copenhagen

copenhagen... so very familiar since i had lived here for a couple of years some ten years or so ago. i made my way to christiania to where sigve was staying in a friend's wagon. on the way, i found the moonfishers bar, and their free internet. so now i had the directions to the wagon, but no directions to where the party was. no worries. 

 i left my stuff at the wagon, and hung out in the alcohol-free bar until it was closing up, and then back to the wagon. i rolled out my mat and sleeping bag and tried to get some kip on the front 'porch'. an hour or so later, a bike was parking up and it was rosa, a friend of sigve's. but no sign of sigve himself. 'we were supposed to leave together', she said, 'but then he just disappeared'. she left to wait by the bridge for him, and i got out of my warm sleeping bag and waited too. it was more than an hour before sigve finally shows up, by which stage i was ready to kill him. it was just my usual grumpiness from lack of sleep. instead, we greet warmly, we hadn't seen each other since the dividalen days. sigve shows me the couch, and i tell them that i'm going to hit the sack straight away cos i really needed to sleep, and also because i realized that him and rosa really needed to talk. 

in the morning over a raw-food breakfast, (sigve is 6 months into a raw-food diet), he told me what had happened: just another misunderstanding. and we caught up on all the news since that time in north norway. we went together to a music shop where he got himself a nice digital mic for his music recordings, and then to the christiania bath-house for a well-needed shower and sauna. in the evening, after my now usual fried carrot and onion pasta meal, we had a jam session in the wagon with ras asua, a guy from mali with his balafon, a traditional xylophone percussion instrument. man, could he play that thing! with me on my drum, and sigve with guitar/drum, we made some great music together. in the morning, sigve had to take a train back to norway. that was the reason he was back in copenhagen, to take his stuff and instruments back home. he had lived in the wagon the previous winter. i packed my stuff too, and we walked back to the heart of christiania. at the bridge, we got joined by a friend of sigve on her bike. she was also norwegian, he had met her at the party, the one i missed. we all went to the moonfishers bar for the internet, and after we said our goodbyes to sigve, i got talking to siri. i told her i was looking for a place to stay in copenhagen for a few more days, and without hestitating, she offered me to stay at her place. great! we agreed to meet later at her place in sjaelor, as she was on her bike and i wanted to do some busking beforehand.

 busking on the main pedestrianized street of stroget was a very slow affair. maybe it was the depressingly grey overcast weather, maybe it was the start of the week and month, maybe it was a whole lot of factors, but i didn't make a lot. this wasn't sweden for sure. a young guy from latvia asked to join me with his break-dancing, but still we didn't make any more. however, it was just great to busk together with someone. i took the s-tog train to siri's place, and was just in time for an early dinner, being prepared by bapi, another indian man being hosted by siri, but leaving that night back to germany and paris. bapi cooked a great western/indian fish dish, and after eating, left to drive his car back home. he had been there for the world music festival, playing his tabla drums in a band. i caught up with one of my best friends from the time when i lived here, sune. he was playing in a new band, playing new music! gone was the punk guitar from the ungdomhuset days, now sune was playing a baglama and singing traditional greek folk songs in danish! it was a surprise for sure, but not that much.... he was already hinting at this stuff the last time i saw him a couple of years ago, and from the time i met him and solo in their collective in fyn. and there was also a change in their relationship. my best friends had split up. sune was now with another woman, and solo was bringing up their daughter ronja at her place in vesterbro. we didn't have much time to talk after their gig in the 'smallest theatre in the world' on kronprinsessengade. i went back to siri's place as i had promised to cook her my famous alu gobi sabji dish. the kitchen there was perfect... everything was in easy reach, spices were there, no-stress cooking. siri was allergic to gluten and milk and soya products, and so we made a dough for the chappatis from other flours like rice, and a gluten substitute. i looked at the dough and was a little sceptical if we could make chappatis from it, but i had to eat my hat cos they turned out very good after all. 

the next evening, i went to see solo and ronja and had dinner with them, and got her view of the split. it was over a year ago, and she was not really over it. "what should i say", she said, "he left me for another woman. it totally broke my heart". if it wasn´t for ronja, for sure she would have moved on. but as it was, she and sune had always to discuss and organize times for visiting etc etc etc and of course, they had different opinions on what was the best for ronja. i left quite sad and hoped that it would not be long before solo could put it behind her and move on. i tried to get a lift to berlin via the mitfahrgelegenheit website on the internet. it's based in germany and so mainly german car drivers, and it's a good way to share the cost of petrol for a lift. and for me, to save myself a lot of misery hitching in denmark in the sleet and rain. there was a lift going but she decided not to take up my offer to reduce the price by almost half to 20 euros! okay, no worries. i did another 3 hour busking session and made another 20 euros for the eurolines bus. i just made it to their office in the evening to get the ticket for the early morning bus to berlin.

siri was making a clay sculpture when i got back (she also paints and has an allotment garden to work on), and i made a last dinner of curried red lentils and red rice. delicious, if i say so myself. i thanked her a lot for her hospitality and next morning, bleary-eyed, went to get the bus to berlin.