Day 3 - More Packing

Putting all of my life for the past six months into boxes and leaving with less than 15kg on my back is strangely relieving. One big bag of clothes was left for the free exchange hut in Christiania. I also left behind one or two passable novels bought for the semester, one disliked movie (sorry Jarmusch) and a lot of anxiety. Less is more.

Choosing what I am going to pay to be shipped home and what I could do without led to some interesting choices. Among the things I have decided to keep is a granite cube that weighs about 3-4 pounds. It is one of the pavers commonly used in the thin signature strip of cobblestones down the middle of sidewalks in Copenhagen. I hope that it will always remind me of the amazing care that this city puts into infrastructure.

Day 4 - Arken

Yesterday we biked to Arken, a contemporary art museum just outside of Copenhagen (it only features works 1990-). It was a calming and pretty 20km ride each way through southern Amager.

It is a very strange postmodern building that looks to me like some kind of 50s drive-in-movie structure. At the gallery shop you can buy lots of neat things, all nicely colour-coded for your perusal.

The architecture is quite stark and a little too mechanized - unnecessary and ineffective functionalism - but I liked the bathrooms. The doors only open automatically by the push of a button and we got locked in for a while as we tried to use our hands...

This was one of my favourite pieces. A cubic room was created by heavy velvet curtains hanging from the ceiling. Shoes off, you walk into a space that is instantly warm and comforting like a living room. Clips from the artist's experiences from Japan, mostly at the macro scale, are projected on the ceiling and reflected by a huge mirror resting on the floor. It was calming and mesmerizing, making me forget I was thousands of kilometres from home, making me feel placeless but perfectly content with it.

Then we went to the beach next to Arken and had lunch surrounded by a bright and beautiful hazy sky.

Day 5 - Packing

A little late. But mostly, Day 5 was a lot of packing. We also arranged to sell our bikes, which we are doing on Monday. Very sad. So we consoled outselves with candy. (Note: These are not ordinary gummy bears - they are Haribo Gold Bears, the first and best ever.)

Day 6 - Brunch and the DAC

Today means we have only 5 more full days in Copenhagen. So today is Day 6.
We went to Kalaset for a special treat brunch. The blueberry pancakes were even BETTER than last time. They are, hands down, the best pancakes I have ever had. O is very full.

Then we went to the Danish Architecture Centre for the last time. There is a small fee and the exhibit changes quite often, but I highly recommend it. The bookstore has a very nice selection of Danish Architectural Press books that are hard to find outside of Scandinavia (*AHEM* Jan Gehl).

Some of the places we're going!

I think I am in total denial of the fact that in six days, I will be leaving Copenhagen for a very long time. Somehow I feel like I'm just on a litle jaunt that will welcome me back into the cozyness of the Copenhagen airport, just like always. At the same time, I am getting increasingly antsy without a job or projects to work on. And I keep dreaming of Canadian landscapes. Home, soon!

Cast Off

Today we went on an adenture into the depths of Amager. After passing Ørestad City (see: Scandinavia's Version of Sprawl. Intensely architect-ed area overwhelmed by glass and airy post-modernism. incl. The largest mall in Scandinavia), we were confronted by cows and fields that stretched to the sea. Amager is a lot bigger than I thought. We saw these eerie yet comforting land art sculptures that looked like the temporarily abandond dens for imaginary wild creatures.

Dancin' in the Street

Distortion Festival is a crazy street party that happens in Copenhagen each year, in a different neighbourhood for three days. It's the first days of summer; this year the sun was shining and the Danes were wild.

Okay, so maybe it did happen about three weeks ago... but I've been really busy trip planning! We only have about one full week left in Copenhagen and I'm very excited.

Breaking My Heart

1. Alvar Aalto (book via the museum library)

2. Arne Jacobsen.

Last Wednesday we visited the Danish Museum of Art and Design. There we learned that at least 4 bestselling pieces of Ikea furniture are direct copies of Alvar Aalto's work. (Their geometry modified for the support of crap materials). The saddest part is that the people buying the chairs don't even know.

Quiet Evening

After folkekøkken (eating, but not cooking this time), I went on a walk with a few friends in Christinia near the canal. The light and the way it shone through the leaves was perfect.

So hard to say it

Goodbye for now, lovely Sarah. I got to spend one last perfect evening with this girl, complete with one last performance full of talent. We sat by the lakes, glittering in the middle of the night, shared bread, stories and hugs.

Obligatory Aya Sofia Pictures

Despite the crowds and total lack of ambience, it still took my breath away after many years of anticipation.

