On Airports

In honor of my forthcoming flight back to the homeland, I'd like to share some musings I had in Gatwick airport while struggling to stay awake long enough to catch my egregiously early flight back to Copenhagen.

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Douglas Adams told us years ago that "it's no coincidence that no culture has coined the phrase 'pretty as an airport'". I'm not sure I agree. For one thing, architecturally speaking, many airports these days are making great strides. They all have their individual atmospheres. The Copenhagen airport is clean-cut, simple, elegant and not entirely unfriendly, much like the people of the city. The airport in Vilnius is clearly the product of a small and somewhat old fashioned culture.
But whatever your personal feelings on the physical attractiveness of airports is, there is no denying that they're interesting places. Airports hold a wide variety of human emotions: excitement, trepidation, sadness, irritation, boredom, happiness, panic. The range is as wide as the human capacity to feel. It's always interesting to be a player in this scaled down rendition of the human drama.
I usually find my feelings when in airports to be firmly on the positive end of the spectrum. Unless there are slow walkers in front of me; then I seethe. But it's invigorating to know you're about to step into a tube and be fired off to a place completely different from where you began, in culture, geography, and history. It's like a drive-thru banking delivery syste, but for people. And on the other end of your journey there could be almost anything waiting for you: family, old friends, people you've never met who are about to become your best friends, if only for the night, ridiculous adventures or uneventful excursions. The best part is the uncertainty inherent in traveling. Airports hold the promise of new experiences, and for that reason, I think they're quite beautiful indeed. For once, as far as I'm concerned, Douglas Adams was wrong.

8 Things No One Tells You About Winter Biking in København

When you move to København, you're generally pretty aware of the strong biking culture the city has. And if not you pick up on it quickly, when you realize not having a bike is almost as much of a disability as not having one of your feet. And biking is awesome- it's by far the easiest and most convenient way to get most places. But when the snow starts falling, the whole game changes.

For starters, you get the unmitigated joy of digging your bike out, both of snow, and hundreds of other bikes.

1. Bike lanes don't get plowed, and even if they do, it's poorly done, and you lose about half a meter from the width of the lane. This allows you to get stuck behind slow people. Bike traffic jams are the best.
2. If you think people in New Jersey turn into terrible drivers when it snows, don't even attempt to bike in København in the snow. People instantly go into weeble mode. (A reference that maybe three people reading this will get. Basically they go into super-slow, super-cautious mode.)
3. Snow and bike tires do not go together. Zero traction.
4. Bike baskets are very useful and wonderful things, but a heavily laden one in snowy conditions can dangerously unbalance your bike. Skid city.
5. Unless you like arriving places with with mascara smeared all over your face, looking like you just went through the worst break up of all times and are seconds away from shovling down a pint and a half of Ben & Jerry's, eye makeup should be avoided.
6. It's cold; much colder than skiing, because ski pants would be darkly frowned upon by the fashion-concisous Danes.
7. Long coats are vital. Not only do they look good, but they insulate your legs.
8. Bike locks freeze. Be prepared to give them mouth-to-mouth. In the street. People will find this strange. Deal with it.

The majestic beast, just returned from a harrowing expedition to the grocery store.

 

Lübeck

Last Saturday I was fortunate enough to get to go on one final trip of the semester; a day trip to the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) in Lübeck, northern Germany. Things I love about living in Copenhagen include the fact that cool places like Germany and Sweden are but a casual drive away. It was really nice to be back in a country where I could communicate with the locals. It's impressive how fast a language comes back to you when you're surrounded by it, and I really enjoyed spreching ein bißchen Deutsch.

Look at all those happy Germans with their wursts and glühwein.

A giant spinning candle thingy. I know there must be a proper name for it, but I don't know what it is.

 

The famous gate of Lübeck. And Lukas' back.

Lübeck is another old Hanseatic state, so it's got a lot in common with many of the eastern European cities, especially Tallinn and Riga. The gates are some of the biggest giveaways of this.

The gates once again. Majestic.

The thing I love about Germany, other than the food, the beer and pretty much everything, is how surprised and happy Germans are when they find out you speak their language. And you really benefit from this. Thanks to a delightful gentleman named Klaus that we ran into in a bar, we ended up eating at the oldest restaurant in Lübeck: Schiffergesselschaft. And mother of pearl was it delicious. There's just something wonderful about eating slabs of pork in a 500 year old beer hall.

Brit Break: London

It's been a while, but I've finally gotten around to writing about my quick trip to London. First of all, apologies for the lame and unvaried pictures. I'm a big gavone and forgot to charge my camera, so everything I saw after Big Ben went woefully undocumented. My bad.

