≡ + √ = ▲▐ my adventures in cozyland

Last Saturday was a fantastic chillout day for me. The weather was great so I went out around 4, filled my backpack with cider and took the train to Klampenborg. Then I took a walk to Hellerup, along the coast.

It was really hot outside, so at a point I wanted some time in the shade. So I jumped the wall on the side of the road and just sat on the shore. It was such a great chillout moment and I almost fell asleep. I made a similar pit stop in Hellerup at the end of one of those streets where the ultra rich people live and have their own slice of the shore, so you can not take a walk on the beach, but only enter the water from the wall at the end of the street. I had a short chat with some Danish guys who seemed to live there and guess what...they were computer game programmers. Hmm, perhaps I should switch to the entertainment side of the industry.

Anyways, it was a fantastic day, just by myself. I have put a lot of thoughts and feelings in order in those moments. I'm still really, really relaxed right now.

And seriously, one day, not so far away, I'll have my own boat at Skovshoved.

I flew to Switzerland on the 24th of June. The night before leaving was Sankt Hans night and they were burning witches in Copenhagen. There was a party in Islands Brygge, but I had to wake up very early the next day, so I thought I should see the witch burn in Nyhavn and headed there around 8PM with a sixpack in my backpack. The weather was great, so I attended a live jazz concert, chatted up a couple of nice girls from Jutland and saw the witch burn.

Just a week before that, I had met some Swedes at the eRepublik meeting. They were very hangover because of the Sankt Hans party. Sankt Hans is celebrated a week earlier in Sweden and people dress like witches. Hmm, it seems like the witch burning is a peculiar example of Danish humour...


Let the motherfux0r burn!

I had a nice and productive time in Rheinfelden. It was great that I could put faces on some names and discovered that my Swiss colleagues were really great guys. I only knew a couple of them before that. We also had a cozy dinner at a restaurant on the side of the Rhine. Rheinfelden is a nice little town and the factory is a great place to visit. It's in a castle! :D
Also, in the train, I felt the whole time as if I was back in Romania. Northern Switzerland's scenery looks the same as Transilvania's scenery and most buildings are have a similar design.


The beer goes from the factory straight out with the train and they have saved this old locomotive


Now that's what a nicely kept brewery looks like! :D


Nice steampunk looks


The video presentation of the Feldschlösschen brewery is really a work of art.


And so is this model of the brewery...


...and the brewery itself. Really, really impressing!


Rheinfelden is a nice town, as I was saying.


It also looks much like a Transilvanian town.


And it has a border with Germany. In fact, I'm standing in between Switzerland and Germany.


And the Rhine is basically the border.


And a panorama of Rheinfelden as seen from the office building at the brewery.

There is an area inside one of the buildings at work where there used to be a bottling facility, but now it's just a random mess made of jun, dismantled machine parts and old furniture. In certain ways, it reminds me of playing the classic Fallout games.

So there...I've just been to Sierra Army depot.


Looks like someone had been there recently and wasn't very lucky...


It took me ages to get this work, in spite of my high Science skill.


I'll stick with Nuka Cola, thanks...


I had to read a couple of Dean's Electronics to get this generator running


Some sucka tried to jump me, but my turbo plasma rifle had the final word.


And then I got to play a game of chess...


Super Sledges on special sale!


That's a familiar model for all Falloutheads :)


Never seen this one before, though...


And then I found this pile of G.E.C.K.S.!

So, I'm having some Romanian buddies in Copenhagen. I have been hanging around and having a good time in Copenhagen with them since Thursday. Last night we went over to Copenhagen Distortion Festival and it was the fucking blast of a century. Aside from the festival being really cool, we were also very, VERY fucking plasteredstoned, so the experience was just fantastic. But damn, I don't have any pictures this time. I'm thinking about going to the party in Islands Brygge right now, although it's a risky move - I have to work tomorrow. Hmm...

Later edit: I ended up going to Malmö on Sunday. And while I have no pics from Distortion, I have a pretty good pic of the aftermath...

I have some friends coming over from Romania on Thursday...and we are definitely going to party ourselves into oblivion! So I took Thursday off, since Friday is a holiday. This is going to be great!
I am also going to Switzerland at the end of the month, to Rheinfelden. As soon as work will be over, I plan to drink a ton of awesome beer made by Feldschlösschen. And I will also visit the brewery for sure - I'm really excited, the HQ is in a castle!

