i arrived in cph friday night. venz met me at the airport and we headed on denmark's brand new metro to his house. (side note: every time i see another city's metro system, i scoff at it, then show my other worldy friends my impressive paris metro map. ha, take that) we ate a home cooked meal, caught up, and gossiped about sb people. gosh, i've missed that. i missed hanging out with venz in general. he used to be around so much, and i guess i didnt really realize how much i'd grown accustomed to having him be physically there to talk to.
saturday morning we woke up and headed to venz's summer house in a city i can't spell or even remember. we met up with venz's cousin alex and venz's dad's cousin and his wife (holgard and eva...venz, correct me on the spelling of their names). we drove out about 100 km i think and when we finally got there, we started driving down this dirt road, through a forest with sunlight streaming through the top and tiny cottages peeking from behind the trees. it was incredibly quaint and picturesque...in fact, that's how i can describe my whole day at the summer house. eva and holgard brought us into their home (of course it was all wooden inside), gave us warm socks and lit the fire to keep us warm. we went into the little town with shops, filled with people doing their saturday shopping (but, then again, this is still a small town, so "filled" doesn't mean tons).
we headed back, but this time went to venz's house. the place looks like nobody has replaced the stuff in there since the 70s, just added things since then--in a good way. it reminds me of the beach house in san clemente. in the summer house, there were tons of old books/comics and old games. we played a round of scrabble (i pwnd, duh) and hung around the house for a couple hours, but because we had no heat there, we headed back to eva and holgard's place pretty quickly. we made the windiest, coldest trek back toward their house and rejoiced in the heat the fire gave us. at dinner, we chatted easily, and alex, venz, eva and holgard eventually fell into talking about family gossipy stuff. i loved this, but i don't know if it's because i miss it in my family, or because i never REALLY had it (my family is small and not incredibly close...but this doesn't mean i'm complaining). either way, i was so content to be listening to stories by the fire, laughing at holgard's story of killing a poisonous viper (you have to understand, this guy is a quiet, incredibly respectful, wouldn't-kill-a-mouse type guy...and then, we're talking about vipers, and he just unemotionally states, "i killed one. it should have been three.") and just basking in the comfort of a borrowed family.
alex, venz and i headed back to cph around 8 pm, sharing christmas beers and stories about being kids. we went out and got ice cream once we got back (yeah, in the FREEZING cold..but it was delicious and so worth it), wandered around with venz's friends for a little while, then went back to venz's room. venz and i cuddled and fell asleep together. HA jk. he wishes.
sunday was our decidedly tourist day. we borrowed a bike from venz's friend and hit the streets (geez, it was freaking cold). we ate at a bakery and headed to christiania. i was fascinated and kept asking venz questions, which i'm sure he got annoyed with but was patient with me anyway. it seems like a funky place to visit, but i'd never want to live there. i'd always feel dirty.
then we biked over to new haven (er, nyhavyn, or some danish spelling). again, picturesque. the colors on the buildings were vivid and a welcome contrast to the gray parisian buildings i'm used to.
then i saw one of the top ten most awesome things ever: a drawbridge going up. we saw that the guards were gonna clear the bridge to pull it up. "you wanna watch?" venz asked. duh. what used to be a flat street across the water began to tilt up and up, the angle getting larger and larger. we were in awe. it was like two kids seeing a magic show for the first time. after they put the bridge back, we continued on to less awesome but still great things. we saw the changing of the guards and the opera house, then biked out to the little mermaid. this is one of the things copenhagen is most famous for. hans christian andersen lived there, so this mermaid is a sort of memorial for him. WELL IT WAS DISAPPOINTING. we get there and it's just this mermaid, sitting lamely on a bland rock, staring in the water, not even looking particularly pretty or pensive. she was small, too--maybe half to three quarters of the size of me. venz warned me it would be lame like this, but i guess i just didn't believe him.
anyway, that mermaid really made me want to drink beer, so we went to the carlsburg brewery. jk...i mean, about the mermaid making me want beer. we'd planned to go to carlsburg all along. the danes love their beer and i understand why--it's an effective way to keep warm in these FREEZING months. after we wandered through the factory and saw the HUGEST beer bottle collection in the world (and explained edward forty hands to non-americans...lol that's a silly game we have, isn't it?), we enjoyed a couple beers--including the christmas brew--and headed back to venz's dorm so he could cook dinner for his hall (mmmmm fajitas). we returned the bike to his friend first and once we stepped outside her apartment, we saw it: SNOW!!!!!
it was freaking snowing. i didnt believe it at first. it must just be hail, or weird looking rain, i reasoned. i couldn't be so lucky to have snow on this trip, too. but i opened my mouth and tested it and, by gosh, it was snow. i started squealing and jumping around and generally freaking out. venz was getting into the spirit a bit, too, but he was also all complainy about it ("how much more of this am i gonna have?")...lol. silly venz.
we spent the rest of the night looking outside and saying, "look! it's still snowing." we got warm and dry and spent a long time just talking. i loved hanging out with venz because it made me realize what stupendous friends i've made in sb :-)
monday, we went to the airport fairly early so i could shop around the "largest airport mall in europe" supposedly (or so said the signs inside the shopping area in the cph airport). my flight got off without a hitch, and i was in the air, headed for amsterdam.
i had a three hour layover there, and i was so the opposite of mad about that. i wandered around the christmasy shops for the first hour and a half, then grabbed myself a gingerbread latte and settled into a new book (nicholas sparks' three weeks with my brother). it was three of the most enjoyable, most relaxing hours i've had in a while. really, i don't know why people complain about flying so much. i think it's just wonderful.
No comments:
Post a Comment