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| The end of July I left for an unplanned trip to Portland to be there while my Dad was to have surgery to replace a heart valve. Prior to getting on the plane, I called and found out that one of my sister's had just had a serious bike accident (commuting home from work) and was in the emergency room having tests done. Though pretty badly scraped up, she had no serious injuries. When I arrived, the results from Dad's tests had come back and his heart was in much more serious condition than previously thought and they weren't sure the he would survive any surgery. Happily the doctors worked their magic and after two days of intensive treatments, they were able to do a triple by-pass & valve replacement surgery. While Dad was on the table, my Mom called to say that she was in another hospital's emergency room having had a very bad fall. She broke her pelvic bone in two places and suffered a compressed fracture in her back. Due to all of the above, my expected two-day leave from work turned into a two week round of hospital visits and caring for the parents with my sisters & brother. It was nice to be with the family and to be in Portland. But, hopefully my next visit will less eventful and include seeing my friends. Three days after coming back to Denmark, I passed the practical driving test and am now a proud holder of a DK drivers license! At the end of August I rode in my first bicycle race choosing to complete the 50km due to the unexpected break in my training. I finished in 2 hours, 1 min, 31 seconds. Not the best time in the world but I am still very happy with my results...about 10km into the race, my legs started cramping up and the left leg was spasming (?is that a real word?) at 12km. I managed to stay on the bike and kept riding the whole time. | | |
| I learned earlier this year that if you stay in Denmark for a longer period of time, you must pass a written and a practical driving test. They do allow translators but they need to be from the "approved" list. So the end of February, I went in and applied for a temporary license. It was good for three months which at the time seemed a resaonable period in which to pass the required tests. HAH! was I wrong. The Danish driving test requirements and driving laws are not logical or easy for foreigners to work within. Due to the complicated nature of the system, my temporary license ran out the end of May and I could not get it renewed. So since May 22nd, I've been on foot, bicycle, bus, train, and at the mercy of my friends for rides to & from everywhere including work. It has not been enjoyable. To put it into my perspective, I've had my license for 25 years, have owned a car for 23, and have my motorcycle endorsement. I had to quit driving-cold turkey! Most every Thursday I've joined a group of other non-danish speakers in a class for learning how to pass the test on danish driving rules. The driving rules are not always common sense and the way the questions are asked in the test defies any sense of logic anywhere in the world... We have people from Australia, New Zealand, China, Isreal, Kenja, Nambibia, Ireland, US, England, etc in the class and we all agree the written test is made to fail people. We are shown 25 pictures of traffic situations (one at a time) and given a set of 4-questions for each picture to which we are to answer Yes or No. You can only miss questions on 5 pictures. The test will punish defensive driving, common courtesy, or any situation where you have a different judgement call than the person who wrote the question. It's hard to explain just trust me that the system is rigged to support the driving schools income. Happily today I passed the written test. Of the five in my test group, only 2 passed. This is a normal passing percentage rate for groups of foreigners. Now I have to pass the driving test which I need to schedule at a later date. It may take me another month to get an appointment but regardless, I'm through one gate! Celebration! | | |
| Wow. I have added a new goal to my list of things to do. Since I don't know if I can accomplish it I'm very surprised that I'm "publishing" it but here goes: Ride (and complete) in a 100km cycling race. There is one on the 30th of August that I'm now trageting. It is a part of this two-day sports event called the Marseliborgloebet. Saturday is when the cycling races are held: 25km, 50km, 100km and Sunday is for the walking and running races. I have also signed up for a cycling holiday in September. Unfortunately my first choice a week in Dordogne was cancelled due to lack of participants. I'd love to do something else in France but the timing doesn't look so good for me. Right now I'm looking into an 8-day trip in Tuscany. It is a little harder and I've already been to Italy several times so it isn't the ideal trip but I may take it anyway. Then I'd travel to Paris and spend a week there. My whole goal for this year's vacation was to spend two weeks France with one being a cycle trip. Oh well. Second choice would be cycle one week in Italy and holiday one week in France. It's hard to cry over the second choice  . Last weekend I rode the route for the 50km race (Marselisborg) and did okay but definitely need more training. Yesterday I rode 42km and today rode 62 km. This morning I met with one of the cycle clubs in Aarhus. I arrived and saw that there would be only two women on the ride. The other, Lene, rides frequently and previously has done up to 80km. She seems to be a pretty strong rider and I didn't see her again. Apparently the ride was planned at 100km with a long coffee break at 50km. I knew I wouldn't go that far and figured I'd turn around at approx 40km. We started off at a fast pace of 30-35km/hr. It was definitely too much for me (think 20-25km/hr) but again, I figured I'd go as far and as fast as I could then turn around. I was able to keep up the pace for the first hour (with a little uphill pushing from one of the guys) and turned home at the 30km mark. Here are a few pictures from some of my recent rides.    | | |
