Let me be the first to note the joys of copy and paste. This was written while still at Hanne's.
31 January:
I had previously left Ryan alone in my dorm room to fend for himself for a while. His breakfast would consist of a double Mars bar and my leftover Irn Bru from the movie. Which was awesome, by the way. Just have to tell you. Anyway, I got to the easyBus as the last person was getting on. I went to the driver and apologized for being late, does he have anymore room on the bus? Yes he does have room, but not a lot, but he didn’t recommend me waiting for the next one because the buses were full and couldn’t take on extras. Luckily, this bus was the bus I purchased online, so I already had a ticket.
Listened to music and slept on the way, since the last sleep I’d gotten was this time the previous day. Got to the airport just as I was falling asleep, which sucked. Inside, I found the Ryanair check-in desks and napped until people started lining up to check in. Ryanair was having difficulties with their computers so check in started later for a lot of people, and no one was happy about that. I waited in line with the group with my heavy backpack and slightly lighter duffel bag. (My computer is so heavy!) But when I approached the desk, I asked if I could check in my bag and the woman directed me to the self-service kiosks behind me and said I had to take care of that over there.
I didn’t argue. I went and paid for my bag with my credit card and got back in line. Checked in my bag and proceeded down to security.
At security, my bag for my liquids and gels was too big. So I had to go all the way back and buy one of those small plastic balls with four bags inside. I fit my liquids and gels into two of those, but when I attempted to go through security again, the man told me that everything has to fit into one bag. This was frustrating, but I didn’t feel any anger or anything. Just impatience because I wanted to get to my gate. But I didn’t have to step out of security again, I could reorganized my liquid/gel bag right there and have people go around me. The woman and her daughter behind me had to do the same thing eventually, so at least I’m not the only one with a lot of gels. In order to get everything into one plastic bag, I had to give up my glitter moisturizer thing. That sucked, because I wanted to use that stuff for clubbing and partying. But I don’t really go clubbing and partying and whenever I do, I’m always always always underdressed in some way or another. So I guess it’s kind of useless to me. And that’s why I gave that up and not my toothpaste, or deodorant, or other item of make up or hygiene that’s actually important. So there we go.
As if things couldn’t get any worse, once I got through security, my backpack set off the alarm. It wasn’t me, I would have been fine if it were me. It was my backpack. So it was taken and I was there when a security guard searched through it to make sure nothing sharp or dangerous was inside. He took all my electronic equipment, including iPod charger, plug adapters, computer power cord, and all the lip balm stuff that didn’t make it into my plastic bag (because I forgot it was in there), and sent that through the x-ray thing again. We made small talk and he mentioned hating checking rucksacks because they’re always full of pockets, and I said I love pockets because there were so many places to put things and he said “I’ve never heard that before.” I was all clear, though, as I knew I would be. He wished me a happy flight and I said without thinking “You too.” But I caught myself as I said it, he saw, and he said “Yeah, maybe someday.” So here’s hoping you manage to take a long holiday someplace exotic, Mr. Security Dude.
I was hungry, but I didn’t want to munch of something. Perhaps someplace beyond security has a smoothie I could eat? Found a place that does and I had myself a strawberry-banana smoothie for breakfast #1. It was good. I drank it while waiting for my gate to be announced. When it was, I was already done with my drink and promptly got up to walk the entire terminal to the international flights. Why are those flights always so far away?
Attempted to journal a bit, but I decided to join the queue instead because it was so small. Waited in line for a while and got onboard the plane. Put in my earplugs shortly after the safety briefing but they kept on loosening in my ear. Halfway through the flight, I took them out. Yes, the engines were louder, but at least they weren’t selling anymore annoying Ryanair products. Slept there too. But I woke up as we were descending and took some pictures of the Danish countryside from the air. It was very pretty, I thought. Snow-covered and quaint and not very metropolitan. Very likable.
Normal border control procedures. Got passport checked and stamped. Picked up luggage from the luggage thing. I found it right away which was really nice. Walked through with nothing to declare and found Hanne right away. We hugged and lugged my stuff to her parents’ car which she was borrowing for a few days over New Year’s. She’s the designated driver at the party, so she has a car and she’s not drinking a lot. I was totally down with that.
On the way to Odense (pronounced with a very light D so it almost sounds like “onse”), we stopped at a small mall so Hanne could quick buy a cheap, new dress for the party tonight. I looked, but I didn’t find anything that tickled my fancy. I learned that about 50 Danish Krone is about $9 give or take, so I used that as a judge for what everything cost. We were at H&M, which can be a dangerous place. But I felt gross and didn’t want to try on clothes just to figure out my European size. Instead, I found the toilet while Hanne was in the dressing room.
The H&M was part of a small shopping center/mall thing. For a couple minutes, I thought I had left my phone in the toilet, but I found it in my sweatshirt pocket later on in the car. Between that time, we walked around the mall some more because I wanted to see what Danish malls were like. They’re like American malls, by the way. I’m sure those don’t change much from country to country. Hanne told me about some of the traditional sweets Danes have for New Year’s and Christmas and some other holidays. She even bought some for us at a small bakery on the first floor of the mall.
