"Danish, is that like a language they speak in Denmark" Michael Down
For the second, well third but Hannover doesn’t really count, European city that I have now been to I think that Kobenhavn will take some beating for the title of Favourite. It has it all, beautiful squares and architecture, canals (now pronounced as in banal), our new favourite thing – girls on bikes, and great nightlife.
One disadvantage to the place is a reluctance to join the Euro, so now it’s doing two calculations in your head to try and work out equivalent prices. This applies more to the others as I am pretty much in Euro is my new currency mode. But anyway the seven times table is getting a good working over, that gets you back to Euro and then double back for Kiwi. Being the young traveller that he is, Downo has a ‘First Time’ guidebook, the great thing about this is that it a little old. This means it has great advice like “…the Euro is nice in theory but will not catch on, you should forget about it as it only applies to select transactions.”
It’s always the surprise events that end up being the most rewarding and so it turned out again when in a bar at 4am we found out about a half marathon being held the next day. The real attraction for us was that the first eleven ks was over the Øresundsbron which connects Kobenhavn to Malmo in Sweden. You may have noticed the hour it was decided to take part, thankfully the race wasn’t until three in the afternoon unlike most Kiwi events which are predominantly held in the morning. It was quite amusing waiting for the bus to the start point as Europeans don’t just go running in an old t-shirt and shorts. Absolutely everyone had the latest gear from dri-fit t’s, those leggings that everyone’s wearing these days and brand new trainers. And there was us who had only taken day bags north and so only had street wear, Ben had saved me from doing it in Chucks by lending me his sneakers. All of this was quite intimidating thinking we were going to be destroyed and that of all of us I had done the most running for the last few months. And this was the 10km part of the SBS Marathon the weekend before I left. All I knew was how much I’d struggled to get through that and this was over twice as far.
My only goal when setting out was to make it the eleven km to the end of the bridge, from there I could always get a bus to the finish or something. Maybe it was because of the longer distance but the competitiveness was replaced by camaraderie among the three of us who lined up at the start line – Ben having decided that going for a picnic with the two girls from the night before was a more manly option, I’ll let you decide – and we set off doing healthy five minute kms. It was kind of strange on the bridge as it felt it was flying by and that we were halfway there after only three kilometres. But alas there were still eight to go but we managed to keep up the five minute pace and we exited well under our hour goal. It was surprisingly steamy while crossing, you would think that being over such an expanse of water there would be a bit of breeze, added to this was there only being one drinks station for all that time compared to the six or so for the last half. The best part about reaching the 12km mark wasn’t that we were over half way but that that’s where the second station was.
Unlike this year’s City to Surf which just ended in a car park we got to finish in Malmo’s stadium, it’s always a great feeling sprinting the finish on nice spongy running track. It was amazing how many people were out on the streets cheering everyone on, heaps of people had set up their sprinklers out on the road or the kids were spraying people with hoses. It was amazing how much of a boost it gave getting a refreshing dousing and probably played no small part in how good I was feeling with two km to go. Much better in fact than at 11 when Ben’s shoes were giving me grief and I let the others go on ahead. And so a final time for them of 1h55m and me 2h01m – I shouldn’t have taken those photos – which seemed remarkable all things considered and while I was happy just to finish that one minute still grates. It’s a real shame that this was the last Broloppet as it really is a cool event.
I am undecided as to whether an afternoon in Malmo is enough to merit a Sweden patch on my pack, usually such a small amount of time wouldn’t but the method of arrival I think may warrant an exception to be made. Thoughts?
Needless to say that night was spent very quietly, in stark contrast to the previous one. To be honest I didn’t think that it would’ve been, after watching the Italy game we were all feeling pretty weary after having to get up in time to catch a 7:15 train. But then in bounded two young things who were insistent that we go out, they had some club in mind but we never made it. The first obstacle was this American guy whose friend had obviously had far too much to drink and was passed out on a bench. This led to one of the quotes of the trip when after trying to get us to call the police and report a drunk American somewhere in Kobenhavn he came out with “what? Are you guys just going to leave me here with him and go off and party?”
To which I think everyone thought “that’s the plan, maybe you should’ve stopped him downing the vodka shots you say he’d been drinking since mid afternoon.”
Reading our minds he responded with “I don’t want to make that call to his parents. I’ve lost too many friends to drink driving. I’ve made the call too many times to parents to tell them that their kid is in a body bag”
It was pretty obvious that I wasn’t the only one trying not to piss themselves. The good thing about this delay was that Marie and Nana (I don’t know either, those Danes) had been talking to a couple of locals who told them about this big music thing just around the corner. Despite the fact that it was winding up there was still a cool atmosphere and talked to some guys about the upcoming Rothskilde festival, unfortunately Munich is too far away to think about coming back for it. I have never seen so many bikes as outside this place. Bikes should be used a lot more as a mode of transport.
