The Tourist and the Shopping Cart BBQ

Today I was a tourist and my amazing guide was my dear friend and host, David. Let me say before beginning.. Copenhagen is a large city. We had only our feet to get around (I don't currently have a bike) and I am an idiot and forgot to pack socks. Add in a new pair of shoes and you get.. blisters. Big ones. Ouch.

We took the whole afternoon to walk to all of the major tourist attractions in the city today.. The Little Mermaid statue, Amalienborg Palace, Nyhavn, and Frederik's Church (aka Marble Church). 

For lunch, we ate Danish hot dogs from a street stand, sitting on the steps of city hall while they filmed Denmark's Next Top Model a few feet away. Later, we spent a good deal of time in secondhand stores (shoutout Kobenhavn K) looking for a leather jacket so I could fit in with the other twenty-somethings in the city. No success there.

For dinner, my great day became even bettter. David and I rode the bus to a more suburban part of the city for BBQ in our friend Frede's backyard garden. I met lots of his friends and we shared beer, liquor, and food grilled over coals in the bottom of a metal shopping cart. Freaking genius. After dinner, once we worked our way through all the beverages (hi Mom and Dad), we loaded onto bicycles (two or three to a bike) and rode into the city for some hygge time at a bar. The people here are so much more wonderful than I could have imagined.

I can't believe how local I'm feeling and it's all thanks to David and his amazing friends. They don't mind my weird American habits and don't laugh (too hard) when I try to pronounce Danish words. It's absolutely unreal how at home I feel even though I can't figure out how to open subway doors or operate showers or purchase groceries or ride a bike.

Life is good.