The Not-So-Amazing Race

It has been a long short day. I woke up after noon having gone to sleep about 5 AM between jet lag and talking to some people who are stateside. The main event of the day was the so-called “Amazing Race”–a quasi-scavenger hunt-esque, semi-tour of some major, strategically located historical sites in downtown Copenhagen designed to give us a working knowledge of the city. The sites included Amalienborg and Christiansborg palaces, Marmorkirken and Vor Frue Kirke churches, Rundetårn (round tower observatory), and Nyhavn (harbor) with the accompannying Nyhavnskanalen (canal). The Rundtårn was enjoyable and provided several nice shots, including a few photos I want to stitch together as a panorama. Nyhavn is a popular hangout and was also interesting; I wish we had had more time to spend there, so I will likely return. We did not get a chance to go into the palaces or churches, though it was pointed out that a member of the royal family was staying at one of the palaces, as indicated by the presence of a notched Danish flag. By “notched,” I mean a flag whose end is cut like the notch of a snakes tongue. Does anyone know of a term for this?

Anyhow, the noble, lofty goal of the race would theoretically work; in practice, however, I don’t think it helped most people as intended due to the rushed nature of the competitive aspect (the winning team won some chocolate). As it turned out, the team I was on–number 12 or the Lucky Dozen– was the first to finish and reach The Dubliner pub, although we did not get everything on the accompanying questionnaire correct, so we did not win the prize. This was not a big disappointment. No, really.

After the race, I walked around on my own to find some ice cream since we had passed at least five shops or stands and did not stop for any. Following that, I returned to The Dubliner, then left for a biergarten, or beer garden with some other people to watch the European Championship in football (again, that’s soccer) between Germany and Spain. Spain won in the end (1-0) though I did not find this out until I saw the results online. The bar was packed beyond all belief–I had, in fact, been watching through a window–and since I was not particulalry interested in the game, I left to walk around the relatively empty streets and continue photographing interesting things. The results can be seen in one of the following Facebook albums, and a selected few in my deviantART gallery.

Now to get some sleep and prepare to prepare tomorrow for my classes on Tuesday. Farvel.

~ by Mickey on June 29, 2008.