Copenhagen - July 2009

Friday, July 11 – Sunday, July 12

The flight on Friday almost did not happen. After going to bed very early on Thursday and getting up at 4am to pack on Friday, I finally had everything set for my departure. However, when I tried to check in online, I discovered my flight was now set for Saturday night! Since it was a red-eye, there was no way I wanted to get to Copenhagen on Sunday morning and then go to work on Monday. Luckily, I found out that the cost for moving me back to the Friday night flight was zero. The change was made, and I then got to book it to the airport.

The cab ride was fine, and traffic on 285 played along. I tried to call my grandma from the car, but she couldn’t hear me and hung up. Mom tried to call me while I was in line for security, so I couldn’t talk to her either until I got through security and to my gate. She then called my grandma back who finally reached me before I was called to board the aircraft.

Thankfully, I had an aisle seat. The Danish man sitting next to me asked if I wanted to switch, and I quickly said no. The words I used were, “I hate the window!” He said something about his legs, but when I stood up to let him in, I was a good 6 inches TALLER than he was! I settled in for a nearly 10 hour flight.

As usual, I could not sleep in cattle car class. They played “17 Again” which wasn’t a bad movie as far as these Disney-light films go. I did not have any interest in the remake of “Race to Witch Mountain” so I read my Reconstruction book instead. Nothing like having about 8 hours of solid reading to get through a book! I did not quite finish it but got close.

The food on the plane wasn’t bad. I only bought one drink, and they gave us wine for dinner. None of it knocked me out, though. I never managed to get comfortable, but that is not unusual for these long flights.

We landed on time about 9:30am in Copenhagen. Deplaning was efficient, and the immigration was a breeze. I am almost embarrassed by what we put visitors to the US through when they enter and leave the country. Lots of forms, long lines, and even more forms when you leave! Not to mention eye scans and fingerprints. Demark does none of this stuff. I presented my passport, and the very bored looking agent glanced at it, snorted, and handed it back. He did not say a word, and that was the extent of my screening! I understand why we screen the way we do, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.

I quickly discovered upon retrieving my luggage that I had not set the pin code on my government travel card. Here in Denmark, they have gone totally over to a chip system, where when you use a credit card, you enter a pin code each time. I had to use my personal credit card to buy the S-train ticket from the airport to the Norreport station where I needed to get off for my hotel. I will need to figure out how to call the credit card company to set my pin or I could be in trouble, unable to get advances or anything. Considering the cost of the train ticket from my hotel to work is 21DKK (about $4.50 US) each way, I will need my card before this trip is over.

Since I arrived so early, my hotel room was not ready. I did not expect it would be, so I waited in the reception area for about 90 minutes until my room was ready. By this time, I was crashing, but managed to stay awake. At one point, this older guy came in to get some coffee and openly leered at me. I am pretty certain he was flirting with me, although he did not say a word. In case I did not understand the first time, he came back and did it again! That was certainly interesting, albeit unexpected.

Finally, my room was ready. The first problem was that the elevator button for the 5th floor did not work, so I had to go up to the 6th floor and walk down. I made it to my room, which wasn’t bad. I think my old room at the Hellerup was about as big, but it felt bigger because the Hellerup only gave me a single bed. This room has a double, which is nice. There is a step down “study” area which is my bonus room. It has a desk, chair, and a high backed reading chair. I will have to post some pictures. There is a small TV that only plays Danish national TV, but they sometimes play American shows at night. The bathroom is typically Danish: all tile with a toilet and an open shower next to it. The shower is no way separated from the rest of the bathroom except by a curtain. The floor is sloped towards a drain, but there is no separate shower basin.

I finally crashed and was able to sleep for a while. I got up about 8:30pm, but I didn’t think it was that late because it was still quite bright outside. The sun didn’t start to set until 10pm, when I went out on the town. Unfortunately, not much is open for food that late, so I couldn’t eat. I wasn’t that hungry anyway. The nice thing about Copenhagen is that the gay scene is pretty much on two streets close together. It is maybe a 10 minute walk from my hotel, which is nice.

I first went to Masken, which was packed. This is very different from the last time I was in Copenhagen in 2007 during the winter where the crowds were sparse. Wall to wall boys with some girls mixed in. I got a beer and mostly stayed to myself. I have found that when I am in a foreign situation, especially where I don’t speak the language, I tend to get very shy and just stand back and watch, waiting for someone to approach me. That approach was not working well, so I went up to the bar for a refill. As I sat there, a girl accidently bumped me and excused herself in Danish, and I replied “No worries” to which she asked, “Are you Australian?” I am certain no one has ever mistaken me for an Australian, and she explained that my “no worries” comment was something Australians usually say. I told her I picked up the saying in Africa. She chatted with me for a while, and welcomed me to Denmark and reminded me that Danes are very friendly; if I speak, they will almost always speak back.

It was around this time that I had my 2nd bizarre experience at being hit on. This pretty good looking white-blond Dane clearly cruised me with his eyes. I held his stare, and then he came over to where I was, set his beer down, and continued to look at me and smile. I said hello, but he did not respond, instead grinning more widely and leaving the bar. When I left about a half hour later, I ran into him, and the only thing he said was, “Do you want to fuck me?” This kind of thing NEVER happens to me in the US.

I next got stopped in the street by a British couple named Philip and Chris. Well, Chris was British, and his boyfriend Philip was Portuguese. They both worked for a private clinical practice in London where Chris was a doctor an Philip a nurse. They asked me where the Jailhouse bar was, and I happened to be headed there, so I took them. They invited me to have a drink with them, which I did. It was Chris’s 38th birthday, so they were celebrating for the weekend. I had a great time with them both, and Chris was drunk enough that he was talking to anyone and everyone. We met a guy who had been on my flight from Atlanta who was taking a Holland America cruises of the Baltic Sea the next day. After many pints of beer, several rounds of shots, and lots of laughter, we headed to the after hours Cosy Bar.

There we drank some more, and danced. They were so much fun. I doubted that the situation was headed to a hot threesome, but I went along with it. I even ran into a guy named Nigel who had been my friend David’s head resident in Miles Hall at VT before David was the Head RA there. Such a small, random world where you run into someone you could have easily known in rural Southwest Virginia at an after hours gay club in Copehagen, Denmark at 4am! Finally, Chris and Philip were ready to crash. They asked me to meet them at the Little Mermaid statue at 2pm for a late lunch since I did not have a working phone number to give them. When I walked out of the club, it was 5am and the sun was UP.

I slept pretty well at the hotel, but managed to get up in time to head to the Little Mermaid. Unfortunately, Chris and Philip did not show up, even though I stayed until 2:30pm waiting. I wish I had gotten an email or something. They had taken some good pictures throughout the night that I would have loved a copy of. I guess it’s just one of those experiences that will have to live in my memory. It would be completely random to ever run into them again, although I would like to since they were so much fun.

I had a very late lunch (4pm) not far from my hotel, and then decided to see a movie. I saw Borat, which was very interesting. It was a bit graphic, and the whole cage fight scene in Arkansas was a frightening portrait of the very real dangers faced by gay people in the rural South.

I did not stay out very late on Sunday because my feet hurt. My new sneakers had rubbed my ankles raw, and I had no band-aids to cover up the spots. I also didn’t want to be exhausted for my first day at the office. I set my iPhone up to be an alarm and basically crashed.