Copenhagen Wrap-Up

Almost a full month after I actually moved away from Copenhagen, I'm posting my final blog about life in Denmark. Since moving to Sweden, I've had many difficulties getting set up - a combination of bureaucratic barriers/insane non-sensible rules, an unresponsive and cheap landlord, and the entire HR department gone of vacation for the month. Lack of internet at home has been a huge issue, but with my newly-acquired mobile internet stick, the posts shall resume.

In my final days in Copenhagen, I did what every normal person would do when they move away from a city - do all the touristy things that they never bothered to do because they were too cool to do them before as residents of the city. This included my last cultural event, visiting the Carlsberg Brewery, taking a canal tour, and visiting Tivoli (the beloved historical amusement park).

Skt Hans Aften
Sankt Hans Aften, or Saint Hans Evening, occurs on the longest day of the year, which I believe is the summer solstice. On this evening, Danes will gather in parks to be merry and party in the best possible fashion - the time honored tradition of burning witches. I have no idea of why they do this, but supposedly the witch will go off to the mountains of Germany after being burned. Of course these days they only burn an effigy of a witch, but I wonder if 500 years ago they burned real people.







Carlsberg Brewery
Prior to moving to Denmark, I had actually never heard of Carlsberg, or it's sister brand, Tuborg. Apparently, it's one of the biggest brands in the world, and it turns out to be quite tasty for a mass market beer. For about $10, you get a self-guided tour of a touristy museum-ish area, and two beers. Given that a Carlsberg will typically cost ~$7-$10 in a bar, it's not so bad of a deal.

The brewery had all these really cool old-time trucks around that they used to use for distribution.

Old Carlsberg beer bottles. The museum held the largest private collection of unopened beer bottles in the world. Some Danish guy started collecting beer as a hobby, and through the years collected enough to fill an entire floor of the museum.
Ludvig, son of Herkules and Nova. Similar to Budweiser, Carlsberg also has horse-drawn wagons to be used in promotional marketing events. Instead of clydesdale horse, Carlsberg uses little horses that I think were originally from Iceland.

One of the gates of the brewery grounds. Note the use of the swastika, which actually used to be the official logo of Carlsberg beer. It was funny to see that all over the museum they had to put up notes explaining the swastikas, and how Carlsberg stopped using the symbol after the Nazi party adopted the symbol as their own.

Canal Tour of Copenhagen
This is one thing I wished I had done earlier. The canals were not so much of a big deal, but it was interesting to hear about the history behind many of the buildings around that I just took for granted.

Departing from Nyhavn, the "new harbor" that was new a long, long time ago. I wanted to wait until nice weather came before partaking in a canal tour, and as you can see this day was very nice.
Sites from the tour. Here, we are actually in an inlet, and heading over to the canals of Christianshavn and it's spiral-topped church.
Danish design

This shot was actually taken outside of the boat, but turned out much better. During the nice days, Copenhageners like to sit along the canal edge and just hang out.

Tivoli

Tivoli is an amusement park that dates back to the olden-days. If you ask a Dane, Tivoli is the most amazing place, an amusement park full of charm, beauty, and coziness. If you ask a foreigner, Tivoli is kind of a joke, an expensive waste of money. I found out the latter was quite true. For any Iowans reading this, think of Tivoli as a smaller, enclosed Adventureland located in the middle of a big city.

June Megapost

It's been quite some time since my last post - over a month, in fact. Since Aalborg, I had been to the fjords of Norway, the untouched-by-communists part of Krakow, back to Stockholm to rub shoulders with the power elite, and back (hopefully for the last time) to Aarhus to host a delegation from Thailand. Then, a move to Malmö, Sweden. Apologies to my two or three loyal readers, but I simply have not had the time! So, to make up for the almost-month-of radio silence, here is a post recapping basically the entire month of June.

The Majestic Fjords Norway

One of my dreams for much of my life has been to visit the fjords of Norway. They seemed so exotic, so magnificent, so Scandinavianly-cool. Part of my desire was borne out of the fact that Scandinavia seemed to be some mystical land of tall, beautiful blonde women with incredible taste in modern design that I would never get to see. Well, that situation has obviously changed. Another reason was simply that "fjords" sounded so cool. What the heck is a fjord? - who cares! It's big, it's pretty, it's in Norway. Well, much to my disappointment, fjord = gorge. I've seen gorges before. They were even in Portland, and I hated Portland. Don't get me wrong, the fjords were quite impressive...just not quite what I thought it would be. Kudos to the Norway Tourist Board with a good job of branding. I traveled with my parents, who were visiting me while I was still living in Copenhagen, and the trip even spanned the occasion of my 32nd birthday - quite an improvement over my 30th, in which I was unemployed and sleeping on a leaky air mattress in a sublet apartment in New Haven.