Turkey Travel Pals

Miss you :(

Life in the Open

The main courtyard of Topkapi Palace

Istanbul has a very different history of open spaces from most western European and North American cities. While the street life is arguably livelier, there are little truly public open spaces in the city. Whether due to a history of religious conflict or simply a cultural way of life, green space is spare and in many areas of the city trees are hard to be found. Many of the green spaces in the city (such as the Topkapi Palace gardens) were long restricted to common people and reserved for the elite.

A pavillion on the Hippodrome

The Hippodrome is one of the earliest public spaces which still remains a strong landmark in use today. Constructed when the city was still named Byzantium, it was the central destination for horse and chariot races through Constantinople's reign and the entire Byzantine period before it was neglected by the Ottomans. Given that these spaces are now used more by tourists than locals, are they still true public space in the sense that public spaces are for the publicus /people?

Moda

On our last day we went to a neighbourhood on the Asian side called Kadikoy (just googled it). We wandered for a while along the beach area called Moda, which I think is a very beautiful name.

The beach is not actually a beach and consists mostly of giant boulders piled by the seaside. The people wandering it were mostly students or young upper-middle class couples but there were still lots of fishermen finishing off their day.

There were lots of couples at Moda and women selling flowers to give to your lover.

We really dreaded leaving the real world and going back across the water to Sultanahmet...

[**LOOK!! You can see all my photos on my flickr account! (like a digital photo album, mom & dad)]

Istanbul

Pictures from Istanbul (finally)!

Overlooking the Bospherous from Sultanahmet.

We stayed in the old town, Sultanahmet, where the Haggia Sophia, Blue Mosque and lots of tourists are. I'm sure most people stay here in Istanbul their first time, as it is probably where 80% of hostels and hotels are located.

Houses in Sultanahmet

While beautiful, not many people actually live in the area, which has mostly been given over to awful restaurants and overpriced shops catering to tourists. Interestingly, the surrounding neighbourhoods are some of the more conservative in Istanbul. There was certainly some contrast... from 4 star hotels of the lavishly (and sometimes scantily) clad middle aged foreign to the mostly headscarfed population and leering men in run down shops. This was all that we saw of the "east meets west" that Istanbul is known for during our first few days.

Some left-over retro

Most of the food in our first few days was pretty awful (think dry and greasy shawarma stuffed with french fries - do NOT eat in Sultanahmet), but it wasn't until we had the advice of a local via friend-of-a-friend that we were steered in the right direction. Still, we were running out of money and mostly enjoyed food from stalls and markets (Turkey has the best tomatoes I have ever tasted).

A success in our string of hit-and-miss street food encounters.

The spice bazaar.

Looking over at Asia

It wasn't until our last day that we finally left the European side. We got to travel on one of the city's ancient municipal sea buses (highly recommended instead of a Bospherous cruise). They were not pretty and certainly not the best place to draw attention to yourself as a tourist, but they kind of reminded me of the ferries at home.

Crossing the Bospherous on one of the city's ancient sea buses

You can be served a drink if you flag down one of the uniformed servers and grab a nice seat outside. The boat has three levels and rocks like one giant floating bathtub - even more violently when you stop. At your stop, there is a gap ranging from 20cm to sometimes a whole meter wide between the boat and land. If you are an old lady you can walk across one of the shifting rickity boards used as bridges, but if you are most people you will jump the gap.

A fish stall on the Asian side.

A seaside neighbourhood we wandered in on the Asian side was filled with young liberal students. Lots of market life and a strong café culture. For once no one paid us any attention - a nice change.

Merrrrrr

Lots of the above lately. The past two full days I have been locked in my room, writing my Kierkegaard paper (only 15 pages between me and summer!) while O has been off adventuring. But we have been taking breaks to make lots of delicious food. I don't think of us have ever eaten this well consistently for a whole week in a lonnnng while (well, except for Switzerland). Dinner tonight was a warm spinach salad with bacon (wasn't pretty but so delicious) and a caprese salad.

Handsome Rides

Check out those fenders..........

Underwood Ink

The best coffee spot. Unassuming, friendly and awesomely furnished with many free copies of the New Yorker. Some of the best coffees I've had in Copenhagen (and certainly among the cheapest!).

Where we go at night.

Jolene! Somehow we always end up here. (And yes, it is named after the Dolly Parton song).

Round 1: Ali vs. Little Man. The Meat Packing District.

Those that emerge from Dunkel (translation: "dark") into the daylight are such haggard creatures they need not be displayed.