I have had incredible luck since arriving in Copenhagen, things just seem to be going my way. With the exception of the weather, I really must say I have had extraordinary good fortune. Everything just works out...
That is until my mom arrives, then it all goes to hell.
My mom arrived on Friday and we spent the day rushing around Copenhagen with my host dad and ended the night with a lovely dinner. A short and sweet first day made possible only because we were chaperoned by Carsten (my host dad).
But then my host family leaves and the adventure begins...
Saturday morning we wake up early so we can get into Copenhagen and see everything possible. I planned the day so we would do a walking tour of Copenhagen- stopping at all the best sights, eating at the best places, and enjoying the best of Danish culture. We would enjoy the warm spring weather and it would be perfect.
But perfect is not the word I would use to describe this day. Perfect is not even close. Disastrous maybe. Unfortunate maybe. Challenging maybe. But perfect, no.
So we get ready quickly so we can be out the door by nine to arrive to the Royal Palace early to see the newly renovated Prince and Princesses quarters open to the public only for a month or so. We get to the bus stop right outside my house only to find our walking tour would be complimented with the torrential rains Denmark seemed to be experiencing. We sit in the rain and wait, and wait some more, and shortly realize that the bus schedule was different on Saturday so we had missed the bus by two minutes and had to wait another thirty minutes. We go back home, already behind schedule, and emerge thirty minutes later, get on the bus to the station, and hope we'll make it in time. When we get to the station we find none other than a message saying the train in cancelled, the next one comes in twenty minutes. Now we're over an hour behind schedule but just decide to roll with it.
We go to buy our tickets for the train while at the station (without tickets each person is charged $120 fine) and the machine doesn't seem to be working, but we can't be so sure as it is entirely in Danish. We fight with it for about ten minutes, try another machine, try another card, try another obscenity, only to find out that the machine only accepts Danish credit cards which it explains clearly when you go to purchase your tickets, but does so in Danish, a language I unfortuantley still do not understand. So we have no tickets as the train pulls up, but are unwilling to miss another train (as it would be our third) and so we plead with the worker to allow us on. She agrees and we find our way to Copenhagen now almost two hours late.
We find our way to the Palace, the line by now is over two hours long and so we skip it, missing an incredible opportunity but still optimistic. We wander through an old church and a museum on Danish design, both of which we enjoy. We power walk to Rosenborg Slot (an old castle) so that we can see it and make it in time to Norrebro Brewery where we will be having a late three course lunch complimented with local brews (a must have experience in Copenhagen, one I had been looking forward to for months). We get to Rosenborg, rush through seeing the first floor before it closed (we had about five minutes) and then crown jewels and opulence at its greatest.
We then power walk (and I mean power walk, olympic style) to Norrebro Brewery so we could enjoy our meal before we had to go home to change before the theatre we were attending that evening. By this time it was about three, we hadn't eaten since eight a.m. and were starving and anxiously awaiting this meal. We find the brewery after a bit of a detour and walk in only to find the restaurant is closed Saturdays and the cafe closes its kitchen at three p.m.- it is 3:01.
We begrudgingly walk back towards the station, frustrated at our incredible misfortune and decide to just go home, change and go out for dinner instead. We sprint to the station to make the train and arrive back to at our home station only to find the bus won't be coming for another thirty minutes. We call a cab to get us home earlier. The cab doesn't come. The bus, after thirty minutes, still hasn't arrived. Since being in Copenhagen I have yet to have a bus not be on time. Today, it was ten minutes late. We get off the bus, give up on being able to go out to dinner because we would now have thirteen minutes to change and catch the next bus. So instead we invest in some nice beer, some wine and go home, sit down and laugh at how absoltuley wrong everything went.
Well it wasn't over yet...
We try to buy a ticket to Ghana and the websites won't accept our payments so we have to go through three different websites to get the ticket, then we find out each website charged our card $700 and so the last website won't accept the payment because we are over our daily charge allowance. Then...We call a cab to take us to the station for the show we were seeing that evening and it arrives late, so we almost miss the train to the show but somehow managed to get on.
Needless to say, we ended the night in a bar taking advantage of the two for one cocktail special and left only to find two inebriated men peeing outside the station, not afraid to show their junk. And another one even more confident, willing to be directly in front of us onto the tracks as we waited for the train we just missed. What a way to end the day.
So.... My mother is never allowed to come back to Copenhagen, the entire city falls into chaos. She comes to Copenhagen and things just go to hell. So if you think of inviting her to your city, beware.
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