Copenhagen and friends

So Wednesday evening arrived and Django and I luckily woke up in time to catch a bus to the airport, or Lufthavn, to meet Simon. He had just flown in from Los Angeles after playing a show opening for The 88, a really incredible LA band. We took a bus back to the house where I had been, collected our collective luggage, and took a taxi to the apartment of some good friends of Simon's.

In Copenhagen, if you even set foot in a taxi, be prepared to kiss 20 bucks goodbye-- it's really pricey there. In fact all public transport (which functions brilliantly, you can get anywhere) is quite expensive (a little over 3 dollars just to get on a bus too). Most people in the city don't own a car, and everyone owns a bicycle. In the dead of winter you will see people riding on their bicycle, through snow and ice, sometimes without a hat on. Seriously, I've seen it. We are such wimps in the USofA, driving 8 blocks in good weather (I'm not the only one am I?). Most people with babies have the 'old fashioned' baby carriages, or prams as well, which they take on buses and trains regularly.

So we ended up staying for several days at the home of Kristin and Juan Luis, and were the recipients of very warm hospitality-- this means a lot when you plunk yourself and all your luggage in someone's living room.

We had a party with Simon's family, enjoyed coffee on the roof after breakfast, some traditional spanish food, and lovely company. Thanks!

We got out the next day and went into the center of Copenhagen to meet Simon's brother and father for lunch. It's good I've been to Copenhagen a few times before, because this was only one of two journeys into the city center during the week I was there. We had a string of absolutely beautiful days, and unseasonably warm weather.

We visited Christiania on another day which is the 'free town' part of Denmark. It was an old military base that was abandoned and people began squatting some years ago. People built their own unique little houses, there are little food shops, lots of art, and marijuana was freely bought and sold. In the last few years the relatively right wing government has been trying to destroy Christiania, which is a real shame. It has not only been a place of free expression, but also one of the biggest tourist attractions next to Tivoli Garden and the Little Mermaid statue. So, in recent years the marijuana and hash disappeared from 'pusher street' (I'm not a pot person, but I am all for legalizing it). So when we walked through the other day and all the weed and hash was out for sale it seemed to be quite a good sign that the government was letting up on their suppression tactics (which always backfire-- when will They ever learn?). Perhaps this is the case, or it might be that the police are busy with more violent gang activity that has cropped up recently and involves some of the immigrant population, much of which comes from the Middle East. Such a shame that some people give a whole culture a bad name.

We spent much of the rest of our week visiting with Simon's family: his father Karl, brother Jonas, sister Dorthe and their respective significant others. Everyone, of course, fell in love with Django, who is just so dang charming who can blame them?

We also visited with our dear friend Brett (who introduced me and Simon, and is hence indirectly responsible for Django...) his wife Amalie and their brand new baby Liva who is now only two weeks old. So far she has been dubbed 'Buddha baby'. Lucky parents! I hope the sleep continues.