiful greeting it was to see tress, water, and elevation. I may have frightened my friends a bit from how excited I became by these simple things. I've been quite deprived in Florida, I must say.

So here the four of us are, heading down the road along the river. We're starving are butts off and looking for something to eat, when I spot a promising looking bar. I tell the other guys that I'll scope it out. I step in and life seems to get a lot darker and smokier. I felt like I had somehow found the dive-iest bar in the country.

I swallow my breath as I walk in on a group of old Danish men playing poker in this hole-in-the-wall bar. Hell, I carried on because... well, that's just how I am.

"Hi...".

Everyone in the bar turns to me and there is silence.

"Do any of you speak any English?"

One man pipes up, "Yes, little"

"Do you serve food here?"

As though suddenly everyone understood fluent English, the entire bar in unison says,

"No."

My handsome self climbing the public wall

 I took my cue to leave, but the Danes are quite nice people and gave me a restaurant suggestion on my way out. So we decided to head to this suggested eatery, which was somewhere along the river. It was actually just a block away and we all hurried to order ourselves our first traditional Danish cuisine.

Of course, the restaurant was incredibly modern in architecture and aesthetic, but that is the way in Copenhagen; traditional meets modern. All of us ordered the 'smorrebrod', also known as the open-face sandwich. It was absolutely delicious.

The food in Denmark is completely fresh. It's expensive, but my God is it good. I haven't had food this good before. The fish in my smorrebrod melted in my mouth. The bread tasted like it was baked that day.

And I bet you it indeed was!

After our meal, we took a short walk along the river. I spotted a little playground with a few concrete walls with strange holes in it. Turns out it was a public bouldering installation. It was a very minimal one, but hey I wasn't passing that up! All of us tried our hand bouldering on it.

Wyatt and I had our usually competitive spirits up and a quick bit of climbing.

At this point it was the evening, and headed our way to Holte, where would be staying with our first host: Uli. We dropped off Jeff at his hostel and got to the Central Station. From there we took a train to Holte Street. On the way there I lost complete composure form the beauty of the land on our way to the tiny suburb of Holte. Now we were seeing the real Denmark.

What a wonderful country. I couldn't help but be moved when we arrived at Holte Street among old brick buildings covered in green ivy with the quiet sleep character of a suburb. We took a connecting bus to Gammel Holtegarde, where we would somehow find Uli's place.

Wifi in Denmark is a bit scattered sometimes, and so we didn't have an opportunity to clarify how exactly to get to Uli's house from the bus stop.

But, we meandered around a few wrong routes until Nick spotted a road we hadn't tried. From there our guts were screaming HERE HERE HERE and like a spark in the dark we noted a mailbox with the number 7 and Uli's name plastered to the side.

We followed a short brick pathway in front of an traditional-looking Danish house with a large backyard, clotheslines, a thatched roof, and apple trees everywhere! Next to this house was Uli's flat. His door was open so we nervously peeked in: UuuuuuUUuuliiii, anyboooody hoooome?

He greeted us all with a smile, "I have everything a man would need here," as he handed us cans of delicious Carlsburg lager. We cheers to our health and chatted. He even opened his fridge up for us and we all cooked a meal together. Seafood pasta with Parmesan cheese was utmost luxury compared to my prepared snack of beef jerky and mixed nuts left over from the plane.

What a nice guy.

As the food was being prepared, I took a moment to go for a walk along the road next to Uli's home. It was all suburb, but man was it gorgeous.

I breathed the crisp air in deeply.

As I stepped out of the house gate, I leisurely grabbed a low hanging apple dangling right above my head. There was something simple and wonderful about eating a fresh apple and walking along a quiet little brick road in a mysterious land. I think this moment was the highlight of my vacation so far.

For those who know me, there is nothing that moves me more than simple beauty. I don't like too many bells and whistles that detract from the true beauty that surrounds us in life. And this short little walk was almost enlightening. This is what life should be like.

Just grabbing food growing out of the damn ground, breathing fresh air, and walking along green tress. What's better than that! Give me green nature, temperate weather, and silence... then I will be happy as tree fungus (which is pretty happy!). I loved the feeling of not being rushed. Knowing there's nothing to run to or nothing to be anxious about felt uplifting.

I had felt a weight that's been on my chest for months just lift off like a feather in air. God, I cannot express in words how good that felt. It was like trying to pick out a poppy seed from your tooth all day, and finally wedging it out. Aaaaahhh yessss.

Getting ready for dinner or just ate dinner? You tell me! Uli's there looking
nice and German.

I returned and we all had a delightful dinner together. Uli squeezed limes, bust out the soda water, and made us the best gin + tonic I've ever had.

Of course, we got a little drunk and had many laughs. So we all went for a walk and a talk.

The sky remains light here for a long time, so it felt more like 8pm than 3am, which was the actual time.

Ultimately, we ended up back at Uli's home and getting some well deserved ZzzZ's.

Here's that photo of the four of us!

That's all for now. Peace out [function(Space Cowboys);]

~AS

PS-- somethings are better explained in pictures...

Like Wyatt scaling a wall with his heavy ass backpack...

...Or this (location).

...but certainly this!