Copenhagen: Party central, not to be confused with the Democratic Republic of Congo

Firstly, let me set the scene: After an e-mail to my Danish friends sent around lunch time that I would be arriving at 11pm I set off cursing my usual unorganized self hoping that they received the e-mail and that at least one of them would meet me.

Fortunately as I arrived so did a bicycle and on that bicycle there was Jonas. As all the hostels were full I slept on the floor on an air bed at Jonas's place, hilariously it took about two hours to blow up the air bed as we lacked the proper equipment, lung capacity, and determination to actually do the job properly. I suppose the two of three beers we downed didn't really help either. Bring back any memories Paul? Stu? deja vu man.

I stayed at Søren's flat the majority of the time. His flatmate Nana is a musician; no let me rephrase that, an awesome musician. So to give her due credit we went along to see her play solo at a small cafe an d then play with her 80's band the following night which was awesome even though the beers cost 60 kroner ($15NZ). It was at this point I realized that Copenhagen was Scandinavian geographically and Scandinavian in price.

This seemingly insurmountable barrier did not stop us having a good time, and since this website is called TheBeerEffect an entry would not be complete without a few stories involving myself and some fellow travelers getting seriously boozed up.

The unfortunate thing is, I'm writing this a full month later and Copenhagen treated me well, far too well so there is inevitable gaps in my memory, but for you my loyal reader, I will soldier on!

Søren's friend was celebrating something to do with clothes, I'm not sure why but it involved beer and 'Joy to the world', the song... Yes after months of searching I had found a karaoke bar. The problem was I thought that it was the first time I had done karaoke in ages, I was wrong. My memory had proved fallible, fortunately there is one thing karaoke bars the world over have and that is a long lasting memory of me and this place was no exception.

As I walked in pissed off my nut seemingly for the first time, I was greeted from the stage by the MC in English, "Hey everyone, its Ben, he's from out of town". At this point I was thinking, how the hell does that fat fucker know my name? and considering we're in Denmark, why the hell isn't he speaking Danish?

Immediately I guessed.. "ahhh, thought I had a big one last night". I rode my bike back to Søren's... wait a minute... I have a bike?

Moving on: Near the centre of Copenhagen is the 'free town' of Christiana.

Christiania's Mission Statement: "The objective of Christiania is to create a self-governing society whereby each and every individual holds themselves responsible over the well being of the entire community. Our society is to be economically self-sustaining and, as such, our aspiration is to be steadfast in our conviction that psychological and physical destitution can be averted."

So as you can imagine the place is, or at least was a Hash drug den, awesome. These days the drugs are not quite so openly sold but still obviously there. Just listen for the whistles which signal the arrival of the police.

Following a telling of the "train ride to Prague story" it was revealed that a wild Danish woman by the name of Elana had used my inebriated state to shave my pubes off, this fact was greeted by copious amounts of laughter. The party was on and Beer, as usual was my drug of choice.

There were other things that happened but I'd better just pictorially summarise them:

Perhaps the pics need a few words to go with them: Had beers, saw football game, kissed wrong girl, pretended I didn't speak English, stole a bicycle, crashed it, pissed on expensive car, crashed bike in to police station, avoided police, got back safe, woke up 8hrs later still drunk, took wrong door, wandered the streets of Copenhagen at 8.30am, snapped out of it, rang Søren's doorbell from the street, thanked god that I was at the very least wearing boxer shorts....

Running out of money, having great time, wish you were here.

Photos:

Fuck the Nazis...

The four days I spent in Berlin blur together as the beer was very reasonably priced, and as you know I like reasonably priced beer, a lot. The sites were pretty awesome too.

With a couple of Scottish guys I went on a organized pub crawl, not the usual sort of thing that I would normally indulge in but it was only 10 Euros and it included a good amount of free drinks which I thought would be worth it, and it was. The night was a bit of a blur and we ended at a place called The Matrix which was pretty cool, I seem to remember women dancing in cages but that may have been me, dancing in cages.

The following night we decided that because the kitchen at the hostel was so good that perhaps we should use it, cue super market visit and cue buying of Spooks. No not the British television drama series, or the little known Hip-hop group, and no, it has absolutely nothing to do with Halloween. What are you talking about Ben? Everyone knows the Smiles that you bake in the oven right? Well in Germany they have Spooks which are a scary version of the Smiles. Either way we thought that they must be just about the most awesome things on the planet, they tasted quite good too.

Post spooks we hooked up with some Aussies; Beth, Denise, and Amanda. They were keen for a beverage or two or three which suited us fine. After a fair few empty bottles lay scattered around the living room I decided that it was time to sow the seeds of an idea I had been mulling over in my head for a few days. The idea was a particular pub I had heard about. At first it was a hard sell, the name of it was 'White Trash Fast Food' but eventually curiosity, and a few more excellent beverages, got the better of them, we were off.

After bargaining with the door staff and saying that there were ten of us when there was only six we managed to get in for half price. Gotta love those law abiding Germans, they're so law abiding the thought of anyone doing something dishonest doesn't even register.

The most notable thing about White Trash Fast Food was its clientele’s propensity for anti-fascism. The place itself is just one big full on anti-fascist party. Cue the bands.

Imagine standing in a room not knowing what is about to happen surrounded by people that do. Then imagine that these people are very still but very excited, like locked and loaded mouse traps close to a mouse; they were ready to go off.

Then it happened.

