Copenhagen

 I woke up at noon today. I’m not sure if this is exhaustion, jet lag, or just a hangover but I’m annoyed by the fact. My sleep schedule is getting pretty inconsistent and all this moving around isn’t helping. I am looking forward to being in London for three nights instead of the two that I’ve been able to have so far.

I message my friend Austin for some recommendations for lunch and his wife Milo delivers. I shower and make my way to Kanal Kaféen for some traditional Danish food. This place is full of Danes having lunch on Friday and as the token American I am seated right by the toilets. Shitty as it may be, there is no over tourism problem here. People aren’t speaking English on the street like they were in Amsterdam.

These towers are everywhere

Smørrebeød is the name of the game here, an open faces sandwich based on rye bread slathered with butter and topped with fish, capers, onions, and dill. The pieces are brought to the table for you to pile as you see fit. I ordered the pickled herring and made my assembly, when I looked at my handiwork I laughed to myself. The whole thing bore an uncanny resemblance to a bagel with herring, an ode to my Litvak grandmother. As it turns out, this country has a substantial population of Lithuanians who migrated over ages ago. Funny stuff. I felt incredibly out of sync as I noticed I was the only person in the restaurant who was speaking English and not drinking beer. The men to my left were chatting away on what appeared to be a business lunch and putting down Tuborgs. Nice.

My next stop was a bookstore. I’d just finished the autobiography on the Japanese American internee and needed my next train read. Luckily for me there is enough demand for English books here that many stores carry a good selection and I was even able to find a used bookstore that specialized. The inside was notably less chaotic than other used bookstores I’d been to, I’m learning the Nordic people have less of an appetite for chaos and disorder than us Americans. IKEA shelving, all in good order and well labeled. I left with Heinlin.

I then walked to The King’s Garden to meet up with my friend Austin. He’s a friend I made back in Long Beach. He and his wife, Milo, were living in the LBC for a year and we became friends quickly with a mutual love for what in the US is called “alternative transportation” and epicurean delights. Austin and Milo moved to Copenhagen for college and this is where we both assumed the story would end. Fortunately I’m tougher to get rid of than that and love an excuse to pop out to some far flung corner of Earth I don’t usually spend time in.

We wandered the city and caught up. There’s a lot to talk about and his expat experience here is interesting. There are a lot of great things about European life and a lot of trade offs. You can accomplish a lot with a monoculture but you lose a lot as well. We walked to Katsellet, an old fort, and then back into the city for some cafe hopping. Everywhere is gearing up for Christmas. Lights are going up and the Christmas markets have made their annual appearance. This also meant that I happed to be in town for J Tog.

Glug Glug, Gløgg Gløgg

J Tog is fundamentally a beer release celebration. The two major breweries in town, Carlsberg and Tuborg, both release their annual spiced Christmas beer on the same day. This is no ordinary release party. Damn near every bar in the city is packed full of thirsty Danes excitedly waiting for their first sip. The celebration often gets so packed that the drinkers overflow into the street, unchained by open container laws. At 21:00 the crowd howls for a brief moment (we cannot stop being considerate) and the beers make their way out. The breweries also send out vans of promoters handing out merch and free beer. What’s not to love?

By this point Milo and many of her and Austin’s expatriate school friends had joined us for the night out. It was great fun, the packed bars and crowds flowing like water in search of a drink, bathroom, or free hat. We wrapped up our night on the patio as a bar was shutting it all down. Fries snacked on and stomach full of kebab.

Just one more

As I stumbled back I couldn’t help but noticing how much broken glass I had to dodge on the way. Years of living in Long Beach have taught me how to not take unwanted paces on the sidewalk but this was something else. More broken glass than I’d seen living in Isla Vista. These people drink like Vikings.