Ben and I woke up on the morning of the 24th and hopped on the metro downtown to grab some coffee at his cafe. We then sauntered around and found our way to a spot where we could take a boat tour of Copenhagen. I'm usually not terribly into these types of things but Ben had never done it either so we played tourists and jumped aboard! (After having some ice cream, of course.) The canal tour was actually pretty interesting, lots of history in it and I got to see Copenhagen from a different view than I'd ever seen before. It was a bit chilly on the water, though, and I wished I'd brought my down jacket rather than just the sweatshirt Ben was letting me borrow.
After the tour, Ben and I got some more coffee. Scandinavians sure love their coffee and I was happy to just say "When in Rome" and toss back another cup. We then headed back to Ben's, grabbed my bags and sauntered over to the train station where Ben saw me off. The train ride across the southern tip of Sweden always goes by faster than I think and by the time I knew it, we were at the ferry terminal waiting to head to Bornholm. The ferry ride was unmemorable, and I got into Rønne a little after 7 PM. Uncle Pete was waiting for me and we went into the town center and caught up over a beer and a plate of nachos before heading back across the island to their house. We split another beer from this local brewery which I believe is called Svaneke bryghuset--very high quality little brewery. Towards the end of the bottle, Aunt Maibritt returned home and we opened one last bottle to split three ways before heading to bed.
The next morning Uncle Pete and I loaded up his moped onto their little trailer. It needed some repairs so we did out best to anchor it in the trailer upright with a few straps tied haphazardously around the steering column and seat. Well, we had to stop halfway to Rønne to retie some of these traps as the moto had started to turn diagonally in the trailer. After dropping the moto off we went a little north along the island to a town called Hesle where Pete and Maibritt had a glass exhibition. There were some very big glass pieces and some striking contrasts in colors too.
After the exhibit we drove along the northern coast of the island and found ourselves in Allinge. We stopped at a seafood restaurant and had a great traditional Bornholm meal. It was buffet-style and there were tons of different dishes ranging from a seafood chowder to pickled and smoked herring and curried salmon. Delicious. After lunch we started to walk south along the coast only to get a call from my parents about 4 minutes into the walk. They really wanted to Skype with me and due to time differences and work they wouldn't be able to wait much longer. So we hopped in the car and drove back home where I skyped with them for a bit. Following that, we got back in the car, drove a little further south and walked along the coast. The ground was covered in wild garlic that was pretty new and fresh, indeed there weren't any cloves sprouting yet. So we picked handfuls of wild garlic leaves as we made our way along some paths and down to the rocky coast.
Back at the house, we started working on dinner for the night. Uncle Pete and I concerned ourselves with making pasta while Aunt Maibritt sautéed some vegetables and lamb chops and used the wild garlic leaves to make a pesto sauce. Let me say, you've never had a pesto unless it's been made with garlic leaves.
Maibritt dropped me off at the ferry the next morning. I got back in to Copenhagen around 1 and went straight to Tess's apartment. She and I went and got some bread and made some sweet ham and cheese sandwiches. After that, we went for a walk over to Christiania and had some coffee in a dingy, high-roofed place full of dreadlocked and pierced anarchists. We wandered around the lake a bit and then finally went back to her apartment and grabbed my bags. Walking over to the metro, we met Ben who was going to accompany me to the airport while Tess split off and went to hang out with her boyfriend.
Ben and I had a bit of an emotional goodbye at the airport. The last time I'd seen Ben had been 2010 and neither of us knew when we'd see each other again. Ben's starting school again in the fall, as am I. Ben and Camilla had talked about coming to Seattle next summer so hopefully that pans out but in this big world, who knows. We said goodbye and I grabbed one last pint of Carlsberg before hopping on my slightly delayed flight for Paris. Next stop: Orly.
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