From the darkness of the stage a single guitar played a single G string over and over at break neck speed. The Guitar whirred and whined, its string sounding close to breaking point when as abrupt as it started, it stopped. Not missing a beat a single spotlight centered on a punk, green Mohawk, leather jacket and piercings galore, he was holding a guitar, The Guitar.

“Fuck the Nazis”

“Hey”

“Fuck the Nazis”

“Hey”

“Fuck the Nazis”

“Hey”

The crowd responded immediately and enthusiastically to the Guitarists statement, everyone knew the script, hell even I knew the script

As the G String was stretched to its limit again and again the chants increased in volume. These guys were aggressive, hot blooded, and they were zealous. So was I.


Cool imagery huh?

Good bye Turkey.

I flew to Vienna from Istanbul because the train out of Istanbul would’ve taken a few days rather than the hour long flight and I didn’t think there was much point in revisiting places that I’d already seen.

Nothing was really notable about the flight itself apart from the red stockings on the lovely Austrian Airlines staff which kept me thoroughly entertained.

It was good to see Heidi, Silvia, and Helmut again, and I am forever indebted to them for their hospitality. As Heidi was working pretty solidly Helmut and I did things like hiring out DVD’s, watching TV, and eating takeaway pizza, it was almost normal; he didn't speak English but it was just what I needed.

As travellers know, trying to do simple day to day things in a completely different setting/language/currency etc. is one of the cool things about traveling. The unfortunate thing is, cue double edged sword scenario, the novelty wears off. I guess I’m missing the carefree days when I knew exactly when I was going to get my next meal/shower/tikka masala with a garlic naan, etc.

So I’ve decided to make some attempt to return to “normality” (what ever that is), and make my way back to England to get a good curry.

But before my curry wishes could be fully satisfied, a promise I had made months ago to some Danes back in Romania needed to be fulfilled. I departed for Berlin with my eyes ever northwards in the direction of Copenhagen.

Yes mum, I am looking after myself...

After all the e-mails of concern over the previous entry, I guess I better follow it up pretty quickly with the recuperation part of the story.

After the horror of the food poisoning of the last week, I decided that I need some rest and relaxation. I thought to myself that it would need to be in a place that I felt comfortable just doing nothing, apart from home there was only one place that sprung to mind, that place was Selçuk, Turkey.

I stopped briefly in Çanakkale where I had enough time to consider another visit to the Gallipoli peninsula, but decided against it on the grounds that apart from seeing it a month beforehand, I was scared that it wouldn't live up to the first time I visited. I'll save a second visit for an ANZAC day sometime in the future.

"So, here we are in Selçuk" I muttered as I exited the stuffy and sterile air conditioning of the bus. As before it was a beautiful sweltering day, and as before I wandered towards the ANZ Guesthouse where I knew I would meet Michael and Mehmet at the carpet shop. This time however the smiles and hand shakes (there is always handshakes in Turkey) were a reunion rather than a meeting, I was feeling better already.



I don't know how long I stayed, sure I could probably work it out, but to be honest I don't really want to know. I must have taken off my watch to have a shower one day and just forgot to put it back on. It was good to lose track of time.

Not to say that I didn't do anything at all, I had beach days, sleep in days, read a bad book days and... well that was about it, until Harry (the owner) asked me if I knew anything about computers. Before long I had redesigned the breakfast menu and received a free dinner for my trouble. Soon after it was my pleasure to attempt any odd job Harry or for that matter, anyone in town could offer.

The odd jobs ranged from simply correcting spelling or grammar to selling boat and bus tours. I was pretty much living for free for about 3 hours of work a day, which still left plenty of time for sleep-ins, books, and beach days.

Daniel worked around the corner and had been living "the lifestyle" for about six weeks longer than me. Being Kiwis, Otago Uni boys, and in the same situation we naturally hung out a bit. It was hilarious watching the Turks observe us as we chucked a Rugby ball around. Ever the triers, the Turks joined in but they simply could not match us in hand-eye coordination with an oval ball, this was round-ball country and we revelled in our superiority.

During a sleep-in day I was woken around mid-day by Daniel who had managed to find a pub in a nearby town with a Satellite dish that could possibly pick up Sky sport. This meant, he explained slowly to my sleepy brain that we could watch the Springboks play the All Blacks live in a few hours time. Of course I was interested, relative to the previous weeks this was an event, an occasion, a momentous spectacle worthy of beers! A trip to civilisation! What was I going to wear?

On arrival we were sorely disappointed to learn that there was a English Rugby League final on at the same time and there was only one decoder. A disappointed look between Daniel and myself passed between us as our dreams for a taste of home and a worthy occasion for beers disintegrated in to little pieces.

This did not stop the Turks however, as we all know the Turkish pride themselves on perfect customer service. Perfect customer service, as I am reliably informed by my previous profession is where a win/win situation takes place. This win/win situation came in the form of a quick call to the towns resident set-top-box hacker, a soldering iron, and a quick fiddle with the remote control. Suddenly everyone was happy. Beers were followed by beers which was followed by an All Black win.

Our revelry back in Selcuk that night was infectious, we combined the forces of three or four local hostels for a party back at my place on the rooftop terrace. Daniel and I proceeded to teach people from fifteen different countries the intricate nuances of Otago University's best export, and I know you know I'm talking about 'Circle of Death' right?

Waking the next afternoon with a pleasant hangover I decided it was time to move on.