Gringa in Denmark

I arrived in Aalborg Denmark at 11:30 pm on Thursday, July 23rd. The airport is tiny and the guards at the entrance as we got off the plane looked shocked to see my American passport. He quickly glanced through the stamps and then let me through to claim my luggage. I am used to customs and the hassles when traveling between countries, so once I collected my bag I was looking around for the next step, the next line to wait in, the next paper to fill out. But there was nothing. I half expected the airport security to come running after me shouting obscenities in Danish as I wandered through the empty airport looking for a cab, but of course they didn't. I finally found the line of taxis out front and got in the first one and asked him to take me to Den Fede Ælling (The Fat Duckling) where my friend, Mads, works. He had to ask the other taxi drivers where it was which wasn't so comforting since I had pretty much absolutely no clue where I was going. Then we drove off into the darkness. The area surrounding the Aalborg airport is extremely black with nothing else around for several miles and as the movie Hostel popped into my head I told myself there was no way this nice taxi driver would ever mess with me.

We arrived at the harbor in Aalborg, where The Fat Duckling is actually a cafe on a boat, and the driver stopped the cab and told me, "It's around here somewhere." As I sighed and got out of the car, resigned to the fact that this guy wasn't really worried about whether I found it or not, all the young drunk people walking along the road stared at me as if I were an alien with my rather large backpack. Or maybe they were just wondering how a girl like me can carry such a bag. Careful boys, I'm stronger than I look! So I wandered back and forth a little bit, looking like an idiot because I'm a tourist and all tourists look like idiots, trying to decide which boat I dare venture onto to see if it was the Duckling. Finally I decided to ask one of the restaurants on the road if they had any idea where my friend's work was, and after one silly guy who thought his jokes were funny and told me it was actually across the harbor, he eventually giggled and told me it was right across the street. Fucker!!

When I entered the Duckling I found a nice looking guy working at the bar who told me his name was Jesper and apparently they had been expecting me. I was so relieved when he told me that Mads was upstairs and I wasn't lost at all, despite my feeling as if I were on another planet. So I stowed my bag downstairs and went upstairs to greet my long lost friend from high school. He hoisted me up in his arms and spun my around and gave me a big hug and told me how nice it was to see me. It has been about 8 or 9 years since we had seen each other when he was a foreign exchange student at my high school in New Mexico. He returned home when school let out and we had eventually reconnected through Facebook. I was to be his first friend from New Mexico to visit him in Denmark since then.

Mads had to finish up his work shift, but introduced me to Jesper's girlfriend, Shannon, and told me we should hang out. I was terrified to be paired up with this girl not knowing whether or not we would get along. But as luck would have it, she turned out to be awesome! We spent 5 days talking and shopping and walking and hanging out, riding roller coasters and visiting amusement parks.

I can't remember the last time I had ridden a rollercoaster, if ever. But I sure have had a huge dose of them in Denmark. It's definitely been a cultural experience for me as I'm not typically a person who would enjoy going to an amusement park. But Shannon and I had a blast at the little Tivoli in Aalborg, and then with Mads and Jesper at Sommerland in Farup. I have eaten more hot dogs in the past 6 days in Denmark than I think I have in the past 6 years. The food is not my favorite, but I've definitely been experiencing a different type of cuisine.

Yesterday I took the train from Aalborg to Copenhagen. I decided I had to check the city and after looking through all the various hostel websites, I figured I would try my luck with couch surfing and wrote a few people to see if anyone had a couch available on such short notice. I was amazed when I checked a couple hours later and had a reply from Thomas who told me he did have a couch and gave me his address and phone number and that was that. I got on the train the next day at noon and 4 hours later I was wandering the streets of Copenhagen trying to figure out where the fuck Thomas's apartment was at. I don't have a sim card for my Iphone in Denmark because they work on a totally different system and I figured it was a waste of money to get it for only a few days, so my phone is pretty useless here without wifi. I haven't been able to pick up any wifi here either which is a total bummer, but for some reason a little blue dot appeared on the map application for my iphone and showed me which direction I was going and which direction I needed to go. I guess it was a little Danish magic. And I got here in one piece.

I am devastated to say that the little mermaid statue is not in right now... she's in Hong Kong for an exhibition. So I will see Copenhagen without the little mermaid. But at least they have excellent shopping here!!!!