a dane's eye view

Well, the weekend is finally over, and while I'm not sure where on earth my parents are right now (they were stranded on Star Island, but were hoping to get off today), I did finally talk to my mom for the first time since I got here, which was very nice. I feel rather disconnected from everything. But I suppose they're disconnected from me too.

Yesterday I finally got a real sense of the city. It started with an "alternative sightseeing" tour of Vesterbro, which is on the other side of Tivoli/Town Hall Plaza. Sort of an outer borough, but must closer. The guide pointed out a bunch of cool shops and buildings and bars. There are a lot of "drugaholics" in Vesterbro, especially outside of this one church. But there are also a lot of state-run rehab centers in the area to help them clean up. Not the safest neighborhood in Copenhagen at night, but still beautiful and fine if you've got a buddy and know where you're going. We went into this one place, it's a cultural center now, that this guy spent years creating, making all sorts of fun and funky mosaics on the inside and outside. It's impressive. Some pictures will say more than I can:


After the tour, we headed back to DIS along Istegade, a former red light district street which currently houses many sex shops--Denmark was the first country in the world to legalize porn (the other end of Istegade has some very classy cafes and clubs). Maps and cameras in hand, we stood out as American tourists (which we're not), causing some (drunk already?) Danes to cat-call "Oooh American girls. You want to dance?" Humorous, yet a reminder that we do need to be careful. After a quick lunch of a bagel with cream cheese and lox, I headed out on a bike sightseeing tour. I strongly recommend doing such a thing. I met more people, got to see so much more of the city, and got the authentic Danish experience of biking everywhere. Among the highlights of the tour were the best bakery (apparently, I have yet to try anything from there) in Copenhagen, the Royal Opera, which we managed to look around for free by innocently walking through an open door without tickets, and the free city of Christiania. The weather, too, was gorgeous, possibly the best day so far in rainy Copenhagen. After a long day, I ended up staying in, but did figure out the nightbus schedule so I won't have to worry too much about getting home late in the future. Additionally, my host family will soon have a bike for me.

I spent the day today with my host family, whom I'm really enjoying. We started out with a traditional Danish breakfast. Then we went shopping, because the stores are open on the first Sunday of the month. Whoever (the guidebooks) said they didn't have malls in Denmark lied, because they certainly do, but they are a little different. There are grocery stores and cheese stores etc. along with the trendy clothing stores, like a nice regular market area only enclosed. After shopping we went to have coffee with the grandmother, who lives in the first complex of apartment buildings built in Denmark, and to see that area where my host mother grew up. I was able to successfully communicate one sentence in Danish. It was rather exciting.