Partying in Copenhagen

Friday, Sept. 4, 2009--Copenhagen

Grethe was off to work on Friday, and I stayed at her apartment all day starting my planning for the last two main segments of my travel this year--Morocco and Venezuela. The latter is going to be a problem. Security seems to be a major concern there, and dealing with money is a major hassle. Based on everything I read, Venezuela must be much like South Africa or worse in terms of security. There are warnings about not being out in the evenings. There are parts of every city with warnings. I am hoping it will not be as bad as it sounds once I get there. For instance, there were warnings (not as strong) regarding Bulgaria and Romania, yet I had no problems at all. My biggest problem is that I am arriving at night (around 20:00) with only expensive alternatives for getting away from the airport that are safe and getting to places that are safe for sleeping for the night. Regarding money, their system is set up to try to force tourists to use an exchange rate that essentially almost triples the costs. The government sets the official rate, and that is the one applied if using a credit card to make a purchase or an ATM cash withdrawal. However, if one has cash and exchanges on the black market, there is a much better rate. Here's an interesting article that discusses it: What I need to do is make sure that I have enough dollars when I enter the country to exchange to pay for all my costs while there. That means that I must withdraw some money either here in Denmark, in Morocco, or on the day I am in Portugal and exchange them for dollars, since I do not currently have enough dollars in my money belt to cover the 20 days I will be there.

Jens and Robert invited Grethe and me for dinner at their place. Jens opened a bottle of sparkling wine and served it with potato chips to welcome us. It was a casual dinner at the table in the kitchen--pizza topped with tomato sauce, mozarella, and black olives along with a salad. Later, we had some dark chocolate with a cherry-flavored cream filling. While Jens and Grethe visited, I helped Robert solve a problem he was having related to opening attachments on his e-mails and advised him about purchasing and installing a router and a second computer with speakers so that he can be on the computer at the same time as Jens and can listen to French radio on the computer.

Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009--Copenhagen

Torben and Erik invited Grethe, Jens, Robert, and me to come to their summer house in Tisvildeleje for a long afternoon luncheon with them and Ulf and Alan who also have a nearby summer house. Grethe and I were ready early and went walking through the streets of Valby, the neighborhood where she lives which was having a street festival this weekend. Then we met Jens and Robert at the station at 11:30 and took the trains northword, including the small local train called "Grisen" which serves the countryside. We arrived at the Hølløse station at 13:30.

It was a cloudy day, and at one time while we were there it rained heavily. But their summer house is bright and open with lots of windows looking out on the garden. We sat inside and visited and drank and ate. They served cosmopolitans as a beginning drink along with pretzel sticks. For lunch, we started with smoked salmon and dill on Torben's freshly made bread served with white wine. Then for the main course we had roasted lamb, boiled new potatoes, steamed green beans, and tzatziki (Greek yogurt/cucumber salad) served with red wine. afterwards, we had coffee with chocolate-dipped coconut macaroons. Time just seemed to fly. Everyone was talking and enjoying themselves. It was 19:00 when we started getting ready to walk to the station to catch the train back into town, and it was 21:00 when we reached the apartment. Grethe and I relaxed and watched TV for a while, but we were tired and went to bed by 22:00.

It is going to be a busy week. Almost every day I will be seeing people. And during the daytime, I have to spend much more time on the computer and reading my guidebook pages planning my travels to Morocco and Venezuela. That means that my 10 days here are going to pass very fast.