The LONG Way Around the World: Food, Beer, Guards, Barbers and More

Oh Gosh, it's been a while. This may be a little longer post. A lot has happened in the past couple days here in Copenhagen.

Wednesday:
A Swirly Church:
Following our glorious evening of late night fun at Tivoli, we spent the day wandering about Copenhagen town. Our first stop was a fancy church with a swirly tower that we had every intention of summitting. But alas, those dang tourists are always getting in the way of our touring, and we have a very low tolerance for waiting to see things. Onward! But not before snapping some shots of a very impressive organ clinging to the back of the church.

Shanty Towns:
Several blocks away, and within spitting distance of downtown Copenhagen, is their version of what Berkeley probably wanted so desperately to become - Christiania. Back in the 70s, this part of town was an old military barracks, and some folks claimed squatters rights and took it over. Over the past decades, Christiania has grown, with some resentment of the city folks, into an off the grid community of free living people that have created a hodge-podge assembly of homes, shops, restaurants and other gathering places. It has now, with some resentment of the inhabitants, become a tourist haven for people like us to tote our cameras and take pictures of their world. Ironic, huh?

Paper Island (Food truck nation):
Not far along from hippie town, is a paper warehouse recently converted into a street food emporium called Paper Island (Paperoen to you and me). It falls perfectly in line with the recent trend of gathering gourmet food trucks into one place and chowing down. Only this time all the stands are crammed indoors. After swimming through the masses of humanity (draped in backpacks), waiting altogether too long for our food (having to visit five different places because, yes, of course, we all wanted different things), we finally sat down to our meal. Yummy, it was. While I am a huge fan of the food truck trend, I had the sense that this one was teeming with tourists (present company included), not locals, like what I have experienced back in SF. Not sure why, but it kind of detracted from the experience. Owing to the fact that we were out til midnight the night before, and his blood was rushing to his belly to process his lunch, and we were immersed in the white noise of a crowd, Bryce checked out for a bit. It was a nice lunch.

Nicole got some awesome Moroccan meal.

Nyhavn:
Directly across the water from Paperion is Nyhavn, probably the most photographed string of buildings in the world (painted ladies-esque). Yeah, it's very pretty. Here are our requisite shots.

Like Daughter, Like Father

Other things:

Cappuccino time along the shoreline at the Royal Library

A Sketch (of the little statue in Stockholm)

Autumn snapped a sunset shot from her window.

Thursday:
Getting our Ears Raised:
We knew eventually it had to happen.... We needed to get haircuts in a foreign land. This was made even more worrisome because Nicole has been my barber for 20 years, and Z&B's since their birth days. For something so banal as getting a haircut, it has thus far made me most anxious (except perhaps that death walk platform they call a tourist destination in Bergen - search the blog if you don't know what I'm talking about).

Our airbnb host recommended a place not far from our place, indicating that the proprietors of most barbershops are foreigners with a limited vocabulary. One of the great advantages of winning the genetic lottery and being born in the states is that English has become a reasonably universal language throughout the world, and thus far we might as well be in California when communicating with everyone. Turns out even her recommendation left us communicating in grunts and hand signals, adding to my anxiety. Furthermore, upon entering the shop, we were whisked away to a scene in Jersey Shore. The testosterone was palpable. Admittedly there was a moment where visions of me in an afro and the boys looking like Spicoli seemed reasonable. But hey, when in Rome....

Turned out ok, huh?

Weather & the Aquarium:
One of our daily chores is checking the weather to help determine our adventures. If rain, do indoor things. If sunny, do outdoor things. Perhaps we have not figured out the best app for european weather, but Scandinavia has us baffled. The internet says partly cloudy, and we get drenched. Cold and sprinkles, and we end up with heat exhaustion in long pants and a coat. Billy Martin and the rest of the KTVU crew are some kind of wizards compared to the forecasting here.

But I digress, it was to be a rainy day, so we spent the afternoon at the Aquarium. A fine aquarium, in a fancy new-wave building (it was kind of shaped like a wave), with a pretty impressive shark tank. And fortunately, it rained as we expected!

That's Tom on Autumn's shoulder. Our new mate.

Ice Cream:
Pretty darn good ice cream here.

Friday:
Laundry:
Laundry day! Hurray! When you're traveling for a year, weekly laundry is part of the drill. So far we have been fortunate to have a washer/dryer within our apartments. That's not to say they have been good, but at least they have been convenient. While there are plenty of advantages living in the Rain Man suite atop a four story building, without the convenience of an elevator, doing laundry in the basement is...tiring. Making matters a little more treacherous - the hidden spiral stair crammed into a triangular shaped shaft to access the basement.

