Stranded in København

Captain's log: 9 July 2014, 03:46. Cpt. J. N. Giampietro reporting.

Last sundown in Copenhagen. In Denmark.

The official captain's log battery has died. Who knows how long we were talking to this plastic brick, without it actually recording our wanton musings. We turned it on about 02:00 the night prior, our last night at Rikke's, and mused for hours about philosophy and anthropological deprication -- that is, we made fun of some of our friends, who are easy to tease.

Mostly each other.

And then Aryan left the captain's log active after we drifted into sleep. At least we now have evidence that Aryan talks in his sleep.

AA Power Cells Requested. Desired delivery point: Amsterdam City West Hostel. Time: 9 July 2014, 20:00.

Today was a day for completing checklists, as it was our last full day in Copenhagen.

On the checklist:

• Jægersborg Dyrehave.
• Dyrehavsbakken, the world's oldest theme park.
• Gammel Dansk shots.
• Final jazz show downtown.
• Meet Danish girls (Aryan).
• Get completely lost in Copenhagen.
• Meet some fellow travelers.
• Miss the last train back to our host's place.
• Get totally stranded.
• Have Germany win the world cup game against Brazil.
• Find out that Uli is still downtown celebrating the horrendously one-sided victory
• Meet some Danish hitchhikers waiting for the night bus.
• Catch the night bus back to Holte.
• Meet Uli partway when he gets on the same night bus back.

And we did them all.

Aryan with Rikke and Cecilia.

Rikke's roommate woke us up at about noon with the news that they had another couch surfer coming in 30 minutes, implying that we had to leave. Turns out there was some kind of miscommunication. It's all good--their new surfer was a young lady, an artist from New York, so they'll probably get along better anyways.

Thank goodness for Uli, the hostliest of hosts.

The Deutchlandiest of Germans in Denmark. A chill man, down to earth, kind and generous. He was great enough to host us again. He even hid a key outside for us, as he was going to go straight from work to the Germany-Brazil world cup game.

"I'll be home around 1 at the earliest, depending on the outcome of the game."

So we dropped our things off and headed North.

Jægersborg Dyrehave. The Deer Garden of Denmark, where deer the size of big dogs lope about through the woods. I was ready not to be impressed, coming from Alaska, having visited Wyoming, and living in the American Pacific Northwest. But regardless I was looking forward to it.

Off of the train, and on our way by foot, we stopped at the beach. Fantastic little beach in Klampenborg...

The transition from grass to beach was abrupt, and there were cute little piers to break sections apart.
Lots of the people with disposable grills on the beach, cooking up sausages.

Let's to the "Titanic" and get splashed! Pardon the color difference -- playing with white balance.

We saw a couple deer but they were too elusive for photos. We did, however get photos of us...

A hotel and restaurant in Dyrehave. Thinking of taking Ayumi here too ;)

Oh, how majestic and solemn,

Taken by Cpt. Aryan,
newblood photographer.

And on the other side of Jægersborg Dyrehave was Dyrehavsbakken, called Bakken for shot. The world's oldest theme park, and in the heart of Scandinavia. The name means "Deer Park Hill" or "The Hill" for short, and gets almost three million visitors per year.

We were happy to be three of them.

Entrance to the world's oldest theme park, depicting how it was when it opened...
in 1583.

Looks an awful lot like a theme park, with the occasional ancient wooden ride
or traditional building. In this photo you can just barely make out Rutschebanen,
a wooden roller coaster opened since 1932.

Øl is Danish for beer. I believe that's all I have to explain.

We thought Michael would enjoy the trollface statue! One of the ride designers of the amusement park, if I recall.

Like I said, ancient wooden structures littered the theme park. This throne has been standing for hundreds of years.

The sax player was the one who nailed it the most.

Finally, we headed back downtown, taking a train directly to Copenhagen. We got off, and wandered around downtown, chilling out a bit more at Kayak Bar to listen to the hip-hop jazz band playing there, before departing to search for Uli...

We searched for hours but could not find the fabled Fælledparken, which every Danish person seems to think is someplace else. Giving up on that, we resigned to simply spend a bit more time at Kayak Bar.

Here's a sample of the vibe...

There Aryan met a couple Danish girls and struck up quite a conversation with them. They seemed interested in talking, but ultimately he wound up leaving without much of another word, once Wyatt and I were ready to go home.

But with a small detour. Which included checking a few things off our list. Also this:

Note the guy wearing the blue shirt, who comes around the corner and instantly joins in. He was not a part of their group as far as I know. This dance is what Aryan calls the "Browob-ble" (Bro wobble) and he's been doing it in a number of videos. Did you catch it in the Rosenborg flower garden?

After that, we stopped at THE VIKING Restaurant and Pub to try Gammel Dansk, of which we all had to have a sample shot. It's a traditional Danish bitters drink, vaguely like Jägermeister, usually served for special occasions. Our special occasion? Wearevisitingdenmarkforthefirsttimeandwanttotryit. It's a once in a lifetime holiday. That takes place 8 July, 2014.

Probably not a drink I'll want to have again, though.

So without another word to the bartender, we walked back out to Strøget, the car-free shopping street, and looked for more places to hang out.

Found this on the way to our
next stop. #MonkeyMedicine
doesn't appear to be anything.

Finally, we wound up at Huset-KBH music bar, where I had a delicious pomegranate cider. Then we invited a couple strangers to sit with us.

Me, Wyatt, Aryan, Pete, and Con. Pete is
a music teacher in Dubai. And Con is a
photographer and historian, among many
other things. New friends!

They turned out to be brothers. Two Irishmen, Pete and Con, who were traveling Europe rather than South Africa in the name of locality and frugality. They were on layover We exchanged merry conversation for a good couple hours, during their six-hour layover before leaving once again. Pete works in Dubai as a music teacher, and Con was working on grad school applications after completing his degree in history. We got along splendidly.

They taught us an Irish term: Craic. Which is the origin for the American phrase "What's crackin?" Craic means "fun," and can be used in ways such as "What's the craic?" and "Sounds like some craic."

I guess you can't say things like "I'd like to buy some craic."

Finally, we decided it was time to go home. So we headed back to Copenhagen Central Station to grab the B Train to Holte... Except it wasn't there. Next arrival?

Something like 07:00.

Whoops.

What do?

Phone battery almost dead, like the Captain's Log battery. 01:30. Twenty kilometers from home. Little cash and for some reason very few places in Denmark take cards.

We checked out phones. We texted Uli, worried he was already home, and asleep. Earlier he had said he'd meet us at his place at 1. It seemed like a longshot.

He replied. "Still out. Grab the 95N bus. It comes in an hour."

Okay, it was slightly more complicated than that, but that's about how it worked out.

So we walked to the main mass transit square, and waited for the 95N. During that wait, we met some hitch hikers whose names we can't remember, who had traveled all through Eastern Europe using only their thumbs and backpacks. Brave, some might say. Stupid, others might say. I'd call it a healthy mixture of both.

The bus came, and we hopped on. Still, we were worried that we'd ride this night bus Northbound, not knowing when to get off, and would never meet up with Uli. He had said he'd get on at a later stop, but we had no idea when.

But finally, a few stops before leaving downtown, we spotted Uli getting on! He got on the bus with us, and rode back home to Holte. Boy, how we'd missed him.

We had a great last night with Uli, about which no details can be recalled. This is of course due entirely to the lack of captain's log batteries, and also how tired we all were.