We're just going to start this right off with the necessary touristy picture of an Underground sign. Iøm a big fan of the Underground signage, particularly on a stylistic level.

Behold, The Gherkin. I know this building has gotten mixed reviews, but from a purely structural standpoint, it's pretty amazing.

The Tower of London. Not as impressive as I expected.

I have to say, London is not my favorite place that I've been. Even after having been raised on Britcoms and assorted English movies, it was surprisingly hard to understand people. And apparently I was difficult to understand as well. Though it probably didn't help much that I had lost my voice a bit after the festivities of the Czech Trek... But anyway, communicating was surprisingly hard at times.

Tower Bridge.

And a skyline. Complete with a funky new building going up.

Bacon Street, a.k.a. the street I should live on.

The illustrious Liz Levenson, casually photobombing a shot of a picturesque London street.

For some reason I didn't believe that all the buses in London would be red doubledeckers. They are.

Big Ben, 3 minutes before my camera died.

In conclusion, two days was not nearly long enough to spend in London. It's a dauntingly large city, and I feel like I barely got to see anything. However, I did get off the beaten, touristy path a bit, which was nice. My hostel in the East End was right next door to the West Ham stadium, and on top of a delightful pub, which was featured in the movie Green Street Hooligans. So you know it was good.
Things I can reccommend highly include meat pies, Brick Lane, Picadilly Circus, booking a flight that doesn't leave at 8:00am, and not eating the fast food that's all over Barking Road. As good and as cheap as the shawarma there was, by the time I got home I couldn't even look at another chip without feeling a bit queasy.

Handball

Handball is an underratedly fantastic game to watch live. It's boring on TV. (I can personally vouch for that, as handball was by far the most televised olympic sport here in Denmark. It's kind of a big deal.) The Danish public seems pretty obsessed with the sport. We went to a random game on a Wednesday night; the place was absolutely packed.

Any sporting event that has the players walk out to this is tops in my book.

Pictured: Totally normal fanfare for a game that's basically hand soccer.

It's a delightfully fast-paced game to watch.

Guesses on what this is?

To explain the above picture: when we arrived there were what appeared to be posters on all our seats, made out of cardstock, with fold lines on it. We thought this was odd. When the players started to walk out, and we were greeted with a mighty thunder of clapping, we realized what these posters were for. They're one-handed clapping devices. This means that with one hand you can be eating a hotdog or enjoying a Carlsberg, while still applauding with the other. And this is important, because during the game you simply do not stop clapping.
Long story short, handball is awesome.

Here's some bonus footage illustrating how intense Danes get during handball games. The announcers are so into it.

Czech It Out: Prague

I know everyone says this, but I have to say it anyway: Prague is beautiful. the nine hours I spent there was not nearly long enough, even though I got a private tour from a local (which was awesome). It was really cool to get off the beaten, touristy path and see where real people hang out. But that being said, the touristy stuff is touristy for a reason. Because it's gorgeous. It also has a very interesting history, which I got to hear all about.

I also completely lucked out with the weather. It was so nice to have a completely sunny day for a change. such a breath of fresh air after the perpetually dark and damp weather of lovely Copenhagen.

The Clock Tower.

The Charles Bridge. If you squint you can see the castle in the background.

On the Charles Bridge. (Fun fact: it was specifically designed to be big enough to old jousting tournaments. Seems like a reasonable design constraint.)

On the streets. Where I spent a lot of time being lost. I've never had more navigational problems in a city, but my directional senses completely failed me in Prague. Which was actually fine with me: I got to see some places I might otherwise not have.

A view of the city from the top of the model Eifel Tower. Because yes, a model Eifel Tower on a hill is something every self-respecting city should have.

The castle. I hear this is the largest castle in Europe. I haven't bothered to verify this fact, because I trust everything my private guide, Honza, told me.

Inside the cathedral, which is inside the castle.

Just some penguin statues on the edge of the river. Because why not.

The penguins are on an island called Kampa, which holds a really cute, old-looking neighborhood. And in that neighborhood is a bar, in an old mill. We stopped there to enjoy a nice pivo (beer), and check out the bar counter, which was made by the pretty (in)famous Czech artist, David Černý. I encourage you to Google him. He definitely has a sense of humor, that carries into his work. I enjoy him. Unfortunately I didn't remember to take a picture of the bar though.

And here's Good King Wenceslas. Honza tells me that one of the most popular places in the city to meet up with your friends is under the horse's tail. So if you're ever in Prague and someone tells you to meet them 'under the tail', you'll know where to go.

