Michelle Makmann: Birthday

Photo by Per Norman

Earth Day and I shared the same birthday this year. What better way to celebrate then to head to Copenhagen for the weekend and meet up with Shannon and Tiki! I flew in late Friday night and the girls met me at Central Station; we headed to the hostel so I could put my bag down before going out and exploring the town. When we turned the corner, I looked up and couldn't believe what I saw...

DUH, DUH, DUH!!

And the saga continues....Tiki had booked us in the Saga Hotel. How appropriate for the weekend ahead.   

The first night was the mellower one.  We mainly wandered around, seeing what this place was all about and taking pictures of everything. We ended up in a little place called Café Stella‎ for a few mojitos and some interaction with the locals.  

The next morning Shannon and I went off in search of the Little Mermaid. We walked thru Strøget, which is Copenhagen's main shopping area and apparently Europe's longest pedestrian shopping street. You can tell spring is on its way because each storefront is filled with color. Coming from Florida, I take advantage of that year round and never really understood what everyone here means when they say, "oh, that's so Spring" and "Look at all those nice colors".  When you see them after several months of nothing but cold, snow and clouds, it recharges you. For now...

I am still fascinated by snow and can't seem to get enough of it. I saw what I thought was a white mountain and we went to go have a look. Turned out to be just a white roof, so I was a little off, but we got distracted and kept on going taking photos and following what we thought was the right path, way off of course. We wandered into a pastry shop and people must have thought I was insane for taking pictures of all the danishes.  Whatever, I found it amusing. We stopped for lunch at this little kebab shop and had some "happy dogs" as I dubbed them. They shove a superlong hotdog in a round bun and put some hidden weird sauce in it, its sooo good! We made friends with this couple at the table next to us. The guy was an expat from the States who decided to share some of his conspiracy theories with us about what is going on back home...interesting to say the least. He helped us get back to town and find Tiki.

On the way to the Little Mermaid, we walked thru Churchill Park. Here, one of my wishes came true. I finally got to see my wild tulips! Fields of purple and white. I felt like I was in the middle of a fairy tale! I definitely fell in love with this place at that moment, and decided I could definitely live there. There was a little canal with a walking path alongside of it that led to Kastellet, a fortress that was used to protect Copenhagen from England in 1807 (aka the Battle of Copenhagen).

We finally got to the Little Mermaid! It was amazing to see all the tourists around her lining up to take pictures! No, I don't consider myself a tourist, I am a traveler—there is a big difference. A tourist brought her a rose and stood there rather excited about it while his family took pictures.  

On our way back to the Saga, we found out that a band would be playing in the town square for Earth Day during the dark hour (lights out 8 - 9).   We hurried and got ready and cruised back down there.  On our way out, we actually met some Swedish guys from Göteborg that I got to test out my Swedish speaking skills on. I can honestly say, sorry, but it's not going as well as I would like.  Jag talar inte svenska seems to be the most appropriate for me.

8 o'clock, lights out, time to hit the streets and check out the band (which, for the life of me, I cannot remember the name of). They played in the little trailer in the middle of the town. Everything was dark and they were lit with candles. They played a lot of US rock/alternative covers. These two girls standing next to us offered us some kind of cider that I had never had before. This was such an amazing experience. I never dreamed of anything like this happening while there. 9 o'clock, lights on, time to celebrate the birthday!!! 

Walking down the main strip, there was a boy in a blow up ballerina fat suit and a tiara running past us into McDonalds to dance around. I chased after him inside and got his photo just as the manager asked us to leave.  Outside, he posed again, then moved on to visit the three-story Burger King 2 doors down and the KFC next to that. We all just looked at each other like, did that really just happen??

After a quick fiesta at a Mexican/Italian restaurant, we headed off to Jolene to dance the night away. Jolene is a club inside an old slaughterhouse in the meatpacking district and it is unreal!!! It's small, artsy and the DJs go off! There were five guys rotating on the tables, all bringing their own style. A little something for everyone! They were fun, too, and even invited us to an after party. They finished off with a few of my favorite artists, Rage Against the Machine and Beastie Boys.

You couldn't ask for a better birthday, 28 on the 28^th, sharing it with the Earth and celebrating with two great friends in the middle of Copenhagen, Denmark. A day I will never forget.