So, what could the bummer be? Well, I am going to miss the Gogol Bordello concert taking place on the 24th, because I will be in Switzerland at that time...meh. I really hoped I would get to see them live again. And maybe get an after party invitation once more - hanging out with Eugene Hutz and the rest of the band a couple of years ago was really cool.

Oh lookie! I have some pictures from last Friday's match race :D


My team's in the lead!


...so I am granted temporary superpowers...I can fly! (or at least one of my legs can :D)

Summer is finally here! And as if my life is not already random enough, with every weekend that passes, I somehow manage to make it even more random.

Act 1: Friday

Friday started totally cool: I went over to the Royal Yachting Club in Charlottenlund, where I had a team building, that consisted of a yacht race. Yes, A FUCKING YACHT RACE! F'KIN A!
It was much better than I thought it would be, despite my limited understanding of what was going on in Danish around me. Somehow, despite me being the weaker link due to my lack of comprehension of the Danish language, my team made it on the second place.

Then I went to work in the afternoon, after which I met with my cool British colleague, Ryan.
We had already established that we were going to the Copenhagen Carnival during the weekend. So I filled my backpack with Tuborg and Somersby, got stoned, then took bus 15 to Faelledparken.
It took me a little to find my friend and by the time I got there he had drunk quite a lot of beer and was totally pissed. An excellent start for the evening, I would say.

We lingered around the music tents and then Ryan tried to hook me up with some desperate girl who was a total borefest. I got kind of annoyed and decided to show him what kind of girls a guy with real class aims for. But first, a snack! And then after I finished my falafel, we went to the shooting range game.

As I had been listening to Type O Negative all the way to Faelledparken, I was stoned quite well. Therefore, picture this:

I take my most confident face ever and tell Ryan: "Dude, I am going to shoot off a lot of plastic flowers and we'll pick up the prettiest girls in here with those". Then, I go to the middle of the place and hit a bullseye on the practice targets. After which I am completely unable to cock the rifle...it's just too complicated for my stoner mind. Ryan sits ashamed at the other end of the range and asks the guy in charge to help me load my gun again. Then he keeps on feeding my shooting appetite, loading the guy with 20kr coins. The guy looks at me with contempt each time he has to load to gun for me.

Next to me, sits a mother. The mother has two 8-10 years old girls who are shooting and cocking those pellet guns as if they are fucking commando army rangers, or something. The girls see my terrible attempts at loading the gun and start laughing. So I take a laughing reprise too, then apologize to the mother: "Sorry, I'm just too stoned to load my gun. Could you please help me?". I think she laughed for about 3 minutes or something like that.

I eventually managed to load my gun and shoot some more, after which Ryan told me his theory about why Denmark is so cool. It's because he told the guy who was in charge of this game that we are gay and he's my bitch, so I am exploiting his money by playing games badly on purpose. So I took a laugh with him then left.

I didn't manage to shoot off any flowers, so we went to the hip hop tent. Now this was the place! I could definitely do my dance and the girls in there were sweet. So Ryan tells me he'll go out for just a few seconds and I manage to pick up a group of girls, telling them that they must meet my cool British friend who will be back in a second. Now these girls...they were all at least eight point fivessss, so I had cha-ching slot machine sounds in my head! So I keep dancing with them, but my British friend is not coming. I go out and look for him, then tell the girls he'll be right back and I call him for like...20 times, maybe? Anyways, he was gone.
So I decide to go back to the tent and make my night beautiful with one of those girls. Just as I am heading back, I hear two other girls speaking English by the entrance. How could I not speak to them? And guess what? One of the is Australian and the other one is...Romanian, just like me! Woo hoo!
The Australian left after a few minutes, then I hang out with the Romanian woman. Turns out she was married and had kids, had been living in Denmark for a long time and was quite willing to aid me in my quest of establishing the Romanian-Danish Intercultural Liquids Market Exchange. So I spot a really nice girl and we try to use my Romanian partner's in crime perfect Danish language skills in my favor. Apparently, it would have worked, but the girl had a boyfriend. Tough luck, but there's always more fish in the pond.
Then my newly made Romanian friend introduced me to the guys in charge of the carousel, who were also Romanians. Cool!

