Survival Tip #4217

Never get your hair cut by a Lebanese woman.

Wicked Weekend part deux

Saturday BBQ @ Gina's

Gina (Tzina) the Greek IAESTE chick invited us over for a big BBQ at her place on the island of Amager. From 4pm to midnight, we ate burnt meat and drank tons of cheap beer, played loads of silly games, and made friends with the new trainees who's names i've probably forgotten already... twas a real laugh and i'm thinking of doing a big BBQ too in the near future if it can be this fun! Now if only the weather were more predictable.....

pic: silly games with plenty of cheating
pic: Michael Weiss's yodelling punishment
pic: Cesar's gay dance punishment
pic: A pensive Marianna worrying about the ear-licking punishment
pic: Mat and his pink thing
pic: Mike, one point away from a punishment
pic: Vera smiles on the first attempt...
pic: Charlie smiles on the fourth attempt...
pic: all together

Wicked Weekend

Friday Night @ Køkken 2B

What i expected to be a quiet night at home turned into one wild night with the lads at Køkken 2B. It was the usual gang plus one (Kasper, Ulrich's friend) and we started off with a few beers and vodka+apple juice (?), and then went to visit some friends on the 4th floor where we bummed some more free booze (yay), and we then took a taxi downtown for some more partying at Cucaracha Bar where i also picked up a cool T-shirt (see pic). We then queued up for about 30mins to get into this posh (and i suspect over 28's) club which was packed with some really hot (despite rather old and saggy) women. Drinking ensued, repeatedly. Champagne was flowing courtesy of Kasper. An attempt at dancing was made. We lost one or two men in battle, but it was allright because it was friday night after all. We somehow found our way home at around 6am and i was really starving by then, so i decided to put on my chef's hat and cook up some nice chicken and potatoes fil-forn. With the food in the oven, i fell asleep on the sofa with mouth open and remote in hand, and was awoken an hour later by Jonas, only to find my chicken 'n' tatties burnt to a crisp. Of course, i ate them anyways.

pic: Kasper can't eat watermelon without getting seeds on his head

(teehee) i just remembered we found a nice packaged rose in the street that night and took it home with me.... put it in some random girl's letter box with my business card just for a laugh. I'm just so romantic aren't I :-)

Anita's Birthday

Last night was Latino Nite at Anita's place to celebrate her 24th Birthday. Good cake, free beer, south-american music, and the highlight of the evening which was dipping chocolate balls in whisky, lighting them on fire, and eating them in flames!

pic: The crowd at Anita's party

Louis Guntrum - weintradition seit 1648

Travelling for over 1 hour just to buy a few bottles of wine is not recommended. What is recommended is Guntrum Reisling Royal Blue, an excellent German white wine. mmmm.

Bragioli at chez Malta Mike

Kokken 2B was treated to yet another Maltese meal last night, with "bragiolis" in tomato sauce, patata il-forn, and baby mushrooms with soy sauce. We were 6 in all.. Soren, Allan, Jonas, Ulrich and his friend Martin, and of course yours truly, and we made sure that it was as hard as possible to walk to our rooms after the ikla... by drinking beer, port, wine, and vodka. Hurrah! (for hangovers...)

pic: Dinner Table
pic: Jonas drinks shot from ice-cube tray
pic: Allan
pic: Soren (gotcha!)

Batman Begins

I was very sceptical about this new batman movie, mostly because in the previous movies they managed to corrupt an awesome script and terrifyingly real gothic city into a blockbuster kiddie-friendly film. I only went because i got the ticket to the tuesday preview at the Palads Cinema Complex at half price as part of the Movie Club at work.

So batman began, with an awesome Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne in gotham city. The movie was surprisingly dark, and for the first time, the bat suit looked less like a silly kid's costume. Coming to think of it, the bat costume is what made the batman cartoons so much better than any film or TV series ever made.. thanks to the illusion of art, they could hide the batman's facial features and ridiculous pointy nose thing and depict him as what he was meant to be. The movie also managed to capture the neo-gothic city with its tall menacing buildings and lowlife scum on every street. Unfortunately, throughout the movie i kept imagining Bruce Wayne running around naked with a blood-splattered chainsaw thanks to Bale's previous hit American Psycho (highly recommended).

