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Chris/I ate breakfast. He revealed
that he has fallen in love over the internet with a girl who
lives in Chicago. I crunched down on my corn flakes and nodded
in empathy.
Before Legoland opened, we hit the
convenience store, then walked through the campgrounds at
the hostel. At the store, I found a postcard for the hostel
that apparently tries to use sex and the hidden playground
area from 2 different angles (we couldn't find it anywhere
on the grounds). It was a really nice hostel, so it's weird
that they didn't show the dormitories... or the Bouncy Cushion...
or anything that would make the place seem appealing.
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| Postcard, Billund. What were
they thinking? |
We were among the first people that
day to arrive at Legoland, so we rode some rides before anyone
else. Rides there are good, but short. Saw many impressive
Lego creations. Pirate Legos, Wild West Legos, Medieval Legos.
The Wild West Legos were speaking at us in Danish, which Chris
and I found amusing. Fortunately, all the signs there were
in German, Danish and English. And park employees spoke English.
Highlight: getting caught in chainlinked portion of jungle
gym thing.
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| Legoland, Billund. |
|
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| Legoland. I got caught in this
chained part of a playground. It took a while to escape.
[From Chris's camera.] |
Also ate very good pizza at restaurant
called Pizza/Pasta. Later, accidentally called Canadian girl
American. She was talking, and I looked at Chris and said,
"Wow, Americans." She said, "Actually, we're Canadians." Chris
apologized to her for me and told me they hate being called
Americans. Oops.
Post-Legoland, we left the hostel to
catch the bus back to Veijle (where the train station was).
Then we took the train to Odense. Odense is pretty, and the
kids there seem fashionable. It also has some cool LED stoplights.
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| LED Stoplight, Odense. Attractive
and efficient. Also, they turn red and yellow before turning
green, as kind of a signal to take your foot off the break.
Does it improve traffic flow, or does it contribute to
accidents? We saw many near-accidents on the streets of
Denmark. |
We took a bus, supposedly to our hotel, but
we didn't know when to exit it. So we got off early and walked
about 2 miles with bags in tow, up hot, uncrowded roads through
the countryside. It felt good to arrive at the hotel, even
if we had to walk through a bar and kitchen and back alley
to get to our somewhat creepy but clean, cheap room. We ate
an expensive but generally tasty dinner. I drank local cola
called Jolly, which was pretty tasty. Then we went to bed.
Later, I took photos of the hotel so as to
recreate the famed Billund Hostel postcard. We were going
to do this for every place we stayed. Yeah.
[ed. note: reviewing this on July 14, 2003, I realize that
I did not at all capture the strange setting-out-of-a-horror
movie aspect of this place. I also failed to note how incredibly
good it felt to finally find it after walking so
long with all our stuff, how nice it was to watch Danish news
in the tiny bar before bed while sipping on a Jolly.]
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| "Postcard," Fangel (Odense).
Clockwise from top left: 1) our room; 2) swingset
outside of the hotel; 3) Chris trimming nosehairs; 4)
exterior of hotel. |
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