Changing of the Guard: (Apologies in advance, this is long. If you don't care about this subject, scroll quickly)
We've learned that, in centuries past, the Swedes and the Danes haven't exactly been friends. Not sure if their changing of the guards ceremonies are an indication of their differences, but oh man, they were different - In nearly every way. Whereas we were corralled behind a rope and guided along our journey through the Swedish ceremony, there was absolutely no indication to the crowd where we should coalesce, and 500 or so people just wandered about the square wondering what to do. Guesswork is not good for the uninformed. When the clock struck noon, three police officers started shouting at everyone to move behind some fictitious line in the cobbled stoned courtyard. No ropes, just pointing.

Fortunately, we were no dummies and called upon Tripadvisor to give us some pointers, and were able to situate ourselves at the equivalent of the 50 yard line. From a distance down the incoming road was a speck of black that grew as a dozen (what appear to be teenagers) marched directly at us. At one point I was concerned they were going to just bowl us over, but then broke right at the last minute. They walked along the crowd towards a larger area in front of the palace, at which point, one of the policemen casually made a motion as though waving us in for dinner. Here is where TripAdvisor could have mentioned something. Like a game of steal the bacon, 250 tourists began an all out sprint to reassemble along a new imaginary line in the cobble stones. My disbelief in what was happening created just enough lag, that my once prime location, turned into third row seats in the endzone. My consternation turned to boredom within a couple minutes when the ceremony went from a minor bit of rifle spinning, and silly walking, into some kind of comatose standing in two lines like they were about to play Red Rover, Red Rover.

In what seemed to be some kind of waiting game prank, nothing happened, for like 10 minutes. The crowd began to disperse. But not Autumn and I. No, we were going to watch this band of Zoolander look-alikes to the bitter end. Then, from some hidden cave under the palace emerged six more soldiers walking in formation back towards us. At this point, the police officer came towards our part of the line and told us to move out of the way. So we did and the six pack soldiered through the audience on their way to one of the four guards that needed to be changed. Again, disbelief by the audience. What the heck were we supposed to do. Then, the annoyed police officer said, "Go. Follow the Soldiers. Go." while giving us a shooing motion like we were kids that had overstayed our welcome. "Go on, go!"

At this point, Nicole, Bryce, and Zane had given up on the whole thing and found some shade under a statue. But not me and Autumn. We soldiered after the soldiers and watched the intimate exchange of regimented pleasantries at point blank range. There was a bit of silly walking in spite of the crowd effectively getting in the way of the entire thing. Fascinating really. Realizing it was going to be another 30 minutes of the same thing, we ultimately decided to check out ourselves. They had won the waiting game battle and we wandered off in search of other old things.

About ten minutes later, as we were strolling down a random street several blocks away, we heard a loud, unintelligible shout behind us. We spun around, and what the heck! The six pack was marching down the middle of a busy street as though it was the year 1600 and the only thing they had to worry about was stepping in something smelly. After some follow on research, it would appear the central battery is near a different palace and they were just heading back home.

In conclusion (sorry for the diatribe above, but it was really interesting to me), it would appear that the Danes have kept their tradition intact for centuries upon centuries, in spite of the evolution of mankind and the advent of the motor-car and digital cameras. The Swedes, on the other hand, are getting with the times - so to speak.

That's me trying to scope out the best seat in the house

That's my kids making fun of me scoping out the best seats in the house.

Audience beware.

Nicole's view of the whole thing

The Family Jewels:
We spent a couple hours poking around Rosenborg Castle, where King Christian IV, and the rest of the Royals lived. As far as castle tours go, it was pretty cool. It ended at the basement where we saw the Crown Jewels and other priceless things.

Bunch of really cool paintings, sculptures, clocks... and I take a pic of the spiral staircase between floors....

Apparently this is what the King used to strategize his battle plans. Like a very ornate game of Risk...

The Royal Crown and Ridiculous Americans.

This was a kid they have guarding the Royal Crown. Not much later, his superior came and was verbally unkind to him.

Date Night!
One of the great advantages (there are many) of having a 12 year old going on 42 daughter is our ability to peel away for an evening of adult time. Last night was our first international date night! Our destination, the Carlsberg Brewery. It's legendary around here. Friday night is Carlsberg Fridays - an outdoor food, beer, and music event. We hopped the bus, transferred to another bus, and then set out on foot, following the enticing signs that said: Visit Carlsberg, the Copenhagen ExBEERience! 700 meters that way. 700 meters later, we find ourselves in some kind of post-apocalyptic scene of buildings torn down, rubble everywhere, and sheltered walkways. Kind of felt like when the Griswolds finally make it to Wallyworld, only to find out it was closed for maintenance. We see another sign indicating another 150 meters that way to the ExBEERience. We follow along. After 150meters, another sign changing direction... 300 meters that way to the ExBEERience. After 300 meters, we pop out at the intersection of Carlsberg Rd and a busy road. Another sign, pointing another 300 meters that way. Two miles after we set out, and only perhaps 300 meters from where we started, thoroughly exhausted and famished, we finally found the exBEERience. It was nice.