After the movie, i had no money to go to a pub with the rest of the gang, so i invited them over for beer at my place (hihihi)

New Mobile number

I just bought me a spanking new Motorola Razr V3 which i got for only Lm90 since it came with a monthly contract. Jonas has a similar mobile which i just fell in love with.. never mind the price... never mind the features. I saw it and i wanted one.. and now i have one :-)

My new number is +45 2963 1556

"A Hereford Beefstouw", best steak in Denmark

With over 10 outlets and their own personal brewery, A Hereford Beefstouw is definitely a five star restaurant worth visiting. And if Mike recommends it, then its good. Mike's Five Stars does not mean that some poncy git in a suit serves you food and speaks to you in french. It simply means that the food is awesome, the staff are friendly, and there's enough food for me not to have to stop at Burger King on the way home.

Believe me i'm not exaggerating. This was definitely the best steak i've eaten in my life. Cooked to perfection. A real meat extravaganza. And with a pint of tasty wheat beer to go with it. For over Lm20 you get 300g of tender fillet steak and one giant jacket potato with sour cream. Awesome. Optionally you can go for the smaller dish which Erika had.. Lm7 but still just as tasty and filling. Oh and thanks Erika for footing the bill :-)

pic: Home brew from Bryggeriet St.Clemens
pic: The real deal.. mmmmm
pic: Outside the Beefstouw

Erika in DK day 8

Christiania may be run-down village but it sure has some colourful graffiti. Here i'm standing near a house at the very entrance of the hippie village, under a giant graffiti painting depicting figures from ancient mythology. The big tree in the centre represents the tree of life, Yggadrasil, which is the only way to communicate between the three worlds, or so the stories tell.

pic: Nicely carved bench in Christiania

On the way back, we couldnt resist buying some chocolate muffins and fresh bread from one of the local bakeries (mmmmmmmmmmmm) and we then went through the shopping streets, including the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain shop, Tiger - the danish version of Tal-Lira, and a very tempting chocolate shop.

Due to bad weather we had to cancel our trip to the park so instead we spent the evening watching one of my favourite movies: The Deer Hunter.

Copenhagen's Round Tower

emmm. i forgot. Its a tower and there's a nice view from up top.

Tivoli Gardens

I've been wanting to go to Tivoli Gardens for ages, so this was the perfect opportunity. It was thursday night so we thought it would be a nice quiet evening so we could get on the rides without any wait time. Yeah right...

Tivoli is located in the very heart of Copenhagen and contains many typical luna park rides, plenty of sideshows and games, and hourly shows and live music. So as you can imagine, i went wild. The little kiddie in me was bursting out and i practically played every sideshow game including Flip the Frog, Hans's Hats, Shoot the Squirrel, Bob the Rat, and shoot the things (forgot). As a reward for all the money i spent, at least i managed to win erika a softoy frog. We went on some cool rides including the Odin Express, Valhalla, the and last but not least... the Demon! I was also engaged in battle with a giant candyfloss (see all pics below).

We saw some really sweet shows such as the Thumbelina play which premiered that very night, and the swing big band, as well as the Tivoli light show and A Tivoli Fairytale which was a fantastic display of light, music and costumes... of course based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairytales. Just as we were leaving, we noticed a big commotion outside the exit where people were lined up with cameras and writing pads for autographs. At first, i thought they were employed by Tivoli just to give you a grand exit so i saluted them with a royal wave etc. Suddenly, we were pushed aside by some big guy in uniform... he was making way for the Queen who was right behind us and leaving that very moment! She had been there all along, and we later found out she was involved as Artistic Director for the Thumbelina play!

pic: me fighting with candyfloss
pic: erika looking constipated on "The Demon" hell-ride
pic: outside the outdoor theatre where the swing band played
pic: the Queen... sortof

Erika makes lasagne

lasagne GOOD

Det Lille Apotek, the oldest restaurant in Copenhagen

Erika spent all day doing some sightseeing on her own until i returned from work and we spent the rest of the evening together.

