A Great Welcome to Europe!

Riding through an area of Aalborg designated
for small cabins and gardens. Bylaws
prohibit people from staying here at night.
The concept originated in World War One
when citizens were required to grow most
of their own food.

Well, I made it! I caught a few winks between Iceland and Copenhagen and- actually that was all. The trip was long but it went much quicker with people to talk to. I celebrated my 18th with a man from Halifax on the first flight (I only had one). I met a Columbian from Montreal on a trip to Iceland and Norway who disagreed with supporting hockey and soccer teams due to the associated injustifiable depth of emotion? I asked him how Columbia did in the World Cup and it explained a lot. I also talked to a German who had spent 10 months in Canada, and, by coincidence, had left Germany on her birthday (for the record, Helena asked me to come home to Germany with her...). On the third flight I discovered an even more powerful symbol of Canadian identity than Tim Hortons; upon seeing my Montreal Canadians cap, a fellow traveller struck up some conversation, ending with the fact that he had bought a Habs jersey while "down under", in Australia. We "Canadiens" truly are respected around the globe. On the train, I made friends with a mother and her son, returning from Scotland, by kicking them out of my seat. After many futile attempts at sleep, we talked about various things for five hours on the way to Aalborg, but only when he wasn't blasting German Screamo for the entire car to hear (he said that there wasn't any good Danish music). My flights all went quite smoothly, there were no major problems and I managed to struggle my way onto the train somehow with four pieces of luggage. It was very interesting to talk to all of these people and it has made me even more excited for what is still to come.

I am currently with Hanne, Jørgen, Henrik, Henriette, and Ruth and we have been biking around Aalborg and to the docks, playing football, "geo-caching", and while not relaxing or enjoying delicious meals, throwing apples at each other in the backyard. It was also great to see Keld, Sanne and Stene who were also here today for much of the afternoon and evening. Tomorrow the plan is to take to the "mountains" of Denmark and storm through 23 kilometres of fresh singletrack with Kelt, Jørgen (who both returned from bike races today with gold medals; Kelt's road team was first of about 40 teams in a 250 km race while Jorgen tackled a checkpoint style mountain bike race on his own, easily coming out on top), and Henrik. They should be tired tomorrow so hopefully I can keep up. So far, it has been a very good time. Hei from Denmark!

The sunset from Jorgen and Hanne's backyard.