So the morning of the 29th found me loading in to the big bus o' Danes, headed to Copenhagen. It was due to be a 29 hour drive, and it was certainly due to be crazy. First stop? Beer. The bus was split into 2 levels - the upstairs was all seating, which converted to beds, and the downstairs was a bunch of restaurant-style booths, where the large portion of the carousing went on. Things, as you can imagine, got a bit out of hand... At one point, we held an alleycat inside the bus, but eventually we all set up the beds and passed out somewhere in the Czech Republic, I think...
After a shortish ferry ride from Rostock, though, we were into Denmark, and Copenhagen followed soon thereafter. Everyone stumbled out of the bus, and we gradually trickled away from outside the De Gronne Bude office, and to our respective homes. The first couple of days in town, I stayed with Crash, from the Blue courier, but spent the rest of my time there with Thomas, who'd visited SF some time earlier in the year for several months. It was due to be an interesting time, as rumor had been going around of a possible merger/cooperation between the Blue and Green couriers, which would totally change the face of messengering in Copenhagen.
Copenhagen is an amazing place to be a cyclist - it's got all the aspects that Amsterdam does, but with even more personal cargo trikes - Christiania trikes and whatnot - and a bit more relaxed feel, as compared to the free-for-all of downtown Amsterdam. Bike paths here are everywhere, drivers actually look in their rear view mirrors before opening their doors, and pedestrians look both ways before crossing the bike lane! Nevermind that bike traffic is so heavy that it'll back up 5-6 deep at traffic lights... It's a different world for someone coming from the States, that's for sure, even for one who's been in Amsterdam several times...
I spent the first week or so kidding myself that I'd be somehow able to stay for 2 weeks and then go back out on the road, but the reality of the situation was that I was completely broke, and that staying in one place, here in Copenhagen, would be cheaper than travelling. I had my housing for free, so all I had to pay for was food, so staying here would be cheapest... Eventually I resigned myself to this, but I think I held on to the idea that I'd only be there for a week or two for a while...
It turned out that the Blue/Green thing was actually the Blue getting purchased outright by the Green - this was an unusual circumstance, and one not entirely welcomed by the couriers of the Blue. The 2 companies had some very different ways of doing things, and many of the Blue couriers were rather nervous that they'd lose part of the feel of their old company that they liked so much... On the final day of operation of the Blue, though, they held a 1 hour sit-in, which managed to have nearly 100% of the Blue riders participating, and had some really good media coverage - they were able to very nicely get across their message that the sit-down was less a protest against being bought up by the Green than it was sort of a way to say goodbye to the Blue. It was a really impressive moment, and I was glad to have been there for it.
Since I really didn't have any money, I had to start tracking down ways I could find stuff to do that wouldn't cost me anything... Most of this, much of the time I was there, came in the form of regular pipe organ concerts in Copenhagen's many churches - I think I went to nearly 15 of them while I was there. I could probably go on with descriptions of all those concerts, but suffice it to say there are some really quite impressive organs and churches in the city - and that anyone who's interested in finding out about the concerts they have there all summer long should head on over to the main city library, and check out the collossal section devoted to flyers for all sorts of events they have there - all the museums, parks, art galleries, churches etc have there schedules there, and many of them have a fair bit of free activities...
Many of the museums around Copenhagen have a free day each week, and I ran through many of them in this manner, spending good chunks of time in the Ny Carlberg Glyptotek, the National Museum, Copenhagen City Museum and the State Art Museum, among others - all full of fantastic exhibits. The aquarium, however, was kind of a letdown, especially after I broke down and paid 60 kroner to get in! The Botanical Gardens are a way better deal, being free 7 days a week, and with an excellent conservatory.
I arranged trade for a new wheel to be built, to replace my destroyed hub, and bought a new pair of pedals, further decimating my funds, but the fact remained that if I was going to be coming home broke, I needed to at least have my bike in working order so as to be able to go straight back to work...
The pleasant surprise of my little unexpected side trip to Copenhagen, though, was the arrival of the Tour of Denmark, with its traditional finale in Fredricksberg, giving me my third national tour of my vacation. Nice bonus, that... It didn't seem to get much coverage of tv, though, oddly enough... But the final stage, which ended with a 10 lap criterium-style bit, was packed to the gills with people there to cheer all the smaller Danish teams on, as well as some bigger guns.
An odd thing I noticed in Copehagen, though - no one has strollers for their babies. Everyone pushes around baby buggies. Sort of a strange thing to notice, but you notice these things sometimes when you're wandering around a city with little to do besides people watching...
At this point, I was beginning to realize that I now had too much stuff with me to be able to ride down to Amsterdam with it all, as was the "original" plan upon my arrival here. So I went to check out plane fares, having been told that other people had gotten fares to Amsterdam for the ECMC for around 1000 kroner (about $125, at the time), and got quoted a fare of 2500 kroner! Things were beginning to get a bit more interesting than I liked, cause that was certainly out of the picture for me at that point in time... Until I remembered my international student ID (it pays to take one class at your local community college, sometimes...) and waltzed on over to the local student travel place, and got me a ticket for a much more reasonable 1000 kroner. Saved by student discount.
The last week in Denmark passed pretty uneventfully, really, but the last day was something else, as i rode out to the airport with a 50lb box on the rack, and found, upon my arrival, that the weight limit for flights within Europe is substantially less than it is for flights from the States to Europe - 20 kg instead of 60! Erk. this put a damper on things, as all I had on my person at that point was 500 kroner, and they wanted 625 as oversize charges! SAS eventually took only 475, but still, I was left with the equivalent of about $8 in kroner and guilders landing in Amsterdam... Should've told the ticket people I only had 300 kroner... Nevertheless, I was on my way back to Amsterdam, and a final few days before my return to SF.
Back to Amsterdam and on to home