First we went shopping for clothes and shoes at the Fisketorvet shopping mall where i bought a few nice pairs of shoes (danish style) and shorts and Erika got herslef a nice trendy pair of sunglasses. We then took the train to Copenhagen centre and ate at the oldest restaurant in Copenhagen, where Hans Christian Andersen is known to have spent many an evening thinking up stories and eating the local dishes. This place still serves traditional recipes and beer from their own brewery, and very tasty food too.

Cute pic of mike and erika outside Det Lille Apotek

(erika made me write that)

Mike and Erika go Svensk

Why is it that the moment they land in Denmark they want to visit Sweden?

Erika is back here for a week (yay) so we're doing the remainder of the sightseeing which we didnt do last time she was here. So of course, we started off with good old Sweden. Yes we did the same old trip i've reported about 5 times already, so here goes:

We took the long trian to Helsingor and visited the old Castle by the sea, took a few fotos and went for a strolll by the sea. There was this angry swan who was attacking everyone and this stupid jap went to play with it. Please take a look at the great foto we took with the jap being molested by an irate swan, it was most amusing. We then took the ferry over to Helsingborg and walked about the sunny town for a few hours, visiting the great tower with the awesome view of the channel. My qabbi and i then rested in the park (erika in the shade, mike in the sun of course) and had some ice cream and cold drinks to refresh ourselves in the scandinavian summer.

Yet another pissup

I woke up at 9:30am rather late for work, and wondered
a. why the light is still on
b. where my t-shirt is
c. why my bed is wet
d. where my shot glass and mug are
e. where my room keys are
f. where my mobile is

So i walked to the kitchen which held the answer to all my questions. The place looked like it had been bombed by some terrorist organization... disaster area. Water allover the floor, bottles everywhere, empty cans stacked up in interesting shapes, t-shirts strewn about the place, wine stains allover the table, etc. Yes, last night we did yet another pissup. God knows what we drank, but i know we drank it in large quantities. I distinctly remember us drinking out of our matching 1L beer mugs and banging them together to the yells of "aaarrrrgh!" and "skål" and other meaningless gargles. After a quiet word with my liver and a trip to the bathroom, i can safely say i drank a few litres of strong beer, vodka, whiskey and some other nasty danish Gammel Dansk. Things got ugly when someone produced a waterpistol and we ended up throwing entire mugs of water at eachother.

yours truly,
the behemoths at kokken 2B

Copenhagen Jazz Festival 2005

Every year, Copenhagen is host to a large number of jazz bands and artists from allover the world, and for an entire 14 days the city is alive with the sounds of trumpets and saxophone. Allover the city: in bars, clubs, jazz cafes, streets, parks and walking streets, you will find jazz music.

Simon and i decided to go large for 300Kr a head and go to one of the major concerts at the Royal Opera House (Operaen) in Christianshavn. This was completed only recently and sits on the water's edge of one of the many canals onto the baltic sea. Very spectacular both from inside and outside, but particularly the inner theatre which looks modern as it does classical. The acoustics are, of course, absolutely perfect. From our seats high up in the last rows we could hear every note, every hiss and every breath of the New Jungle Orchestra featuring Yousef Latif, renowned Jazz artist specialising in wind instruments, a whole array of which were with him on stage. The New Jungle Orchestra may not play my favourite type of jazz, but they sure were an experience to watch on stage and their talent is incredible.

Simon and Mike go Svensk

Last full day with Simon here since i have to get back to work tomorrow.

We did the usual Sweden trip.. which i'm kindof getting tired of now. Train to Helsingor, saw the castle, ferry to Helsingborg, saw the castle, ate ice-cream, found cheap chinese buffet for lunch (60Kr.. incredible) and walked about the town. We were home by 4pm just in time to start preparing for the Jazz concert.