Departing Copenhagen on the ferry to Oslo. Basically a small cruise boat where all you do is eat and shop (usually alcohol, since Norway is not an EU country with EU taxes)
Fjord cruise out of Flåm, in one of the biggest fjords in Norway
The Bergen Harbor, where we stayed
This is what Bergen looked like at about midnight. It never got dark.

Old Krakow

Continuing on my quest to visit my previously unexplored areas of Europe, namely Eastern Europe, the next week I traveled to Krakow, Poland - yet another country I've always been curious to visit. Again, I didn't really know much about the city, but I knew I love Polish food, and that Pope John Paul was from there. Good enough for me! Everything about Krakow was cheap. My flight, $115 round trip. My hotel, located right by the Old Town Square, $75/night. Food, unbelievably cheap. In an effort to try to spend my Polish Zlotys, I had dinner smack dab in the middle of touristy Old Town at a Georgian restaurant (Georgian food!!! I don't even know where that country is!), and went to a bar where I met a friendly bartender who I shared shots of Polish vodka with. Two entrees, a Georgian lemonade (kind of like a San Pelligrino), a 1/2 liter beer, and 6 shots of vodka later, I had spent the equivalent of $34 USD. Feeling a bit sick from gorging myself, I decided to just spend my leftover cash on my hotel bill. Another factor making this an incredibly cheap trip was the fact that I did not have to take any vacation days. Unfortunately, that was because I had to work, much of what I saw of Krakow was at night. I didn't get to see much beyond Old Town and Wawel Castle Hill, but it gives me the opportunity to visit again. Finishing off the Poland section of the post, I leave you with an interesting fact. All those countries we Americans used to call Eastern Europe, like Poland and Hungary? Well, turns out they've developed enough to become Central Europe. Eastern Europe today has now become countries like Serbia (a possible EU newcomer) and Bulgaria. They're basically just about the same longitude east, but I guess Central just means "not as poor as Eastern".

The Old Town Square. This is actually only half of it - it is about the size of two football fields, the largest square in all of Europe
Wawel Castle Hill. A pretty large area hard to capture by camera; this is just the church
Streetcars are everywhere in Krakow. It reminds me a lot of pictures of New Orleans

Return to Stockholm

Cutting my original vacation plans to Krakow short, I flew up to Stockholm (on my first trip ever on Ryan Airlines - not so bad) to attend the Eurelectric annual conference. Basically, it's the meeting for all the most powerful people in electricity generation in Europe - typically the dirty kind, too. Conferences are not the most exciting events, so I will share two stories.

I had always thought that my friend Roberto (who I visited in the Netherlands a month ago) had the most unique networking experiences, meeting CEOs on the Macchu Pichu trail and the such. In my case, I can say that it pays to be in shape. Taking a brisk walk through Stockholm after a conference day, as my knees hurt too much from running the day before, I ran into the chairman of the conference. He was on a run, unfamiliar with the city, and there I was - someone who knew his way around! My walk quickly turned into a jog, and I ran 9 kilometers with him for some nice 1:1 networking. To be honest, he ran way too slow for my taste, but I was there on business not fitness. If I get a job in London in the future, don't be surprised its because of this guy.

A view we likely saw during our run, as we passed by City Hall

I am occasionally reminded about how fortuntate I am on the experiences I receive. On this trip to Stockholm, I was reminded once again when I attended the conference's gala dinner at Stockholm City Hall - the same location that the Nobel Prize Dinner is held. Simply amazing venue. The vaulted ceilings were pefect for the mens' choir they hired to entertain us. Other entertainment included an ABBA tribute band. They successfully got the CEOs of Europe's energy companies on the dance floor - I could not believe it!

Stockholm City Hall - amazing!!!

Yusing Talk Thai

Rounding out the month was one of my final big responsibilities in my rotation in Group Government Relations - the receiving and presentation to a delegation of 34 people from Thailand, traveling under the Federation of Thai Industries. This was exactly the kind of schmoozing that I had always imagined to occur in government relations, but it turned out to be a stress-filled event that required a "go with the flow" attitude to take over for my normal planful self.

