Danish pastries, bacon... lego

Hello all,

Eventually I made it to Denmark after the first plane had to turn around 1/2 way because the landing gear wasn't working.... ?? It was fantastic to see Peter again. He was one of my best friends in NZ and we lived in the same hostel for about 4 months, arriving 1 day apart.

So we did all the usual stuff, like talking for hours, drinking lots of wine, going for a tour around his home town (Hans Christian Anderson came from there!), sitting in coffee shops. Had his best friend around for dinner and went out with him and his girlfriend the next night. There was a free concert in the park - a Queen cover band. The mayor even attended! Thought that was cool. The band were not so cool. Drank my first, and not last, Irish coffee.

I like Danish people. They're all quite laid back and friendly.

There have this wierd thing going on in the flats with wooden floors but NO rugs! They make good use of candles though instead of just having the candles there but never lighting them. It made a pleasant change being in a home again instead of hostels.

Michael (Peter's mate) suggested going to Legoland, which was a fantastic idea! That was probably the best day. In the morning we went out to Peter's parents house, or rather farm (very beautiful) and had a wonderful traditional Danish lunch with his Mum before borrowing the car and heading off to Legoland. I've wanted to go ever since I was a kid and loved it. Thought the lego sculptures were fantastic.

However, think Peter and I were the ONLY people there without kids. It is very kid orientated! We queued for 20 minutes to go on this "train" rollarcoaster before realising that the loop only lasted 8 seconds and barely went up and down! Oops. However at that point think it would have been more embarrasing to have just left. Besides we couldn't leave our pretend nephew behind either! The worst bit was when we got into the car and forgot to pull the handlebar forward. Think the guy on duty thought we were talking the mickey. Afer staring us for a few seconds he had to come and tell us what to do.....

Hasty gateaway!

We went on one ride which had 2 seats suspended from a robotic arm where you program it personally as to what you want to do - be turned upside down, spun round etc. It looks quite slow and uneventful but when you're on it, the bloods all rushing to your head and you're being thrown about a lot! Cool : )

The weekend we went to Stockholm to stay with his sister and brother-in-law who have a 1 month old baby. Thought they were very welcoming to us considering! Babies don't do much at that age apart from eat, sleep and make crying noises, but she was still cute. Anyone that small has to be cute!

We explored Copenhagen, saw the Little Mermaid and all that, and then did a mini pub crawl from the train station to his sisters house cause the bus didn't turn up. This involved some very local pubs and learning to play Danish billiards.

The towns in Denmark are perfectly pleasant but not particularly distinctive. The countryside and villages, however, I thought were lovely with wheat strewn fields, windmills and beautiful old buildings and farmhouses.

It was quite sad to say goodbye to Peter. Hopefully it won't be 2 years before I see him again!

Then it was off to Sweden to stay with 2 mates who I travelled with in Cambodia and Thailand - Swedish guy and Scottish lass. I'm in their computer room at the moment whilst Emil practices guitar. Been great to see them too, but that's another story.

kx