Sea Day/Copenhagen

July 28th-29th
Sea Day/Copenhagen

The 28th was shaping out to be the usual sea day, but then due to a routing change, we received news that the ship would arrive in Denmark that night. Why this shorter route isn’t chosen every time, I have no idea, but everyone on the ship was more that happy to have another overnight. We didn’t get in till about 11:00 PM, so it wasn’t till after our usual sets that I could get some friends together and head into the city. My group of 6 left sometime between midnight and 1AM for an unplanned night on the town. Seeing as we’ve all been there once before, we knew the best place to start was in the downtown area, about a 20 minute walk from the ship.
So we began walking, anxious to find some hip music club or happening Danish party, and made our way through the city. The walk was about as uneventful as a senior citizen pinochle tournament (sorry grandpa!). Actually, the only thing of interest I noticed on the walk was an L. Ron Hubbard bookstore, filled with shelves of his books, presumably on Scientology (my tour guide on the next day did point out that the Danish were not a church-going people, so I guess that makes sense). When we reached the edge of the downtown area. My group was greeted by yet more desertedness and maybe a half-dozen flashing lights. Disappointed with the night’s turnout, we made our way towards the lights where we were mostly laughed at when asking where to find some jazz. Turns out that Copenhagen is the least happening town on a Monday night (yeah, it’s a Monday night, but you can still find stuff to do in Chicago on a Monday a 1AM). After popping our heads into a couple empty bars and passing a less than attractive adult bar, we began walking back to the ship to a bar we passed on our walk into town. It was a small Irish/English pub, also nearly empty, but after setting up outside with a couple pitchers, we turned a frustrating search into a chilled out late night hang. The only problem was that each pint cost around $8, making for a really expensive round, so that didn’t last too long. Eventually, most of the group headed back to the ship and Patrick and I stayed for a bit playing a game of darts. We then walked back in a very round about way, climbed on a couple things we probably shouldn’t have climbed on, and eventually returned to the ship somewhat defeated by the uneventful night.
The next morning I had a tour. The only problem was that I also had training, and though it’s some useless, redundant training, my attendance was required. I decided to skip it. I was scheduled for some nice tour to some Danish Castles and Palaces, and after some encouragement from my friends and my own sense of priorities and rebelliousness, went on my tour.
The tour was nice, nothing too spectacular, but I did see some gorgeous castles. One was in Ellsinore, which was the castle setting of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and another was the famous Frederiksborg Castle. I did meet an interesting man on my tour, who after selling a delivery business he founded, wrote three books (one of which was an international best seller), and now has a business auctioning famous signatures. Intelligent guy to say the least.
When I returned to the ship I was anticipating some kind of warning letter waiting for me in my room, but after a quick search, found nothing. Could it possibly be that yet again, my unexcused absence went unnoticed? It had been a long day so I laid down for a nap before the rehearsal, and seeing as I didn’t have enough time to get off the ship and go into the city, a nap seemed like the best option. Five minutes into it someone calls my room, and afraid of it being the Music Director, I don’t answer. Most calls are for my roommate anyways, so I let it ring and returned to my ever-important nap. Fifteen minutes later – another phone call. I had to answer it this time, had to accept what was certainly waiting for me on the other line. And as expected, it’s the MD informing me of missing “his” training this morning. I say in a somewhat confused tone, “uh…yeah...,” and went on to elaborate on how it simply slipped my mind in the excitement of getting put on a tour I wasn’t expecting to get and having an overnight to distract me from what was on my schedule. Well, I can be very sincere sounding when I want to be, and between what seemed like an honest mistake, the triviality of the training, and my loveable nature (ha), he kind of just let me off the hook. So I’m not in trouble, not yet at least, but the ice I’m on gets thinner by the day, so maybe it’s time to start behaving again…
For the evening, Gordon had planned this band event where we’d be playing funk tunes for a ship sponsored party back deck. I was happy to go help out with the music, thinking it’d be a great time. When I got to the mooring deck (where they were holding the party), I quickly realized how wrong I was. Between the blaring music, tons of people, and unlimited quantities of free alcohol, it became one of the worst venues imaginable. I was nervous the entire night for some drunk waiter to step on an instrument or knock over a music stand, and then with the deafening music blasting from speakers strategically situated insufferably close to the back of my skull (needed one more “s”), I was not in the best of spirits all night. The music would have been great to play had it not been for the aforementioned hazards, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case, and I was too paranoid about the environment to even grab a beer. I left the first chance I got without bailing on Gordon and escaped to the audio-utopia of my cabin.
That about covers it for my final visit to Denmark. Thanks for reading and have a great one!