1. I had no time to prepare for the presentation, due to other work demands. In fact, it was not even done until about 8PM the night prior.
2. I arrived at the office about 1 hour prior to their scheduled arrival. I get a call, telling me they are going to arrive 30 minutes early. Of course, I am the only person around.
3. I enter the meeting room to discover that they did not set up enough chairs. There I was in my suit, moving tables and chairs around, trying to figure out how to fit in 4 more people.
4. To start the presentation, of course there are technical difficulties and the presentation monitor is broken. I had to give my entire presentation without any visual aids - a difficult thing to do with so many graphs in the presentation.
5. I narrowly averted an embarrassing situation with the ceremonial gifts. With so many people, I was told to only bring gifts to for the two Federation of Thai Industries representatives. Upon presentation, only the head guy came up so I only handed out one model turbine...but next, the head of the Thai electrical grid monopoly came up to present me with a gift. Thank goodness I had that turbine leftover!

That was the month of June for me! One more post to come, about my final days in Copenhagen, but that will be for another day.

Aalborg Carnival

Closing out a hectic month of travel, my last destination was the furthest north I've ever gone in Denmark: Aalborg. Dropping in for a day to participate in Carnival, which quite reminded me of Bay to Breakers in San Francisco, just without the runners and without the nudity. Floats, everybody in costume, everybody drinking, and public urination abound. The festivities were tempered a bit by poor weather, but at least we escaped the downpour that was expected.

This is the mother ship of our group. It was basically a bar on top of a truck.

My friend, Peden, getting smokes from a parrot

I won't identify these guys, but they are supposedly a couple of Vestas' best and brightest. The Danes think they know how to do everything the right way, but I have to say that the Dutch have the bathroom situation at large street parties down better - tons of outdoor urinals for the guys, porto-potties for the girls. In Aalborg, bushes, parking garages, alleyways, storefronts - everything is fair game, for both guys and girls.

Aalborg on a calmer, less booz-filled environment. The next morning, the streets had been cleaned up, though it often still smelled like pee. Thank goodness I don't live in Aalborg.

The Stranger Side of Paris

From Brussels, I hopped on a train to Paris, to meet up with my good friend from Yale, Sucheng, who was passing through on his way to Vietnam. A few things stood out - despite being the middle of the workweek, at 11PM there streets and cafes were still packed. The city was so vibrant, it was unbelievable. Second, French food really is that good. It was a huge disappointment to come home to a bare kitchen, only able to scrape together some rice and corn.

Since everybody already knows what Paris looks like, I'm going to skip all the touristy photos, except for a few:

Here is Sucheng and I in front of Notre Dame. Proof that we did indeed meet in Paris.

Manuel, a guy I met in the Netherlands a few weeks ago that lives in Paris, brought us to this restaurant that specializes in duck. For lunch, we had duck foie gras and duck leg fried in its own fat. Absolutely delicious. Note here that Sucheng is striking the classic Asian picture pose. I think he's spent too long in Hong Kong.

A gang of classic French cars. They all drove off together soon after this picture.

Onto the weirder and more interesting things we saw in Paris:

An interesting bar we went to was the Luche Libre, a bar with actual amateur wrestling in the basement. For 5 euros, we got quite a show.

In front of Notre Dame, I ran into these rollerbladers that were jumping over a high bar



In front of the Musee de L'armee, we saw these guys playing polo on bikes. Why hasn't anyone thought of this back in the States?



I hate museums, but I did see one art exhibit in Paris - Monumenta, Anish Kapoor's temporary exhibit at the Grand Palais. The video hardly captures the immense scale of the exhibit but it is at least a bit better than a picture. Think a football field-sized red fabric bubble that you walk into, semi-transparent so the light inside shifts from a bright to soft red glow as the sun moves in and out of the clouds. The curves and lines made me feel like I was falling into Alice in Wonderland's tunnel. Here's and example:

Brussels w/o the Mussels

Last week, I started headed off to Brussels for some meetings with external consultants that we were to receive some sales pitches from. We're opening up a new representation office for EU affairs, and these folks were to help out with getting our office up and running. This trip was virtually exactly 10 years after I last visited Brussels, when I came after college graduation on a big European backpacking trip. This time, I had distinctly better hotel accommodations, and instead of a backpack, I carried around a work bag.

