Weekend
We went to Nykøbing Falster on Friday. By train, of course. It was actually horrible. I always insist that it's better to leave from Østerport, because you can always get a seat there since that's where the trains start from. But getting to Østerport is always some kind of obstacle-ridden quest; you'd think it was the Holy Grail and not just a boring old train station. Anyway, this one lived up to the norm and by the time we'd raced over there and bought tickets we got down to the platform in time to see the train pulling out. Typically, the next one that was leaving 10 minutes later (the slow one, naturally) was cancelled and leaving from the central station instead. So we ran over and took an S-train. When we got to the central station and ran through the tunnel to track 8, the screens showed that it was a train to Kalundborg leaving in 20 minutes. Then they announced a track change over the loudspeakers: the train to Nykøbing F was leaving from track 5. So we raced over there and elbowed our way into some good seats–only to find that it was actually the same train we'd missed by 30 seconds at Østerport. Sheesh.
In Nykøbing F we got to celebrate Skt. Hans, with barbecue and then a walk along the water to try to find their bonfire. There were lots of, er, private initiative bonfires all around Guldborg Sund appearing to be roughly the size of houses and sending up giant plumes of smoke. Actually the smoke made me nostalgic because it reminded me of forest fires. Ahhh…
The brain dead folks down in Nykøbing F had decided to have an unorthodox approach to the bonfire on 2 counts (sidestepping the witch/no-witch issue): they lit it at 10:45 pm, and had put it out in the middle of the water. While I applaud their attempts to reduce fire danger and save the lives of innocent hedgehogs, it was aesthetically less than satisfying. Plus, it was so late that I was about ready to fall in the Sound, and that was before we had to walk home. They'd also decided to set the fire right off of Trafikhavnen, which is this totally deserted and vehemently industrial section of the town, occupied mainly by giant grain and oil silos and littered with pigeons who've been too stupid and bloated with grain to get out of the way of the machinery. Way to show off your town at its best, guys.
The bonfire was, well, you know, a big old fire out in the middle of the water.
Saturday we slept late, then got up and went to Knuthenborg Safari Park. That was majorly cool. You just drive around amidst the wandering animals. When you first come in there are some goats and tame donkeys that you're allowed to get out and pet, which we skipped, but then you come upon the Savannah where there are antelopes, giraffes, zebra and rhinocerous. Rhinos are really, really big. Like, as big as a car.
And they have a big old horn. It sort of makes you a little nervous, which is thought-provoking because it's different than going to the zoo. Then we drove over to the tiger pen, where you actually drive in to where the tigers live (keep the windows closed, folks). We saw them, but they were just sleeping. Later we made another round because Carl Emil was asleep the first time, and that was in the early evening, and the tigers were actually really active. One of them was out in the road when we drove in and just sauntered off, marking trees at regular intervals, while we drove along after it.
The Safari Park has also the coolest jungle-gym thingy I've ever seen. Carl Emil was a little bit small for it, but if I'd been, oh, between the ages of 6 and 15 I could have played on it for hours.
Today we thought of maybe going to the beach, but it was sort of windy, so we decided to lay a terrace in the front of Anna and Cemil's house, so they could sit out there and eat breakfast in the sun, and also have a non-muddy place to park their bicycles in the winter. Anna had been wanting to put the terrace out there for ages, and it was sort of a now-or-never situation, since her due date is in two weeks and she's really huge. So the three of us spent about 4 hours leveling the area off and then dragging giant heavy cement fliser around. I'm not sure what you'd call those in English, actually–stepping stones? Garden tiles? They were big–about 1'x2'x3"–and heavy. And it took about 35 of them to cover the area Anna wanted covered. But it was really satisfying to finish it and now I'm delightfully tired.
The train trip back to CPH was really hot and Copenhagen is way more humid and sticky than down there. Although it is nice to be home in a way, but it was definitely cosy and pleasant down there. It was good to get away and just hang out for a while.
