Bird's Eye II

Related: Denmark from the Sky.
Byproduct from GIS class.

Buoyancy

Finally scanned the photos from my first few Diana Mini rolls. These are some of my favourites - flying from Amsterdam and Copenhagen.

Ginger Peach

This is the view from my little room most days.

Veloromance

I bought my humble steed for 500kr (about $100CDN) from a man named Esteban... it may not be quite as fast or smooth as Black Beauty (my Trek hyrbrid back home) and it may have 3 gears which do not often cooperate, but it gets me where I want to go. Having an upright bike is such a nice change. I get to feel like I can actually watch the city as it passes, not just barrel down the road in a hunched position on the constant lookout for the next car clip or tailgaiting (rear fendering?) bus.

One of my favourite experiences here is riding in the biklane during rush hour traffic. There is such a feeling of kinness, of urbanism to its most human degree. Bicycling beside your common man - I believe I could actually call it joy.

Sea/Land/Sky

This photo was taken south of where I live on the island of Amager, an area which houses the airport and has only recently been developed. My trip down the bike lane today completely changed my impression of the area. Previously, I had only been able to see new housing development after housing development, a sea of smooth glass and steel and not much else. Today I discovered some of the islands' wonderful parkland as well. It is especially interesting to see the speed of such development within such a defined and finite land mass (such could be said of most of Denmark).

Tomorrow I will be leaving for a brief weekend trip with my faculty to the Danish countryside! I am excited to meet more people and take a winter dip in the sea!

At the Turkish Market

This was one of my favourite things we did in Berlin - and certainly the most colourful. Everyone at the market seemed to be selling oranges! The cheap food (we had delicious Roti-like crepes) was also a nice break.

Teufeslberg

choco choco cocio

Q: What is the best way to shake up a delicious bottle of Cocio chocolate milk?

A: A midnight ride in a bike basket, of course!

Berlin Calling

(Me at Teufelsberg - photo by Tory.)

I'm back! Tory, Ali and I had a wonderful time in Berlin. The city was so diverse and hard to describe. It has such a distinct character which seems to surpass every individual person or place. Gritty, cold, chaotic, but beautiful. The city is so unplanned (or more like hyper-planned from multiple conflicting perspectives) that neighbourhoods can change in the blink of an eye. Architecture styles clash and the elevated metro cuts through everything. Besides the major sights, we had the opportunity and insight to visit a lesser-known monument with a somewhat mysterious and evil history. Teuflesberg. You can read about it here and here, but I'm sure it has far more spooky secrets than the internet can tell. We could certainly feel it.

On our way back, our flight was delayed Tuesday night due to a massive European snow storm (AKA regular in Canada). The airline put us up in a laughably 80s-styled hotel for the night, but forced us to wait qeue after qeue to catch a 7am flight the next day! I went straight from the airport to my GIS class, so I've been quite busy catching up. More photos soon!