Returning to Copenhagen

Monday, Sept. 24, 2007--Riga to Copenhagen

I can hear my landlady moving around this morning. Normally she has been quieter. I am sure she is happy that I am leaving and maybe making noise to rush me! But I have an afternoon flight and am in no rush. I will leave around 9:30 to run some errands I still need to do before leaving town.

It's another clear, sunny day. In general, I have been lucky on this trip. A few days were quite cool. The last 2-3 days have been almost warm, however! There was light rain only during portions of 2-3 of the 14 days. Overall, that's good for this part of the world.

I stopped at the tourist office to use their computer. It's nice that they have it as a free service for tourists. And when I go early in the day or late in the day, I never have to worry about someone else already being there or coming in and rushing me to finish. I also got information related to several places I needed to go to finish my business here.

I stopped at the post office, went shopping for a dinner gift to take to Jens and Robert tonight, stopped at my neighborhood eatery for one last time, and changed the remainder of my Lavian money back into dollars.

I had a surprise at the restaurant. When I have gone there in the evenings, it has been rather quiet. Well, today for lunch, there was a crowd. I'm not the only one who appreciates the value of their food! There were at least 10 people in line in front of me, and soon after I got in line another 5 people lined up behind me. I had their macaroni dish today. This time, it was made with olive oil, leeks and ground beef. Umm.

I took the local bus to the airport. I had plenty of time, and my only luggage (since my suitcase was stolen 10 days ago) was a plastic bag with my two extra shirts, my toiletries, and my books. The flight left on time and was fine. But then my connecting flight in Stockholm was delayed. SAS had to ground all their prop-jets (which I'm surprised they are still using anyway rather than switching to regional jets) a few days ago due to two accidents related to collapsing landing gear. They have a shortage of planes without the prop-jets, so we had to wait for a plane that had finished a flight to Malmø to come up there and pick us up. That got me to Copenhagen 40 minutes later than scheduled.

Jens and Robert had invited me to dinner, so I rushed to get to their place. I had hoped to be there by 19:00. But the delayed flight meant that I didn't arrive there until 19:30. But they had cooked a meal that could stay warm on the cookstove until I arrived (a mixture of tomatoes, sausages, chunks of meat, etc., served over a mixture of white and wild rice). I had dinner with them and Claus and talked about what had been happening here in town and about my trip. It was good to be with friends again.

Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2007--Copenhagen

I went to see my friend Old Grethe today. She is now 84 years old, but she has always been fresh and active. I was surprised to observe that her health has deteriorated since I was here in December. For the first time, she was not as alert as usual, and she had some physcial problems. Besides a pain in the back she had never mentioned to me before that now makes her moan with pain as she sits down or gets up, she was having dizzy spells that made her uneven on her feet. She told me that she has such days occasionally and that she was sorry that today was one of those days. I was just sorry to learn that this has become something that is now normal for her even if it is only occasionally. She also seemed to have trouble concentrating and kept drifting into Danish as she talked (which I could mostly follow). That was new, too, since she can speak English quite well normally.

I had told Grethe that I would bring sandwiches for our lunch as I did when I saw her last December. She has macular degeneration and cannot see to cook anymore. If she does cook, it is by feel and it is totally exhausting for her, she said. I stopped at a small shop around the corner and bought 6 pieces of smørrebrød, Danish open-faced sandwiches--two with shrimp and sliced boiled egg; two with roast beef, horseradish, and sauce; and two with tomato and potato slices. She thanked me over and over for bringing the sandwiches and told me how happy it made her to have food brought in and to not have to make food.

I stopped at the store and bought the fixings for burgers on my way back to Nurse Grethe's apartment. She has been on a tour of Normandie for 10 days and was returning by bus today. She likes me to make her burgers each time I am here, so I told her I would have them ready to make for her tonight. She arrived at 19:30, and we spent the evening enjoying burgers, chips, and beer and telling each other about our holidays.