Mutually Exclusive Desires...

As I walk around the streets of cities like Copenhagen and Tel Aviv I find myself wandering down the same familiar paths with no intention of doing such. It seems that every turn I make is either pre ordained or always prevented from being anything but, where the existence of the large city is just a big ruse being put forth to me and there is nothing beyond that which I walk.

So I'm now in Copenhagen and it is really quite a nice city, but I must say that the sun setting as early as it does is most frustrating. So my main concern in coming to Copenhagen was getting my camera repaired so what amounted to the first thing I did was head over to Denmark's only certified Pentax repair center. This actually took place on my first full day in Copenhagen as I arrived to late to do such a thing on the day of my arrival. So first thing in the morning a rented a bike and road over to the location. Sadly on my arrival I was informed that they had literally just two weeks previously had moved. I asked the man if I could ride to their new location to which he said that I could, but with the weather I probably shouldn't and that I should take the train. So I rode over to the station and started my way over to the shops new location. The first great thing was that you can bring your bike on the trains, the next great thing was that they actually have bike racks on the trains so you don't even have to stand with your bike or anything. They also have free wireless on the trains, but you need to sign up for an account. Well it was a good thing that I had my trusty droid incredible as I had pre-fetched the maps for the area and was able to use the GPS to guide me once off of the train. On arriving I was greeted by a super helpful Dane, who after a while and in consultation with one of their techs told me that they could not repair the camera and that they would have to send it to Germany. After talking we decided to call up the Swedish repair location who said they could do it. The only trouble was getting to Sweden, which I prepared to do, but they told me I would be better off mailing it. So I ran to the post office and mailed the camera. Later that night I went to a concert with someone from the Hostel, it was actually quite good, before the concert we caught a bit of a talk (though caught is an over statement as they were speaking Danish), and all I was able to gather that some of the speakers were comparing lots of modern Danish music to Fascism and Communism.

The next Day was some wondering and some miss steps of trying to ride a bus that is no more, but ended up at the national museum, which had a really nice exhibit on the history of people in Denmark. For a Late Lunch I went to what is a really good neopolitan pizza place named Mother's with Trine a friend of mine who is a Danish chef whom I cooked with at Jimmy's, which is now quite a while ago and a friend of her's Sarah. The Pizza was really quite good and so was the Salad that we had. And then back to the Hostel and then later I went for one of my favorite things, an evening constitutional in a foreign city.

The next day I went up to the Louisiana museum for some art. It is a really nice train ride up to the Louisiana museum and then just a short little walk to the museum from the station and it would be quicker yet with a bicycle. On arriving into the museum you first enter the gift shop, which really is quite a nice gift shop. The museum covers mostly modern and contemporary art and it really is quite nice. It is made up of two complexes connected by a tunnel with a sculpture garden over looking from which you can see Sweden and from which I spied some ducks diving into the water hoping to catch some fish. There current special exhibit is Walton Ford, whom until I got to the museum I had forgotten that I had seen the same show at the Brooklyn museum, but I liked it the first time and still liked it the second time as well. I then went back to the city and went for a long walk off to Trine's for dinner. I was tracking my speed using my phone and I honestly couldn't believe it so I kept trying to go faster and made the cold night feel much like a very warm one. Well we had a lovely dinner and good conversation, I think soon their will be a movement in Denmark to get tax dollars back if you don't want to pay for the royal family.

The next day I took a walk around Christiana, which perhaps I should do again on a warmer day or do by bike, but I was a little less than impressed, but I must say that I do enjoy walking around Copenhagen. The day was pretty slow I guess for me and I really just relaxed and even hung out in the Christiana Library. I for some reason decided to go to Wagamama for dinner, which is a chain Japanese Restaurant, which I first went to (first and only time) in London. It was a huge contrast, when I went to the one in London 6 years or so ago it was packed and loud, here in the winter it was pretty empty and really relaxed.

Then off to Malmo Sweden. I would honestly say that it is essentially a not as nice cheaper version of Copenhagen. It used to be Denmark's second largest city. At night
I listened to a conversation between other people in the kitchen talk about accents and people of different nationalities. I thought perhaps the funniest bit was that they I was sitting there super quiet while they talked about how loud Americans are. They then also went into how all of them think that the French can't speak English.

I decided to rent a bike for my remaining week and road around the city and went to Coffee collective, which I was told is the best coffee shop in the all the city. When you go inside you are greeted by a tiny shop mostly filled up by their roaster and a super friendly staff and owner. I had a really good and long conversation with them about roasting and about the economics of how they buy their beans, it was really quite fun. I then went over to the Niels Bohr institute hoping to take a tour, they informed me sadly that I would have to make a reservation, so I will have to do so and go another day. Then off to more riding around the city.

Just more biking around one of the greatest cities in the world to bike around.

I also decided to buy tickets for some of my India travels. It shocked me, but it is the case that Indian rail tickets sell almost immediately and that you really need to buy them far in advanced. So now I have the first leg of my trip somewhat planned out, though I can always cancel the tickets and get my money back so it isn't a huge deal. As of now I will get down to Cochin on the 4th. I will then Head up to Delhi on a 2 day long train ride on the 20th and then from their I will start heading up to Darmsala and specifically McLeod Ganj, which begins with a ten hour train ride and then a toy train up to Darmsala. I think after that things will kind of calm down long hall train wise. Once in the North I will likely stay in the north and I will then likely make my way to Delhi to fly to points yet determined at some point. I will probably take plane either to somewhere in east Asia or southeast Asia and then head over to the west coast and maybe the pacific northwest or I will just head straight to the west coast/pacific northwest.

I think I need to switch away from this format where paragraphs represent days. Well there is still more left to Copenhagen, though I'm not yet sure how resolute I am to being the only person that comes to Copenhagen and never sees the mermaid. Too many bad experiences with Brussels.

Mutually exclusive desires,
Divergent streams of reality,
No way to realize more than one reality.