Din Nye Ven

Today I had lukewarm chai with C in one of my favourite places downtown; Din Nye Ven (translates to Your New Friend). And it is really friendly, this lowkey little place with a beautiful window, furniture just as I like them, exposed bricks on the walls, summerhouse-flowers on the worn down tables, and generally a really nice spirit. It feels like an after school facility with the football table in the corner and old games in the shelves, a sort of youthful innocence flowing through the room. It's the sort of place where you can hang out for hours discussing unfair teachers, unreasonable loads of homework and stupid parents. And then it doesn't really matter if the chai is lukewarm...

Derailed

It happened approximately 6,08 am. The train was crossing the Great Belt Bridge, but suddenly it stopped, and people started to scream. "We've had an accident. Please remain calm, help is on its way," a voice said. Outside, the sun was colouring the sky delicate pink and deep golden, the clouds were shaped like mountains high up above the freezing water below the bridge. Ten minutes later, the sirens began, ambulances drove past so fast the water on the asphalt became wet dust clouds after them. It was all planned. I was there with my paper and pen writing all impressions and events down for work. There was the actor lying in the middle of the train screaming because she had a piece of iron sticking out of her. Moments before she had put 'crying creme' under her eyes, but the tears and screams seemed real. People were taken out onto the bridge, climbing over a gap between the rails and the motorway where the water was like ice only 20 metres below. We stood there on the asphalt in the morning wind watching the sky, giving our names to the police and talking about how the firemen and paramedics handled the situation. Later we were rushed into town to have sandwiches. It was a weird morning.

It is fall now

I spent Saturday with Chris and Iben. After waking up at 6am to a yellow (!) city blasting with aggressive lightenings like I've never seen before, I met up with the two at Enghave Plads to wash down a coffee and a croissant while it continued to pour out of the sky. In between rainshowers we went to the street party in Saxogade. Poor those who had to stand under the wet sky trying to hold together a flea market - but it was nice, and despite living well under the poverty limit this month, I managed to get away from there with two things; an old sign and a pom-pom for my hair. Later we cleaned Chris' apartment after the party, ate canapés and chips and felt sorry for ourselves because of the missing summer in Copenhagen. It is fall now.

 The houses!

Iben bought the car, and while we were waiting for something, Chris taught her how to parallel park...

Friday glimpses

Chris is moving to London in three weeks (...!) and yesterday she said goodbye to friends by throwing a party in her apartment. We spent the afternoon getting ice cream, baking sausage rolls, carving a melon and pouring a liter of vodka in it, making 90s canapés and listening to Gang Gang Dance on the insane stereo she borrowed from the guy upstairs. And then there was the party at which I forgot to take pictures...

 Making vodka-melon turned out to be more tricky than we originally thought...

 Club Mate!

 The writer.

Friday

I'm in a better mood today than I've been in for a long time. I'm still home from work; the fever has left the building, and I'm getting back on my feet. I had coffee, a perfectly boiled egg and yogurt for breakfast where I spoiled myself with roasting the sunflower seeds (yum). The sun is shining, I'm listening to Arcade Fire, and I'm going to one hell of a party tonight. I discovered they sell Club Mate in Kihosk on Sønder Boulevard = some Berlin is with me in Copenhagen = happiness. Have a festive Friday out there!

Last week

 I went back to Aarhus for a few hours to do some work. I walked from the forrest back to the trainstation just when the sunlight said goodbye and let the night take over.

 When I got back to Copenhagen it was 2 in the morning and the streets were empty as I rarely see them.

 A few mornings later I was up very early to go take the train with a photographer. It was sunny for a few minutes and I enjoyed it.

 One night I went to the skatehalls with Chris to listen to a Mad Professor and his reggae sounds with a surprising amount of young copenhageners. Most of them with dreadlocks and a different dancing style than mine, and the mood was good.

Chris doesn't like when I photograph her.

Øster Farimagsgade

When I lived in Copenhagen three years ago, I loved biking from Vesterbro to Østerbro. It didn't happen a lot, but when it did, I enjoyed it. Most people would take the lakes, but I always went down Vester Farimagsgade to Nørre Farimagsgade and ended up in Øster Farimagsgade. I loved how the city was gray and dirty and busy and stinky at Vesterport, a little nicer at Nørre Farimagsgade with H.C. Ørstedsparken on the right and the old houses on the left. Then came Sølvtorvet with the busy cars, before Øster Farimagsgade began with big trees lining the street and Kartoffelrækkerne on the left - the old working class houses that are somewhat of an institution. More about that some other time. I went that way today, and I liked it.

"We have moved to the internet." Coolness.