From Africa To Russia

Hop on the early morning train to Copenhagen. I am saddened to be leaving Germany. I sit across from a pleasant old man on his way back to Denmark, he walks with a cane and is very dignified. At the water’s edge, the train actually climbs aboard a ferry, car by car, and we are shuttled across the water. The whole process works like clockwork, no delays, and takes only about forty-five minutes until we are in Denmark. Back on land, the train waiter comes by and offers everyone complimentary fruit. It is looking like Denmark may be as pleasant an experience as Germany was. I hike it in to my hostel in Norrebro with little difficulty. The dorm is a bit like a barracks, but looks serviceable. The receptionist girl tells me there is a place nearby to check out the World Cup, so I head out. Another guy appears to be trailing me, he wants to see the game as well. I introduce myself, his name is Vitali, he is from the Ukraine. He is nice, but very quiet and reserved. He is very tall, and his hair is longish, like mine. He reminds me of my good friend from college – in fact, they could almost be twins. We find a Scottish bar that will be showing the game, except it is about one hundred degrees in there, too hot for homo sapiens, so we walk down the main drag looking for another place. We find a place, I order nachos and a beer, and we watch Germany beat Argentina. Denmark is ridiculously expensive, I soon find out. My money flows like wine. Vitali is not a big drinker, so I am drinking for two. We find an Irish pub for the second game, which is packed to the rafters. Some silly drunk Spanish wench burns my arm with her cigarette, barely apologizes and goes right on warbling to her dopey friends. Her and her equally drunk Spanish friend are both draped over the same guy, who looks pleased with life in general. He doesn’t look like much to me, but what do I know. The Danish seem very easy-going and polite. The bartenders play no games (unlike in the States) and are stand-up fellers. Going north is agreeing with me. After the game, Vitali and I grab Burger King, go back to the hostel and crash.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 at 10:32 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.