Copenhagen

I've been to a lot of airports in the world but I have to say it was a first to deplane in Copenhagen and be greeted with the overwhelming smell of cooked sausage. Lots of it. Wattup?

The airport is not far from the center so when my bag was finally the last one off the conveyor belt it only took about 20 minutes to get to Central Station, and then five more to get to my hotel. Which apparently is in the middle of the red light district. I was just looking for cheap hotels when I booked. Really.

Jim was already here, Arnout was stuck in Amsterdam because of a massive rain storm, so Jim and I headed out for dinner, quick and definitely not cheap. What is up with the price of this country? I've pretty much blown a hundred dollars in less than 3 hours and all I've got to show for it was a burger and 'small' beer. And the new Outlandish cd isn't even out, what now????

When I was growing up my parents bought a set of encyclopedias called World of Child Craft or something like that. In the 'D' book was a picture of Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, 'D'enmark and I was so taken with the photo that all my life since I've dreamt of seeing it. After dinner Jim and I paid to get in and so I was taking care of one of my childhood dreams, 34 years after first seeing the picture. It is lovely, very touristy and a bit kitschy, but it totally lived up to my expectations. It's not very big but still manages to stuff in about 36 different types of restaurants and a bunch of amusement park rides. We ended up seeing the ballet pantomime about a harlequin and the love of his life, after which we went back to the hotel to see if Arnout had checked in, and he was sitting there waiting for us.

This part of the trip will be low on tourist activities as I'm here for a reunion with old friends, and judging by the 3 hours we just sat in a bar in Tivoli, it'll be long on conversation and catching up. It was 9 years ago that we all met to drive from Istanbul to Delhi on a big blue truck with red and yellow stripes. We were all together for 3 months, some went on to Nepal and another few months of travel. It was a significant time in my life and one that has largely disappeared from conversation as no one back home was on the trip. I'm sometimes saddened by the fact that the biggest experiences in my life have been shared with people not from home, but with others from different parts of the world. The upshot is that now I finally get to relive that time with the people who experienced it all together - it's as if a part of my life that's been sleeping for so long has finally woken up and gets to talk about it with the people who know it best.

So now it's off to bed to prepare for two days of partying. I will take my camera to the reunion because something makes me think there needs to be a record of the next 48 hours which may very well be forgotten or fogged over. After all, it can't be a reunion if we don't reenact some of the shenanigans that went on the first time...