kopenhavn.

 

"welcome to the shire"

"nookie time"

"do they have those flavoured bitch beers?"

"all i wanna do is sit and have a chai"

KOPENHAVN: the sun sets at 10pm and the sun rises at 3am.  with that much daylight, it tricks your body into thinking that its never time for sleep and allows your brain to just stay awake.  i woke up at 4.30am on consecutive mornings freaking out to a typically glaring midday sun thinking that i missed my meeting.  are all european hotels small?  or am i just a spoiled brat that stays in larger hotel rooms?  the copenhagen island was a decent hotel.  nice view of the water and a quick walk to the marriott.  after this trip, i'm quite impressed with my intuition on travel.  it was the most glaring during this trip because i had no friends in denmark, i had read nothing on denmark and knew nothing about the country nor the food nor the culture other than danishes/blondes and the vikings.  yet somehow, i think i went to all the right places, restaurants, cafes, saw all the right sites, clubs, music festivals etc.  

"i kind of figured the food was horrible because there would have been more photos of food in your album"  ECHANG - danish food is braveheart food.  it's rustic country food with stale bread, local fish and your typical parsley and salt pepper seasoning.  the only richness in flavor comes in the form of butter.  there's not much more to it.  they love pizza.  which wasn't that great.  there's the smorrebod, which is an open faced sandwich that just isn't all that great.  smother it with "remoulade"...throw a pickle on it....give it a bite and a hard swallow and chase it down with a beer.  and another beer.  and another beer.  there's also the danish obsession with hot dogs.  the polsner.  which in fact, is the only thing thats quite good (barring the fact that i'm not all hyped on hot dogs to begin with)...it's bigger suped up more crunchy more tasty sausage that is way too big for the bun.   the catsup they give you also tastes heartier.  oh yea, there's also the huge influx of turks...(probably during the purge)...hence the schwarma's are everywhere and not bad. 

 

 

madklubben - probably a danish version of the BLT chain.  decently priced and the food was ok.  much better than staying at the hotel for the EPL dinner. =) 

aoc...1 michelin star.  champagne.  wine pairing.  burnt bread.  butter bread.  some cream thing.  shrimp.  white asparagus.  perch in a mushroom sauce (first time having salsify).  beef flap. dessert.  port. espresso.  freeze dried marshmallows!  here are the pics.  there's not much more to say about the meal cept the company was good.

 

free christiana - i was told this was a hippie area.  so i was thinking "oh, it must be trendy like brick lane...hipsters"...little did i realize, we randomly walk into the park...find a graffitti infested building then walk to the garden in the back that just looked like a trailer park.  the dirt trail led us towards a big sign "no fotos".  constant wafts of marijuana blew thru the air and on that gloomy day it felt more and more like a trailer park.  you turn the corner and one two three four tiny stands selling 5-10 types of weed.  each tent with it's own following.  around the bend, a bakery shop of marijuana laced breads and brownies and cookies.  if it weren't for frank sinatra playing in the background this seriously dodgy area would have been a bit intimidating.  danish male features are a big daunting.  short hair or bald...hoodies and jeans of the detroit kind...smoking and puffing and wheeling and dealing.  it was a relief to see a tour group also feeling the same way.

 

architecture and infrastructure - in the more downtown area of town there's old buildings and then there are the modern buildings.  nothing in btwn.  right next to spires and arches you'll see that minimalist modern square box of black steel, floor to ceiling windows, precision architecture of straight lines.  the modern structures are less apparent the further you are away from the hotel section of town.  rows of colored townhouses line the residential areas, but whats cooler are the hanging lights system.  reminds me of the xcam.  the scenery and canals and harbor and palace are nice at first, but after a while, they all start to look the same.  am i england? or sweden? or denmark? who knows.  but the food is still terrible.  NYHAVN is kind of like any other seaport.  

MALMO, SWEDEN - i took a train to sweden.  no passport needed. maybe i went too late.  cuz everything was closed.  EVERYTHING.  and no one was on the street.  it was as if it were a ghost town.  lots of infrstracture, new buildings, modern buildings that looked like residential housing yet it seemed completely uninhabited.  a few restaurants were open.  the only place that had people was lilla torg.  one small square of 4 restaurants and a coffee shop.  2 hours and i was done. oresund bridge and wind farms. 

 

the danish gene pool is quite good.  if you're blonde tall and skinny and you're hot even if you're not.  uber blonde hair is quite amazing.  how does it grow like that? but there's no style in this city.  no eye shadow.  no fake lashes.  and why is it that it seems like the girls don't wash their hair.  

 

"somehow you end up at all the happening places anyways"  - sommelier @ aoc told us simmons was happening.  google maps took us there and the bar next door seemed happening.  so we went there first.  then simmons.  then partied euro house music style...till 5 in the morning. ha.  the following night, i ended up at a music festival.  saw revoltage, a linkin park type band.  not bad.  then went to the adjacent venue and saw a more electronica-arcade fire.

 

 

the mermaid - its a tiny statue that u're supposed to go see.  not impressive at all.  what was really impressive was the amount of chinese tourists flooding the area.  chinese middle class is getting stronger.

pissoir. is gross.  walked to red light district.  saw some guy just fedor someone.  and then saw someone shoot up.  nuts.