| April: --Spent 48 hours in China on a business trip. One night in Tianjian and one night in Beijing. See pictures in the photo album. Comments: Air was unbreathable. So much construction was still occurring it was amazing to think they expected to complete it by August. Sun was almost unrecognizable at 8:30 in the morning (see photo). --Six days after returning from China left for the US on a quick holiday for a girlfriends wedding on the coast of Oregon. It was the first wedding I've been to where instead of having a "first toast", the bride & groom had a "first shot". Beautiful Wedding! Great reception! Again, see photos in the album. It even snowed while we were at the beach (Otter Crest). During the weekend I was living on the edge when I agreed to be in the car while my 15-year-old niece was driving. Lived through the experience with no scars, either mental or physical. --Met some new American ex-pats at the end of April and have been hanging out with some of them since. May: --Went to London for a long weekend and met up with a woman from Leeds that I met in Aarhus the first year I was in Denmark. It was my first real visit to London and we did all the tourist things: Tour of Kensington Palace, picnic in Hyde Park with food from Harrods, Big Bus Tour of the city, dinner in SoHo, went to Greece the musical, rode the tube everywhere, shopped down Oxford Street, walked past Buckingham Palace, took boat cruise down the Thames, ate expensive mediocre dinners in "in" squares around town, etc... Loved it can't wait to go back! --Met a bunch of English & Irish ex-pats the beginning of May and have been touring the english/irish pubs since then. Mainly guys, they are a really warm friendly group and have been great to spend time with. Have now started a mini-tradition of roastbeef sunday dinners at the Golden Lion. Yum. --Started back on my road bike and set a few goals for this year. There is a 100km bike race at the end of August that I'm going to try and do. Back in the US, I was able to ride 50miles (+/- 80km) but since I don't ride often, I'm currently up to 50km (31miles). I've got two months to double that distance. I'd like to find someone to train with and have contacted three cycling clubs. The only response I got was from the second one who referred me to the third club. So now I'm asking most everyone I know. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find any women riders...yet. I mentioned this problem to one guy danish friend and he told me that I shouldn't have picked such a masculine sport. Hmm, I didn't know that cycling was a men's sport. Silly me. --I've signed up (and paid for) a cycling tour of Dordogne France the end of September. I hope to spend the preceding week in Paris and surroundings. Now it is June. As always, I'll do my best to post more frequent blogs... | | |
| Unfortunately this post is so late after the trip so I'll condense as much as I can... I arrived on Thursday late afternoon, 20 March 2008 and took an airport shuttle bus to the hotel. I chose the Danubius Gellert Hotel mainly due to the 4-stars and that it had famous thermal baths attached. Upon arriving, I unpacked, called for an iron and found out that similar to Italy, ironing is not allowed in the rooms. For those of you traveling to either country, take note. Pack non-wrinkle clothes. That night for dinner, I met up with Chris (work colleague) & Kriszti (his wife who is from Budapest), they were in town to visit her family for Easter. We ate at an Italian restaurant called Pomo d’oro. Excellent food, excellent wine, excellent conversation filled the evening; yum. After dinner, Kriszti gave me a quick driving tour of downtown and showed me some of the more famous spots all lit up. Very beautiful. The next morning, I made it down to the breakfast buffet and was pleasantly surprised at not only the selection but the quality of food. Again, yum. I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon walking around the nearby neighborhoods, The Citdella and visited the Cave Chapel.   In the evening I went to see Wagner's Parsifol opera and sat in the center of the second row from the stage/orchestra on the main floor. I have never seen an opera this close before. It was very exciting…though the first and third acts of the opera were not. It was not at all the fault of the performers or the set or the staging. If you have heard the opera before, you know it is because of the way Wagner wrote it.   At breakfast the next morning I shared my table with a couple from Seattle (go figure) and a theoretical physicist (Peter) from the University of Chicago. We talked about the presidential race & American international politics. What made this even more interesting is that one of the men was originally from Romania and the other man was originally from The Netherlands, the other woman is a very well travelled teacher and of course I live in Denmark. That afternoon I walked around the town with Peter who was looking for some specific books translated to Hungarian. As we walked & visited every book stores in town, he gave me a verbal history of Romania, Hungary including pre & post WW2, the uprisings and his family's experience through it all. I didn't get to see a few of the markets that were on my list but I enjoyed myself and learned quite a bit about Eastern European history.The next day we spent a couple of hours walking around Castle Hill and sat in on a church service in the stunning Mathias Church.  
I left the next day exhausted from all my walking but very much looking forward to my next visit. I highly recommend Budapest but would suggest you go closer to the summer. It was a bit cold and snowed the last night I was there. | | |
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