Friday July 20, 2007

This morning we woke up really early, well not that early I guess but it was 7:30am after a late night on the train. We had to get up early so we could gather our stuff together before our beds were checked on the train and breakfast was served. It was an okay breakfast for it being train food, which compares quite closely to plane food these days. After enjoying our breakfast with the scenery whizzing by us we struggled down the stairs with our luggage and towards the exit of the train. We were so excited to find that there was an escalator at the train station in Copenhagen, because it was a pretty tall set of stairs. I had no idea what my cousin looked like so we didn’t know who to look for so we had to call him and eventually met with him and his 18 year old daughter, Camilla, in the center of the station under a giant clock. It was an awkward moment for us because we didn’t know whether to hug, shake hands, or kiss on the cheek. There have been so many different cultural customs we have learned along our journey so far that it’s hard to know what to do for what culture now. After doing our little meet and greet we were lead to the car where we put our bags away and then went to walk around Copenhagen. It was a fun time in the city because my cousin, Kim had not been to Copenhagen since he was a young child so it was pretty new to him as well. We actually got to see most of the town in the short time that we were in Copenhagen because we walked from the car and we also took a boat trip around the harbor, and walked up a tower to look at the city from above. To end our time in Copenhagen we spent a few hours at the famous Tivoli, amusement park. We meaning Camilla, Kim, and I rode on several roller coasters and spinning rides while at the park, but we also did a few of the kid rides like the mine, and the fairy tale land, both which tell stories. After our time at the amusement park we drove to the town that Kim lives in with his girlfriend, Joanne. It took about 1.5 hours to reach their where my Aunt Miyoko and Uncle Kurt were waiting for us. They had dinner ready for us when we arrived so that we could put our stuff down and eat. Dinner was really good, we had all kinds of different meats and fish and bread. After dinner we freshened up with nice showers and then sat down to chat with my family, which we did for quite some time because it has been 17 years since we have seen each other. Overall our time today in Denmark has been very fun and interesting. There was more open land than we are used to as we have been in big cities for our entire trip until now.