The first was marzipan which the Danish eat at New Year’s. That was really good, but the taste was familiar. I thought Mom might have made a Christmas cookie or something with marzipan sometime within my lifetime. I told this to Hanne and she thought it was weird to have marzipan for Christmas. The second treat was a pastry with a cream filling. That was good too. They usually have that for a holiday that resembles Halloween in February. I forget the name of it, but it’s a traditional sweet during that time. Danish hoiiday sweets encompass breakfast #2.
The Danish countryside was really pretty. The sun was in our eyes the entire drive home, though. Hanne warned me that it would take about an hour and a half to get to Odense, and I said I didn’t mind. So we drove and we talked about things and before we knew it, we were in Odense. It’s bigger than Neenah, the third biggest city in Denmark, but it’s not huge like London, Paris, or Berlin. Maybe about the size of Appleton? Hanne lives in an apartment by herself that’s really nice. The walls are decorated with pictures and she has two big shelves of books and a shelving unit full of movies. Now was the time to relax.
I took a shower to get rid of my mucky feeling and started a blog post about a day around Christmas. I did that until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore, so I napped soon after. Hanne offered me a blanket and I snoozed until I woke up a few hours later. I walked around look for Hanne since she had disappeared and found her asleep in her own bed. So I napped a bit more.
She woke me up around five thirty or six (I can’t remember which because the clock in her living room is an hour ahead and I used that for reference). According to her, we were running late so we quickly got dressed and made ourselves pretty. She was prettier than me because she had a dress and I just had slacks and a sweater, but I guess it was nice enough because no one made any comment. I even put on eyeliner. We waited around a bit for her boyfriend to show up because he had the address to the place we were going. His name is Peter. Peter said that the guy who’s having the party is a bit of a redneck, and that right there was just some misunderstanding. I thought that, by redneck, he meant something like Larry the Cable Guy, but the house was a lot nicer than I expected.
We waited for some other friends to arrive as well. They were Joel (pronounced Yoel) and Nikolai but we called him Elmo throughout the night. The girl with them was Lina, and I didn’t catch anything else about her besides her name. Elmo runs a role-playing game shop in Odense. Didn’t catch what Yoel does. Peter is a student going for his masters, Hanne is an undergrad. I am also an undergrad and younger than everyone else. So the six of us piled into Hanne’s car and we made our way out to Peter’s friend’s house.
The car ride there was longer than we thought it would be. Took maybe an hour to get there. Along the way, the Queen of Denmark came on the air and had her traditional New Year’s speech to the entire country. We listened to that, me without catching anything having my Danish vocabulary be limited to “tak” which means thanks and “pis” which is the swear word for piss. Oh, and “hej” which basically saying “hey”. This wasn’t so much a problem at the party except that everyone tended to speak Danish when I wasn’t included in the conversation, so I couldn’t even do my usual Just-sit-and-listen-until-you-have-something-to-say. Bummer. Hanne hung about with me, though, which was really nice. It was her first time meeting a majority of the people there as well, so at least we were together in that part.
Dinner was three courses. First we had a shrimp cocktail which featured lettuce, shrimp, some sort of dressing, two tomato quarters, and a lemon. That was quite tasty even though I may have eaten the shrimp with some trepidation at first. Well, if you spend your entire life avoiding sea food, I guess you’ll be hesitant to eat shrimp too. Even if it does taste good. The second course was ham and potatoes and steamed carrots and cauliflower and small potatoes cooked with brown sugar sauce. Those were really good. Dessert was a peach thing with marzipan on top of it? You put whipped cream on that. The dessert was really good. Really good.
Afterwards, it was a lot of drinking and having fun. Hanne and I retreated to the living room where we sat and talked. Our Host came by and we talked for a bit. He attempted to get the TV connected to the free channels, but the TV wouldn’t have it. Meanwhile, we started a game of charades, one team against the other. The theme was movie titles, so we did hard ones for the other to act out. I had to act out Narnia, which involved roaring like a lion and pretending to be an ice queen. I probably did not humiliate myself as much as I think I did. We did that until 2011. We didn’t see the midnight countdown on the television because, as said before, the TV just wouldn’t have it. We did, however, utilize the Interweebs to have our own countdown. And that’s how we came into the New Year. We clinked our glasses, drank multiple sips of champagne, and there were lots of cries of “Happy New Year” in both English and Danish. It was good.
In the hours after, someone started a dance party with 90s techno music. I managed to dance with Hanne and Joel, and there were several group dances that involved a circle of people and hopping up and down because that’s all you can do when you’re surrounded by other people. We danced until we couldn’t breathe and then we danced some more because we were so energized. Hanne and I were running on adrenaline from the dance floor. Eventually, I sat down and closed my eyes. A couple minutes later, Hanne came and said “We’re leaving in ten minutes. Start saying good-bye.”
So I did. I hugged these people I would probably never see again for a long time and there were many “Did you enjoy the party?” and “Yes, I did” exchanges. Our Host told me to have a safe journey home, and I smiled and said “I will” because my safe journey involved three other countries. Didn’t get the opportunity to tell him that, though. Didn’t get the opportunity to have an actual conversation with anyone. I wonder how many would have been surprised by my adventurous spirit? I’ll never know now.
Fell asleep in the car ride back. We said good-bye to the people we drove home and parted ways. Once Hanne and I were in her apartment, we set up our beds and promptly fell asleep. It was roughly four in the morning.
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