I’ve had a difficult time motivating myself to write blog posts since moving to Bristol. I still enjoy writing and I still want to share what I’m up to with friends and family, so the main reasons for the blog haven’t gone away. I think what has been getting in the way is this: moving to Australia felt so interesting. Americans tend to associate Australia with big adventures; maybe it’s how far away it is, or the marsupials, or that the seasons are opposite those in the US, or simply how little most people know about Australia. Whatever it is that makes Australia interesting, it made me feel like my experiences were worth sharing. England, on the other hand, does not have the same association. Of course there are plenty of reasons to find England interesting, but Americans associate it with dreary weather and old, dead poets before associating it with big adventures. I guess what I’m saying is that it feels less interesting to write about what I’m up to in England. Now that I’ve written that thought down, I realize that it is not true. I’ve seen and done many interesting things in a last 11 months. My time and experience in England and Europe are not an attempt to replace what I had in Melbourne; instead, it’s a new adventure, and it’s time i begin thinking about it like one.
Melbourne reunion.
A major difference between travelling around Europe and Australia is the number of cities there are to visit. This probably isn’t new information to you, but a quick Google search helps illustrate it: there are 143 people/square mile in Europe and 8 people/square mile in Australia. This means that there are more cultures to get to know, more cuisines to taste, and more cities to see in Europe, which results in more weekend trips. More trips means that there is potentially more writing to keep up with, so how do I decide what to write about? Is it every time I fly somewhere? Or every time I’m not in Bristol for at least a couple of nights? Whatever the answer is, I have some catching up to do so I will stop meta blogging and move on to my visit to Copenhagen.
The trip that Linnea and I took to Copenhagen in May was with friends who we met in Australia. A couple of our Aussie friends moved to Europe since we left Melbourne, a few ex-Melbourne Epic office friends live here in Bristol while another lives in the Netherlands, and a few more friends flew in from New York and Melbourne. These are the people who helped make my Australia experience wonderful, so it was great to get together for a long weekend. After a late Thursday arrival, we began our exploration on Friday with lunch at WarPigs, a barbecue joint that serves great beer. We checked into our very cramped Airbnb (12 people, 1 bathroom - everything is expensive in Copenhagen) after lunch and wandered toward Copenhagen’s most famous areas - Nyhavn, a beautiful canal district and Christiania, a commune where Danish law was not enforced until a few years ago.
Brekkie.
While this trip was mostly about spending time with each other (and celebrating Gary’s birthday), I wanted to do a bit of sightseeing. After a self-catered Saturday morning brekkie, we went on a Google Maps-lead walking tour. Herding 12 people on a walking tour based on what you learned from an internet stranger is not easy, but I was pleased that I managed to lead us through 90 minutes of sightseeing before other priorities took over. The group was evenly split between “I need coffee,” “I need to pee,” and “I want a beer,” which are interests that even the most talented tour guide cannot compete with. Sightseeing gave way to drinks and a late lunch at a food truck park, where we spent most what was left of the day before finishing the evening playing cards at our Airbnb. On Sunday morning, we were sad to leave each other but not sad to stop sharing 1 bathroom among 12 people as we parted ways to fly to various home cities and business trips.