Massive beers, Techno clubs and Frozen beaches

My pal since childhood Tanya arrived in Denmark on the morning of New Years Eve.  I cycled to the metro and metroed to the end of the line to wait in arrivals.  She was slightly delayed but not much so we had plenty of day left to enjoy Denmark in its freezing and foggy state.  I took her back to see my apartment and do a Danish supermarket sweep, then we got the metro to Norreport and I showed her my campus (CSS) and the beautiful frozen lakes.

We saw people avoiding the bridges in between the lakes and striding straight over the ice but were a bit worried of disaster striking and falling to our icy deaths.  Then we saw two little boys with fireworks running across the ice and manned up.

These 10-year old boys were setting off fireworks at 3pm on the frozen lake with no adult supervision.

We then crossed the lake ourselves and went home to rest up for the night ahead.  Tanya started watching a film called Enchanted, and I wanted to kill myself, worst thing I've ever half-watched.  Then we 'got ready' girl style and started on some Rum.  Matt came round to give me back my guitar and catch-up and then left us again.  We eventually realised that we weren't even gonna make it to the city centre for the big moment so rushed off, bumped into Matt and his friends and celebrated the New Year as we ran down Hans Christian Andersen Boulevard towards the fireworks at City Hall Square.  Fireworks had been being set off since about midday and it was insane at night.  There was an official display but everyone had their own fireworks that they held as they exploded, shoved in peoples faces and generally gave little regard for health and safety regulations.  One small boy tossed a lit firework right into my path, genuinely got the fright of my life.

After the countdown, the insane fireworks (that did not stop until it got light) and a swig from a massive Christmas beer, we went back to Norrebro to a student flat for a while and then back into town to Culture Box to have a little dance.

Saturday 1st January 2011 was a beautiful day and eventually Tanya and myself dragged ourselves out of my apartment to have a walk around Norrebro, we ended up walking around for 2 hours solid.  Back to mine for pizza, chips and watching crap on TV before conking out again.

On Sunday we were wonderfully refreshed and went down to Amager to a flea market in Den Bla Hal (The Blue Hall) which was just crazy big and rammed full of a mixture of wonderful (organs, carved wooden tables, and pretty china plates) and just plain weird goods (a pack of Tena lady pads, a stuffed fox and a vast array of horror films).  We then walked 5 minutes to the beach of Amager which was spectacularly beautiful in the sun.  A man was making an ice sculpture of massive slabs of ice on the sea shore.

Heading back into the city, we had traditional 'street' danish hotdogs for lunch. Yummy but way too mustardy.  Here is Tanya with hers.

Then walked over to Nyhavn and saw a beautiful sky above the city and a frozen harbour surrounding this part of the city.

Feeling the chill a little, we walked to The Moose and had some beers in its grubby surroundings and the jukebox was actually playing the most perfect wintry Sunday afternoon music.  Submitted to McDonalds for dinner and enjoyed their mega-chilled soundtrack of Gabrielle and Texas.

Monday we headed to the central shopping streets to see what Danish shops had to offer us and revisit the scene of the NYE firework danger zone.  Then we went down to Christiania and Tanya was full of questions about how such a place existed which I didn't know the answers to.  We had a cup of tea and then went for a walk deep into Christiania, away from the smoking and cafe areas, to the wooden houses and incredibly frozen lake.

This is the lake at Christiania which is huge but completely frozen apart from this tiny section so all the ducks had congregated in this area and they were finding it mighty difficult to climb the icy sides of their paddling pool and kept falling back in.  Ducking crazy.  We then headed back to Norreport to have a delicious half-price dinner at Dalle Valle.  Then Floss for a few beers.

On Tuesday we had an incredibly lazy morning, still in bed at 2pm.  Then up and out to the Danish National Gallery (SMK) followed by a second night with dinner at Dalle Valle.  I should be ashamed but as it is half-price it's like we only ate there one night.  Then raced back to mine for Tanya to grab her bag and leave immediately for the airport.

All in all, a wonderful weekend with a wonderful friend.  Many uncontrollable laughing fits, deep conversations and lots of slipping on ice.