Hmmmm.... festival?

Ok last night we went to bed at 8am so today we woke up real late and feeling like we'd been run over by a bus. So we decided not to go to the Roskilde Festival since we were totally pooped. Instead, we took it easy and cooked some good food followed by a long session of foosball and beer in which i lost almost every match.

Roskilde Festival 2005 !

Ok i'm afraid Roskilde is mostly a drunken haze so i can't seem to remember what we got up to. The festival was worthy of about 10 posts on its own, but it looks like its all gone now :( Here's to sum things up:

The festival area itself is as big as a city and takes well over 30mins to cross from one stage to another, speaking of which, there are 6 massive arenas with ear-piercing speaker systems! There are acres upon acres of camping area, mostly full of drunken scandinavians, although Simon and I were to return home every night since we planned to tour the city in the mornings, something which never materialized since we'd arrive home at 6am and play Foosball over a few more drinks until 8am!

pic: Roskilde by Night
pic: Roskilde at Sunset


The festival is not just about the music, its basically just a huge fun event with hundreds of little side shows, performances, games and various entertainment. Within the tightly guarded fences of the festival area, you could find everything from roskilde memorabila shops to shisha chillout areas, games arenas, open-air showers, and even a silent disco! This was a big tent where you were given a pair of headphones to listen and dance to the music.. so its real weird watching the others dance and scream when you can't hear what they're hearing! Thankfully there were plenty of foodstalls, selling everything from chinese to super burgers. As the event sponsor, Tuborg was everywhere of course, and always with huge queues, which didnt really put us off anyways. In the blistering heat, all you really want to do is drink beer after beer. And we did. And with all that beer, you need somewhere to unload. Luckily, Roskilde has evolved into a massive cesspit, so the nearest toilet is a few paces away, much to our amusement.

The band lineup was, of course, nothing short of awesome. We rocked and moshed and jumped and screamed and nodded to the best tunes of so many famous artists as well as some unknown and upcoming stars, since Roskilde music is mostly about promoting the smaller bands. I'm still abit pissed off that my Roskilde T-Shirt doesnt have a band list, but for posterity's sake, here's who we saw in just 3 days:

- Black Sabbath (Ozzy was never so alive!)
- Foo Fighters (Grohl climbed and played atop the sound rig!)
- Green Day (awesome, and again they didnt pick me to go on stage)
- Mastodon (rippin' !!)
- Audioslave (went mad when they played Rage/Soundgarden trax)
- Autechre (wow, crazy beats enough to make your heart fail)
- Duran Duran (nice, but they didnt play Rio for me, the fags...)
- DAD (Denmark's finest)
- Velvet Revolver (didnt think them that good)
- Armand Van Helden (really impressed witht his guy's tunes)
- Snoop Dogg (dogg pimpy himself)
- Craig Richards (craig who?)
- BeatSteaks (all i remember is i ate 3 burgers during this)
- Jimmy Eat World (wasnt impressed)
- Tom Vek (can't even remember the guy)
- Eskobar (xi qabda rappers jhekk niftakar seww)
- Outlandish (abit gay to say the least)
- Alter Ego (hmmm)
- Carl Cox (hamallata but great fun!)

There were plenty more bands we saw, but i just can't remember them. 10 litres of Tuborg a day can mess with your head!

Roskilde is all about the people. Over 110,00 punters made their way to the festival, most of which seem to be regulars and have been going for years, and all completely high on weed and Tuborg Classic. We even met some swedish girls who have been to Roskilde for the past 7 years and still have all 7 access bands on their arms! In 7 years they never removed them.. apparently they are now also quite collectible. We also met up with Chris from Northern Ireland for the second day of the festival, and met some other friends along the way too.

Oh well, it was an amazing adventure which i feel better prepared for when i go next year. Its not your average festival, and not for the faint hearted. If you go, make sure you're camping, and make sure you go in costume, or in nothing at all. Roskilde Rocks and i doubt i'll go to another festival with more punch!