Brussels was kind of a Jekyl and Hyde city - some parts, like the old city center, and the EU Parliament and Commission side, were very nice. The other parts...bleh. Dirty, kind of run down. And, they all spoke French.

Here's a Coke machine I saw at the airport. In Brussels, the Manneken Pis statue - a little boy peeing - is a beloved symbol. You see it everywhere, on postcards, trinkets, even candy. Here, I wonder if Coke means that tasting "the Coke side of Belgium" means tasting Coke that somebody has peed into. Yum.

Royal Palace. One of these places everywhere I go.

On the way down to the old city center.
The European Commission. We didn't have any meetings there, but it was still cool to see.

Touristy part of the old city center with all the restaurants. We found a great locals steak restaurant for a 100 euro meal (on the company!). Turns out mussels were out of season, so this restaurant refused to serve them, even though many of the touristy places still were.

Orange Crush

There are certain things in life that you just "know when you know". You can't fully describe how you know it's right for you, but you can just tell. The moment when you have found the right major to study in college. The moment you meet your future wife. Or, the moment you've found home. I knew the first one right away. The second, well, all I can say is that I am not married yet. For the third, I know it to be the Netherlands - it did not take me long to realize that it was where I wanted to make my home. I am going to make it happen sometime in the near future, 52% tax rate be damned.

This past weekend, I traveled to the Netherlands to visit my friend Roberto, and to join him in Queen's Night and Queen's Day activities. These celebrations are in honor of the previous Queen's birthday (the current Queen's birthday inconveniently occurs during the winter), where thousands upon thousands of Dutch and Dutch-for-a-day patriots head to the streets all clad in orange to drink, eat, buy stuff, and in general join in any activity that comes along with the largest street party I've ever seen. My trip was split between The Hague, where Roberto lives and Queen's Night activities occur, and Amsterdam, where Queen's Day activities occur.

Here's a picture of Roberto's roof deck, a great place to drink beer. I found The Hague to be wonderful - nice, peaceful, tons of parks, international organizations, and even the beach. A great all-around place to live. The most memorable event was driving around The Hague in a manual shift car, 15 years after I last drove one in driver's ed class. I only knew in theory how to drive a manual shift car, but it went quite well. Lots of stop and go's, and I even parallel parked multiple times - on both sides of the street. Queen's night was not a crazy event, but everybody was out on the streets, wandering between different music stages set up around town. A mess of a crowd to get through, but it was nothing to compare to what was to come in Amsterdam.

Dutch pancackes. Thinner and denser than American pancakes, but more substantial than a crepe. Kind of like a super big Swedish pancake. With lots of sugar.

The Queen's palace. Very modest, just like the Dutch are.

The International Court of Justice, paid for by Mr. Andrew Carnegie

Fresh (raw) herring sandwiches down by the beach. Yes, I did have one. No, they don't taste the greatest, but not gross either. The traditional way of eating fresh herring is actually sans bread, hold the fish by the tail, tilt your head back and drop it down into your mouth. They do serve it without the heads, at least.

Amsterdam - what can I say about the place? Wonderfully pretty, a bit more hectic than Den Haag. I didn't get the truest impression of the place being that the majority of my time there was spent during the mess of Queen's Day, and they were still cleaning up my second day there. From the moment we got off the train from Den Haag, it was a sea of orange that we could not escape until we returned to Den Haag at the end of the night.

A classic shot of the canals

A parking ramp. But for bikes, not cars. As many bikes there are in Copenhagen, Amsterdam had much more parked along the streets. Strange, though, I didn't see too many people actually riding bikes through the streets.

The XXX is the symbol of Amsterdam

Me, canal, post-Queen's Day party. It's a bit cleaner, and no orange.

A freaky door awning.

One example of the crowd you wade through. And there is nothing going on in this street - it's only on the way to the good stuff.

Party boats on the canals. Lots of people drinking heavily and dancing on rickety boats in the canals. Great idea!

I Amsterdam. Or in this case, I Am.

The 40Up party. Apparently geared toward those 40 years and up in age. We still had fun, anyway.

Yeah - don't have much to say about this guy.

Armin Van Buuren, the #1 DJ in the world (or so I was told). He was indeed pretty good at spinning euro-music.

The butt of I Amsterdam.