Any place that has Iggy Pop’s Passenger – easily one of my favourite tracks to dance to - playing when you walk through the door is going to be a good time and the Vega Natklub did not disappoint. I don’t think Denmark has seen the likes of the moves that Grader was pulling out, they certainly brought a lot of attention on our group.It was quite crazy walking to Vega with the birds singing and the sky lightening. The sun had only gone down fully about 11. And when we finally crawled back to the hostel morning was well under way
One disadvantage to the place is a reluctance to join the Euro, so now it’s doing two calculations in your head to try and work out equivalent prices. This applies more to the others as I am pretty much in Euro is my new currency mode. But anyway the seven times table is getting a good working over, that gets you back to Euro and then double back for Kiwi. Being the young traveller that he is, Downo has a ‘First Time’ guidebook, the great thing about this is that it a little old. This means it has great advice like “…the Euro is nice in theory but will not catch on, you should forget about it as it only applies to select transactions.”
It’s always the surprise events that end up being the most rewarding and so it turned out again when in a bar at 4am we found out about a half marathon being held the next day. The real attraction for us was that the first eleven ks was over the Øresundsbron which connects Kobenhavn to Malmo in Sweden. You may have noticed the hour it was decided to take part, thankfully the race wasn’t until three in the afternoon unlike most Kiwi events which are predominantly held in the morning. It was quite amusing waiting for the bus to the start point as Europeans don’t just go running in an old t-shirt and shorts. Absolutely everyone had the latest gear from dri-fit t’s, those leggings that everyone’s wearing these days and brand new trainers. And there was us who had only taken day bags north and so only had street wear, Ben had saved me from doing it in Chucks by lending me his sneakers. All of this was quite intimidating thinking we were going to be destroyed and that of all of us I had done the most running for the last few months. And this was the 10km part of the SBS Marathon the weekend before I left. All I knew was how much I’d struggled to get through that and this was over twice as far.
My only goal when setting out was to make it the eleven km to the end of the bridge, from there I could always get a bus to the finish or something. Maybe it was because of the longer distance but the competitiveness was replaced by camaraderie among the three of us who lined up at the start line – Ben having decided that going for a picnic with the two girls from the night before was a more manly option, I’ll let you decide – and we set off doing healthy five minute kms. It was kind of strange on the bridge as it felt it was flying by and that we were halfway there after only three kilometres. But alas there were still eight to go but we managed to keep up the five minute pace and we exited well under our hour goal. It was surprisingly steamy while crossing, you would think that being over such an expanse of water there would be a bit of breeze, added to this was there only being one drinks station for all that time compared to the six or so for the last half. The best part about reaching the 12km mark wasn’t that we were over half way but that that’s where the second station was.
Unlike this year’s City to Surf which just ended in a car park we got to finish in Malmo’s stadium, it’s always a great feeling sprinting the finish on nice spongy running track. It was amazing how many people were out on the streets cheering everyone on, heaps of people had set up their sprinklers out on the road or the kids were spraying people with hoses. It was amazing how much of a boost it gave getting a refreshing dousing and probably played no small part in how good I was feeling with two km to go. Much better in fact than at 11 when Ben’s shoes were giving me grief and I let the others go on ahead. And so a final time for them of 1h55m and me 2h01m – I shouldn’t have taken those photos – which seemed remarkable all things considered and while I was happy just to finish that one minute still grates. It’s a real shame that this was the last Broloppet as it really is a cool event.
I am undecided as to whether an afternoon in Malmo is enough to merit a Sweden patch on my pack, usually such a small amount of time wouldn’t but the method of arrival I think may warrant an exception to be made. Thoughts?
Needless to say that night was spent very quietly, in stark contrast to the previous one. To be honest I didn’t think that it would’ve been, after watching the Italy game we were all feeling pretty weary after having to get up in time to catch a 7:15 train. But then in bounded two young things who were insistent that we go out, they had some club in mind but we never made it. The first obstacle was this American guy whose friend had obviously had far too much to drink and was passed out on a bench. This led to one of the quotes of the trip when after trying to get us to call the police and report a drunk American somewhere in Kobenhavn he came out with “what? Are you guys just going to leave me here with him and go off and party?”
To which I think everyone thought “that’s the plan, maybe you should’ve stopped him downing the vodka shots you say he’d been drinking since mid afternoon.”
Reading our minds he responded with “I don’t want to make that call to his parents. I’ve lost too many friends to drink driving. I’ve made the call too many times to parents to tell them that their kid is in a body bag”
It was pretty obvious that I wasn’t the only one trying not to piss themselves. The good thing about this delay was that Marie and Nana (I don’t know either, those Danes) had been talking to a couple of locals who told them about this big music thing just around the corner. Despite the fact that it was winding up there was still a cool atmosphere and talked to some guys about the upcoming Rothskilde festival, unfortunately Munich is too far away to think about coming back for it. I have never seen so many bikes as outside this place. Bikes should be used a lot more as a mode of transport.
Any place that has Iggy Pop’s Passenger – easily one of my favourite tracks to dance to - playing when you walk through the door is going to be a good time and the Vega Natklub did not disappoint. I don’t think Denmark has seen the likes of the moves that Grader was pulling out, they certainly brought a lot of attention on our group.It was quite crazy walking to Vega with the birds singing and the sky lightening. The sun had only gone down fully about 11. And when we finally crawled back to the hostel morning was well under way
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