2012_07_25 Denmark!

Alexa's report on July 25, 2012

I left Frankfurt after midnight by bus for Copenhagen, had an hour's delay in Hamburg, then sat with an Afghani named Isa ("Jesus!"). The bus boarded a ferry with duty-free shopping and expensive coffee, then lots of countryside til we were disgorged near the train station in Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen...7-11s are everywhere in Denmark. Since my Couchsurf hostess Åse works with elderly during the week, I finally succeeded in changing money and getting a ticket to Odense and my hostess there, Jeanette. She grew up in Australia with Danish parents, studies, volunteers with homeless and has 2 great cats, Sophie and Anna. She took me under her wing with my limited time before August (Russia!), convinced and helped me purchase flights to Oslo and Stockholm. She also gave me long-sleeved shirts, a warm poncho and a long wonder-scarf of a thousand uses. I took up her offers of a shower and a laundry load but the cats slept elsewhere.

The next morning Jeanette walked me to the center with her bike. She had an appointment with a woman entering rehab but another volunteer took it and she was my guide for the day. First in the shopping street we found a cheap shoe store to replace the ones I forgot in France. Then I bought a tourist ticket and we saw the daily outdoor performance of Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales I must reread! Odense is his hometown and she waited while I walked through his museum and home. Then to a Protestant church whose backyard WWII bunker was saved and turned into an assembly room, and to a tree where toddlers hang their pacifiers and bid them adieu.

Next, a bus ride to Fyn, a village of Danish farmhouses moved and restored, furnished and populated with costumed re-enactors and heritage animals. Back to town for a snack at the station and a free blues concert in the king's garden. The weather was ever changing, everyone sharing a shammy to wipe off the tables and benches. Prodigious amounts of beer were consumed and one performer, Nelle, a man, was a former client of Jeanette's.

I tried to pay attention walking home but the next morning I took a wrong turn with all my luggage and had four museums to see on my card before the train back to Copenhgen. First was the town museum, then a 7th floor recreation of rooms from different decades of the 20th century. Next, Brandt, an old factory turned media center with many artists' videos particularly on borders. I saw how lucky I am to travel for pleasure, when so many Africans risk and lose all to work in Europe, Chinese women struggle to stay in Taiwan...I could have watched for hours but had to get to the Kunst museum (art) near the station before my tourist card expired. A special exhibit on space travel features paintings, clips from Star Trek, Monty Python, Star Wars, and a Danish silent on travelling to Mars that was riveting. I rushed to the train and then found I didnt have Åse's number or directions and the station's McDonalds was not connected. So I rented a computer for 90 minutes and emailed Åse and used the time to write the Strasbourg-Frankfurt report. I took a train to Norreport - strangers are very generous with their cell phones, as Jeanette told me, Just Ask! - and ten minutes later Åse (pronounced Oise, like Odense is Oithenz) appeared on foot and helped me lug my stuff up 4 flights to her beautiful airy apartment where we chatted over Macedonian wine I got in Frankfurt's Aldi supermarket.

Åse is from the faraway Faroe islands between Shetland and Iceland, and loves whale meat. I forgive her! She was an au pair in the States way back when, worked on ships and has a son and a grandson Cæsar.

Saturday I rented a bike - Copenhagen is truly designed for the cyclist! - and we made our way to the famous harbor, the royal palace, the little mermaid and finally Christianna, the former military compound the hippies took over and made into a community.

After a nap and a delicious meal we cycled to Tivoli Gardens, a heavenly amusement park with astonishing rides. We were met by her half-sister and then enjoyed a big band concert, all the great standards sung in English.

Sunday Åse went to see another sister and I explored the nearby Botanical garden, the Rosenberg palace gardens and the East gardens, snapping away. Home for lunch - it's amazing how these Couchsurf hosts trust you with their keys - and met Åse returning from a flea market and ready for a nap, so I set off again for the art museum, which was huge and free. I paid for a special Matisse exhibit with documentary films showing stages in the development of some of his paintings. I ran out of time to see the Rosenberg palace so that would happen the next day. But I caught the tail end of an outdoor farce with multiple doors and actors quick-changing costumes and sexes.

On the train to Odense I had borrowed the phone of a woman from Hellarød, Ingrid, who invited me to visit her Monday after her dentist appointment. I packed up for the next day's early flight to Oslo, bought a 24-hour train pass, and headed back to the Rosenberg castle. Senior discount, but taking photos is an extra 20 Danish crowns. They take Euro notes but give change in Danish coins. My backpack locker there takes and returns 20 crowns, and someone had left the coin, so I took that as a sign to pay to photograph and am so glad I did. It was a marvel. In the basement Treasury, jewels and crowns. Every room of the castle decorated floor to ceiling, culminating with the throne room up top! I hope you see my photos someday somehow!

Then it was on to the train to Hellerød where ebullient Ingrid took me to the supermarket to shop for dinner and I got rid of my last coins. Then to Hellerød castle, where Ingrid was married, (no more) and to her neighbors', a retired sailor and his girlfrend, where we enjoyed coffee, wine, cookies, laughs and a joint from Christianna.

Finally to Ingrid's place, which could be featured on "Hoarders," but she let me photograph it, and a large poster of her in her modelling days. She is asking for help from social services I met her cats and checked email while she made a delicious fish/rice/vegetable meal, gave me a photo cable and cholesterol meds she wouldnt use since she now gets daily packs, all her pills in one long plastic roll! At 9 pm  I was back on the train to Copenhagen. Though Åse was in bed, her son's phone calla wakened her and we had a chance to talk before my 5 AM wake up for the flight to Oslo.

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ALexa