Travel Tales: Copenhagen Day 4 – And Like That…

So today I figure I try the last vegetarian place on the only list I made for my trip (the one that was closed yesterday). Allegedly they serve food there and also sell soy products. I felt extra extra today because it was the first real sunny day I have seen since landing. I trekked all the way to the magical veggie store around 11am (normal start time here) only to find out that there is no hot food served (“um, we have bread”) only a subpar grocery experience to be had. So curses to that and I go about my way to the Zoo, after stopping to buy Apple Juice – figured I play it safe after the liquid sugar incident – and some muffins for breakfast. I do my tourist stop off “um, how do I get to the zoo? and how much is it” then wrassle up some change for the bus.

The zoo had me saying My, my, my like Johnny Gill. Man it was a fantabulous experience as I saw lions and tigers and bears; a panda bear eating a sea lion, flamingos, a Tasmanian devil (this is the only place, outside of Australia and Looney Tunes to see one) and many other animals. It is also notable that the zoo has been removing the animals from cages (where feasible) to put them in an open environment similar to their natural environment. Don’t worry there were large gaps to prevent (or at least give the appearance of prevention of) the animals from leaping the wall to walk amongst the crowd. This open environment was best scene when a bird landed in the wolves’ area – the wolves hunted down the sound but didn’t find the bird. I ended up spending 3 hours there and decided that I should ascend the Eiffel Tower like structure in the middle of the entry way to the zoo. Major step game there! I had to pause – like those ladies who stop in the middle of the train steps- to catch my breath two-thirds of the way up. After finally making it, I realized that the view is priceless. I sat for about 20 minutes thinking about the fact that I am in Copenhagen – miles away from my loved ones and random other folks. Then I got hungry again so took down muffin #2.

Oh the muffin man

Next was to head back to the city after hanging out with the leopards and the wolves and such. The church with the gold spiral from Day 2 allows visitors to climb to the top daily until 4pm. It was 3pm. I needed to figure out where I wanna be. Do I go? Do I stay? There is a lot of rush inside of me to figure it out. Sure enough I figure my legs can use the exercise (sense the sarcasm?) provided by the several hundred stair climb. The first stop was to do my tourist actions to figure out the route there and then rush to catch the bus. I missed the first one Kriss Kross style but there was another one within minutes. I must say that the mass transit system here is simply flawless. Everyone gets one through either the first or second door (there are three) and exits through the second or third door. The buses are just advanced in many ways – cameras at the exits and throughout the bus; you can get change from the fare box and occasionally your driver will have some tunes playing. I got off one stop to late (distracted/lost) but still made it to Our Saviors Church in time to talk the walk. Man another breath taking view from the top (see pictures below). It was very windy and you go very, very high up to the top – you can touch the globe if you are brave enough to reach up. I did the reach but didn’t take a picture because I could just see one of my cameras taking a swan’s dive to the ground. The climb is a spiral staircase to get to the top area which can be a little nerve wracking as you see the people on the ground shrink with every turn of the steps.

Next was to Freetown for some food. There was a bigger crowd there today. I figure the sun and it being a weekday may have had an impact – there were lots of lines for people to purchase things from the town. The food for today was okay. Lots of – as my tree hugging association would say- root vegetables.

After that I did some walking to check out the art. The Christiana Street Art crew has designed the walls that separates Freetown from Christiana and the European Union. I walked and found another bike – this time a legit one in the sense that I had to deposit money to get it. So I figured I should cruise back to the Little Mermaid since it was sunny as this would be a chance to get better shots than the cloud sky from the day before. MAD TOURISTS! So I posted up on the bench till they fizzled away. After taking my pictures (and the obligatory pictures for other tourists), I just cruised the streets like I was in the movie Friday. Ended up passing this interesting art gallery by Art Pusher. He screened artistic dollar bills and used various interpretations of President Barrack Obama. He described the process to me: purchased an oil drum and did the old fashioned screen printing. After chatting it up some more I took off. Eventually I met up with Mikkel Grønnebæk from Norse Projects and V1 Gallery. We cruised back to V1 for an interview with him and one of his partners in the gallery, Jasper Elg. Stay tuned for the video from this.

After that it was dinner time and I had no idea what to eat. So I returned the bike and decided to do some walking until something hit me. I walked about 7 minutes and then came to Indian Palace. They. Had. A. Buffet. So I figured I could eat dinner and enough to last through breakfast. You see in my years of buffetry (pronounced buffet-ery) I have learned some simple things. Rules of the Buffet Club (in no particular order): 1) Your eyes are always bigger than your stomach. Challenge this by taking smaller plates so you don’t feel intimidated by a seemingly never ending supply of food on one plate. 2) Breathe – time your breathing and a well timed burp can keep you in the game. 3) It is a marathon not a sprint – no need to scarf down your food to rush back for seconds as this will only leave you full at the table as people still are eating. 4) Stay away from any drank and bread – separate they are deadly to the buffet game and together they will finish you quicker than the Razor’s edge. After the third plate, I decided to throw in my paper napkin and head back to the Hotel to pack and such.

1st plate

It has been real Copenhagen. And like that…i’m gone.