Monday, July 12, 2010

Hotel with 2 Ground floors??

Back in Copenhagen after 2 days in Malmo, Sweden. I checked into a different hotel (my fourth one in CPH) that was near the train station. I was given room #09. The elevator had a button labeled "S" which was the ground floor with the lobby. Just to the right of it was another button, also identically labeled "S". This was one floor up from the ground floor, and contained the "0" rooms (01 - 09) including my room. Above those were buttons 1 through 4 for the floors above that. This means that the floor labeled "1" was really floor 2 (Europeans start numbering floors with 0 for the ground floor), or floor 3 in American terms. Floor "S" was both floor 0 and floor 1 (floor 1 & 2 in American) I'm not sure what "S" stands for, but why have TWO "S" floors, especially when they are physically different floors. It's as if my floor, the zero rooms floor, was added later as an afterthought, and squeezed into a space between two existing floors. Something like the "floor 7½" in Being John Malkovich. Or maybe I just stepped into... the Twilight Zone??

Friday, July 2, 2010

First night in Copenhagen

I'm now in Denmark, the land of the Little Mermaid, Existentialism, and Bluetooth (An ancient King of Denmark was named "Bluetooth").
For me personally though, when I think of Copenhagen I think of Niels Bohr and his formulation of Quantum Mechanics. After a long nap, I went walking to explore the area near my hotel. Sure enough, I didn't walk more than 3 minutes before encountering a bust of Niels Bohr.

The weather is nice, warm enough to eat outdoors and most restaurants have outdoor seating. The restaurants are good, but expensive. A seafood linguini cost me 240 DKK (about $40).

After dinner I went to a Jazz festival; heard an amazing group called the "Portico Quartet". Not your typical jazz group, they were quite fresh and innovative. I might describe their style as "Jazzy Soundscapes", with extensive use of loopers and other special effects.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

UK & Scandanavia Trip

At O'Hare, on my way to Copenhagen! That's where I start my trip to some parts of Scandanavia, and the UK.