I just (finally!) had a marvelous conversation with the dude whose lair I've been festering at. I humbly retract my original impressions. he's lived in Copenhagen for about 20 years- born and raised near the Pyrenees in southwest France. he finds it "pretty boring" here, too flat, not enough places to go if you want actual nature. but he has three kids, so it's a good city for them. his former brother-in-law lives near Seattle and he'd move there "in a heartbeat." he asked if a lot of people in the States were in the "tea party" and (I paraphrase) what the fuck is up with us and guns. "if they want guns so badly, I think, they must be a crazy person" he said. "but they probably think I'm a crazy person too."
he likes and, if given the opportunity, would move to the east or west coasts "and maybe Chicago or New Orleans" but made a face when discussing the rest of the country. "and Miami, absolutely not" he said. it's so fucking fascinating to hear outside opinions about familiar topics. hell, it was really fucking nice to just have a conversation in person with another human being. he's actually a really cool guy. I feel much less awkward now.
I told him how I'm studying Danish but it's difficult to speak and he laughed and said "you know only five million people speak Danish, right? why would you want to learn it?"
*
I bought fucking gummy candy at one of the amazing ubiquitous candy shoppes today and asked the guy working there in Danish, without thinking about it, where the bags were. it was a proud moment! unfortunately, they were right in front of my face so my glee was brief.
I also did not get lost once today.
this is the first day I have actually felt confident, or *confidenter*.... just in time to leave. damn it. now I know what to expect and what to improve upon for when, not if, I come back. this city and this trip have filled in a lot of tiny gaps and answered a lot of questions I didn't quite know I had. it's been hard and lonely and frustrating and sad and clarifying and ultimately really fucking incredibly great.
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the past ~36 hours in Denmark ensued thusly: blearily narcissistic yesterday morning in his mirrored refrigerator door. I'm still sleeping like shite, but it's beginning to feel more normal. I actually remembered a dream from that night, my first in weeks- something about a toilet, as most of my dreams inexplicably are. it's always a clean toilet, but it's always public and I'm always like
fuck, this is gonna be really unpleasant to use... analytically speaking, the basis of nearly all non-ecstatic dreams involve anxiety, manifested through disintegrating teeth or being chased or falling or staring nervously at uncomfortably located toilets. so I spent a while pondering what, if anything, I was anxious about. and after I did that, the day became fucking awesome.
it's a funky lair. there are pictures of his daughter and pieces of her artwork scattered amid his sloppy welter of bachelorhood. the article in the foreground involved rating the various local grocery stores. The headline translates roughly as "see who's won."
on a vaguely related note, all the (exclusively Danish-language) media I've seen has very few people or stories I recognize. one cover had Angelina Jolie and another had Kate Middleton, but otherwise- yeah, apparently our vulgar vapid exports mostly wilt when they hit the pond.
*
more street art.
there are lots of snail motifs around Copenhagen.
Christianshavn. it's supposed to be the bohemian enclave of the city, but when I wandered through it was deserted and full of construction rubble and pissing sideways rain.
one does not realize how fucking massive swans really are. they're the size of Australian cattle dogs. every one I've seen is banded on their legs.
churches like this are everywhere. this one, in Christianshavn, was right next to a schoolyard filled with recessing kids screeching in the mud.
everything you'd expect.
tacky, festive, touristy Strøget. I took this hastily and really like how it turned out.
Danish dissonance!
today I took the train to Køge. it's about 30 miles south of Copenhagen and has the country's largest town square and "some of the best-preserved medieval architecture." in the 17th century they burned 16 people at the stake here.
*
I love trains.
this unfortunate situation.
I like this art. it's one of those grocery stores, the aforementioned newspaper rating of which I can no longer recall.
random Køge house with a fucking stellar sunporch. from the street I could see its fusty lamps and the chairs covered with sheepskin pelts. I see shit like this and automatically manifest my alternate sunporch-dwelling reality, involving herb gardens and hammocks and a goddamn cage of finches. I'm laying in a dusty beam of sun and someone's making me breakfast and I'm like "baby, you're the best."
straight lines.
I like the way the prow of this house fits the curvature of the sidewalk.
Køge is small, about 35,000 people. it seems like a place for older people and upper-middle-class day-trippers and, based on the evidence during my stroll, a lot of dogs with malformed bowel movements.
a herd of neon ducklings!
this is not cropped at all.
every week there is a Wednesday and Saturday market. I suspect it's far larger and more boisterous when it's not pissing rain.
a lady was roasting nuts and handing out samples- some of the almonds were anise-flavored and still warm. various bulbs are also for sale everywhere. multiple vendors sell them on the street in Copenhagen and Malmö too.
this is one of my favorite colors.
erected 1636. the walls of these buildings bow out slightly. everything looks slightly drunken.
I have to touch everything.
wonder what else happened right here? this shit's nearly 400 years old!
when you at the club texting yo friends cuz they late.
I love the Scandinavian eavelessness.
not a good name for a massage business. this is on the main Copenhagen shopping/tourist strip. surely someone knew better.
breakfast. the music they were playing was so dreadful (Regina Spektor?, I'm sorry, but
hell no) that I left as soon as I was finished.
Tony Abbott with a man-bun?
Nørrebro.
this window.
the swans sidle up to the shore when people approach.
Vesterport. I asked for milk and she brought me a tiny pitcher with hot steamed milk,
and a spoon,
and a hazelnut truffle! oh Europe, you know how easily seduced I am. be gentle with my susceptibility.
1/2 liter milk- every day, all your life. what large permanent neon sign graces
your city's thoroughfare?
this is going on my tombstone.
there's this awesome chain here called Tiger. it's like a much smaller IKEA crossed with Daiso- really cheap vaguely useful cute shit. they're everywhere and sell things in 10DKR increments (~$1.25) and even though they all contain the same merchandise I stop into every one I pass and buy at least
something. (candy? a tin box painted to look like a cassette tape? a generic 230v charger for my phone?) and they always play oldies. today i ducked into one primarily because I was cold and they started playing "lollipop", and damned if the prim-looking older Danish women next to me didn't start gigglingly singing along.
every time I remember this I fucking smile.
