Rosona'sTravelogue

Last night

After assuring myself that Copenhagen is safe to walk in at any time of day, I decided to try out dancing some tango in town. It cost 60 Kroner, which is about 12 USD (conversion rate is close to 5 to 1). It was a nice dance. VERY different than Urbana. It started with few men, and soon a woman asked another to dance, so I did as well. The first follow was just wonderful. It was like hugging a good friend. Lots of fun dancers, who uniformly danced open embrace (i.e. more 'modern'). Several men followed each other and when I asked them to dance, they asked me to lead them.

The danish I learned:
Vil du danse? (Want to dance?)
Mage tak (thanks)
Untschuld (excuse me)

There's more dancing at the same place Monday night; I may go.

Danced until 2 am and slept 10 hrs.

Today
Ran into a mathematician I know (and another I didn't) who was hungry, so decided to go explore and eat. Traipsed around Copenhagen with them for a while. Saw the Rådhus (town hall) and the outside of Tivoli. Went to the National Museum and saw prehistoric denmark stuff. Very neat. They made a remark about how "we're mathematicians, we won't be long in the museum" and I thought that was weird. I like museums. I like doing stuff. I think I'm an atypical mathematician.

We ate on the Strøget, the pedestrian road. 35 Kroner (7 USD) for a sandwich, and that was cheap food. Most places more like 10-25 USD.

I also found the places to buy food! I bought apples, oranges, peaches, a neat dried chickpea + raisin mix for a little under 10 USD. Good stuff. The places to buy food (Bazaars or markeds) are, quite logically, ear the central train station. I'm kind of surprised I didn't think of this earlier.

The places to rent bicycles was closed as was the tourist info center.
I found some neat restaurants to try out, in including a Turkish place.

As I wrapped up my traipsing (feeling sunburnt and nearly out of water),  I was walking around Copenhagen's center and this was being sung at a bar as I strode past

"..and theres reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last
I cant remember all the times I tried to tell my myself
To hold on to these moments as they pass.."

("Long December", Counting Crows)

I thought it was appropriate.


Some extra commentary:
It is very useful to carry a small map around. I helped out three foreigners find where they were going because I was approached for directions and offered to help with my map.

Also, attitudes about inability to speak Danish differ from person to person. Some people seem completely unphased and some seem rather disdainful. Most people speak great English. I've run into a few that speak none -- mostly foreigners (to Denmark) who speak Danish + their native tongue, e.g. the guy I danced with who spoke Spanish, Danish and about 5 words of English. That was kinda fun to try to talk with him actually.

I've been debating trying to pick up Spanish this year, and I think I should. Esp if I want to try to go to Argentina.