Wenceslas Square is huge, and is used as a meething place by the populace on important occasions. So when the first president of the Czech Republic died, within a few hours people were already gathering there, lighting candles in his honor. since the Czech Republic only got complete independence quite recently, the first president, Václav Havel, was much beloved by the citizens.

Prague by night. Beautiful.

 

 

 
 

Czech It Out: Český Ráj

Český ráj is located northeast of Prague in the Czech Republic. If I haven't been grievously misinformed, it translates to 'Bohemian Paradise'. And paradise is an apt description of it. It's an absolutely beautiful area, full of trees and hills and particularly remarkable for its sandstone outcrops and formations. It's become increasingly clear to me that city life is not really my cup of tea, so it was refreshing to get out into nature, get dirty, and hang out with some real outdoorsy folk for a change. Basically, it was a great trip and I'm already looking into going back.
But now, pictures. There are a lot. Sorry.

Arriving after an overnight bus ride. Already falling in love with the countryside.

Let the games begin. Team slack-lining.

We played a lot of very silly icebreaking games. This one involved using a rubber ring attached to ropes to pick up a coffee can. Hilarity ensued.

Castle. Not an uncommon sight.

Strolling through the woods.

Woods, continued.

A lake. (Everything here was annoyingly picturesque, hence the plethora of pictures.)

Would ya look at that. Another castle.

Looks like a nice spot for a book and some coffee.

Climbing a nice sandstone crag at Malá Skála.

Artsy shot of the woods.

Foliage.

Yet another castle.

The site of our canoeing adventure. And of several capsizions. It was intense.

Things I've never encountered before: a dessert dumpling. Mom, you would be proud; I ate and somewhat enjoyed both blueberries and salmon. Not both at once.

Another great game- seeing who can hug a tree the longest. It's surprisingly tiring.

Adventuring through the rocks at night. Quite exciting.

This about sums it up for the adventuring part of the trip. It was everything I hoped for, and more. As far as I'm concerned, I lucked out and ended up in both of the groups who wound up clambering around on a scavenger hunt and canoeing at night. That added a whole new aspect of excitement to already cool activities.
Shout out to my new buddies at Outdoor Discovery! If anyone is planning a trip to the Czech Republic, definitely look them up. You won't be disappointed.
http://en.outdoordiscovery.cz/

Baltic Adventures: Riga

Riga is a particularly interesting city. It was devastated during World War II, and as a result, when it came under Soviet occupation, a huge amount of the city needed to rebuilt. Soviet influence is very visible when you walk around the city, especially once you get away from the old section. It's a little odd and unsettling, but at the same time very interesting to walk around streets that have barely changed since Latvia finally gained independence. Talk about a step back in time.

Rifleman Square. The statue was erected during the Soviet occupation. The black box in the background is now the occupation museum, but was originally a school, also from the Soviet era. Notice the disticnt lack of windows. Miserable.

St. Peter's church. It's Lutheran- a fact which is most easily recognized by the fact that it's topped with a rooster.

There's a very interesting rule regarding about St. Peter's church. It is clearly noticable as the tallest building in Old Riga, mostly because there is a law in place forbidding the construction of anything taller in that are of the city. This was particularly helpful for my navigation since my hostel was about 100 meters from it.

The Freedom Monument. The stars the woman on the top is holding represent the three regions of Latvia.

The Russian Orthodox church.

It contained one of the funniest signs I've seen in a long time.

A burnt-out shell of a building in the moer run-down and Soviet area of the city.

And a political/economic statement.

Just a cat statue on a roof.

There's a funny story about this cat. Apparently, back in the days when Latvia was a Hansaiatic state, there was a wealthy man from the Latvian countryside who very much wanted to be accepted into the merchants' guild. Not being from a city like the rest of the members, he was viewed as a bit of a country bumpkin and denied membership. Not surprisingly, he wasn't very happy about this, so he bought the building across the street from one of the guild halls, and put this cat statue on the roof, with the cat's exposed rump facing the guildhall. This was considered so rude and upsetting that the members of the guild relented and accepted him, on the condition that he turn the cat around. He did, and everyone lived happily ever after.
 

The main square in Old Riga.

A reconstruction of one of the buildings visiting merchants would stay in when visiting Riga. The original was destroyed during WWII.

Apparently, Riga was the birthplace of the Christmas tree. This is a statue celebrating that fact. I don't really see the resemblance.

and, last but not least, the Bremen Town Musicians. They say that if you make a wish and then manage to rub the noses of all four animals, it will come true. It's great to walk past and see people jumping for the rooster. It's higher than it looks.