We established that we would meet up when their shift was over and the four of us will go to the Salsa tent and have some fun. Sounded like a plan and this left me enough time to find us some good extra company, too. So, I take about two more steps with the Romanian woman(I'm so sorry, but I forgot her name. And didn't get her number either...it's a pity, because she was a really nice and interesting person, I would have liked to be friends.)...and then I see one of the cutest Danish girls ever produced from love and chocolate cupcakes. With my limited Danish, I understand that she is talking to her friend about how she wants to ride the carousel, but has no cash. So I tell her that she has 10 seconds to start counting. Because in 10 seconds, she'll be riding for free.
And so she did, because I went over to my newly made Romanian friends and of course they agreed to help a fellow sleazebag in his quest for love. We take our ride and the girl tells me to come with her. I tell the Romanian woman I will be back in a couple of minutes.
So I tell the girl that I have the best hash ever and a lot of booze at my place and we should go there, kick back and relax a little. She agrees, but she must take her bike and talk to her friend. I'm okay with that.
5 minutes later, the girl(yeah, I forgot her name too! Isn't this a cool story with kinda' nameless people?) finds her bike and her friend. She then introduces me to a group of friends of hers and tells me we should go to this party they are holding. Why not?
Now these guys were really, really nice. Especially the girl. They had no problem speaking English and they were actually quite interested in making friends. I could certainly tell the difference from other people I have randomly met.
So here I am, holding the bike with my right hand and her pretty owner with my left hand and thinking that I have finally made a level up in my Danish integration. We go to 7/11, I buy some beers, she buys some munchies and we get to the party. The party was okay, I was feeling cozy. Since I thought these guys were cool and I know that public displays of affection are not very popular in here, I switched my attention from the girl to the other people, trying to get to know them better. I don't remember so much, just that the girl was always coming over to talk to me, each time I was getting to make some good conversation with the other people.
But anyways, joints were passing around and then I also drank some vodka and got prettyfuckingstoned.

So I am sitting with the girl and talking about how we should go to my place. Just then, the nicest of her guy friends, who is totally stoned, too, comes over. He probably thinks he's helping and goes on in this ode to the girl and her openness to new things, including foreign guys and fondness of me. And ends with "You take good care of her, man!". The girl creeps out and walks away. I just keep talking to people, but at some point things start moving in glimpses around me. A couple of puffs too many, I guess? I can see the girl being really pissed and dancing on the table. So I think that she has issues and I should just leave, even though I really like her. But, I can't get up from the armchair I am sitting on. So I crash.
Around 7 in the morning, I wake up. I go to wash my face and I see that someone drew me a cat nose and whiskers. Just great.
The only people left in there are me, the girl and one of the guys. They are sleeping too, on the couch next to me. I try to wake up the girl, but she wants to be left alone. So I am slightly pissed off and ask her why did she bring me over. All I get is "It was a mistake.". I liked hanging out with them and talking to them, but whatever. I'm used to this...it's a Danish thing. The guy tried to give me his number, but was too stoned/drunk to do it.
So I got home around 8.

Act 2: Saturday

I woke up around 11, feeling much better than expected. I had an SMS from Ryan, telling me that he had no idea about how he got to the hotel. I called him and he told me he was very hungover and walking by the sea.

I was supposed to be at my friend's Per place, in Nordhavn, and help him move over to Kastrup. I needed a bit of sleep, but I did manage to get to Kastrup on time to help.
It was a great sunny day, so we then hung out in front of his new place, drinking beer and smoking tons of cigarettes. I also ate the largest double burger ever, creating quite an impression. It was a nice and cozy time.
Then I went back home, around 7.
At 10:30, I was hanging out with the guys again, at Chevy's. Probably the best bar in Østerbro. We left at 2 and then me and Per kicked back at my place and watched Step Brothers.

Act 3: Sunday

I woke up at noon and called Ryan. Then we went to Nyhavn and hung around, after which we returned to the carnival. I met up with the Romanian guys again and it seems that they didn't meet with the Romanian woman on Friday. Wherever she might be, I hope she doesn't hate me for disappearing like that. She was really nice and I hope we meet again.
Yesterday was kind of uneneventful at the Carnival. We creeped out a couple of girls, then I picked up a very pretty stoned girl who was out with her football team. Then her girlfriend came over and told me they were lesbians. Given the situation, the best I could do was to show my biggest smile ever and ask them to make out for me.
On the way back, I had a very interesting discussion with the taxi driver. He seemed to be feeling about Denmark just like I did. It's cool, but it's hard to meet the people who actually make it cool. When you do, though, it's great.

Act 4: Now

After I got home, I slept like baby, until 3. I still have a lot of cans of Green Tuborg and Somersby in my backpack. And it's a great summer day...So, I'm off to Nyhavn!

P.S. Happy Children's Day!