My First European Rave

My last full day in Denmark started out pretty relaxed. Ulla, her brother-in-law and myself went to a local town to see the famous church where all the Danish Kings and Queens are buried. It was pretty cool. After that we went to the Viking Museum, which was awesome. We went here as kids and I loved it. It is great revisiting some of your best childhood memories. The museum isn't all that much different, but it was a lot of fun to see it again.

After that I hop on a train back to Copenhagen to meet up with Noelle, Kirstan's granddaughter (Ulla's niece). The last time I saw Noelle was 18 years ago and we didn't speak the same language. I am staying at her place down town and she is taking me out tonight. It will be interesting. We plan on meeting at the train station at a set time, but neither of us are entirely sure what the other one looks like. Noelle is short and has long dreads in two colors, which makes it easier. I am the out-of-place American with two back packs. We find each other pretty easily in the end.

She takes me to her apartment, I meet her boyfriend and their other house guest, a Russian girl named Lily. Noelle ran into Lily, who is back packing the world randomly while Lily was asking people about hostels. Noelle, being the incredibly nice person she is offered a spare room for Lily to stay in while she was in Copenhagen.

After a quick dinner Noelle outlines the plan. We are going to a rave, Danish style. It is in an old warehouse that isn't being used anymore. They just move in, put a bar up, add music and go for it. Luckily, the owner of this one is cool with it and doesn't even charge them rent, just utilities. Only Lily, Noelle and I are going. Her boyfriend has work at 6am or so.

We head off on bikes (its about 45 degrees out) and we have a 30 minute bike ride ahead of us. It was a little cold, but a lot of fun really. We get to the place and it does not disappoint. It was literally a worn down warehouse, holes in the walls, graffiti everywhere and it was awesome.

We got there around 10pm (very early) and partied it up. Beers were only about $2 which is the cheapest you will get in Copenhagen, but the beer is also warm, but that is how this impromptu raves roll. They find a location, post it, find some entertainment (djs, bands, etc) and go with it. My favorite part was the 60 year old guy that looked exactly like Santa Clause, white beard and all, wearing a fur pimp coat, big sunglasses, a hat, red t-shirt, red shorts and holding a 9-iron. He never once left his chair. I felt like he was the king of the rave.

Now possibly my favorite part of Europe is that no one can really dance or better, no one cares. finally I don't look like a fool dancing! I fit in! Plus we added some neon face paint for the lights. (pics to come).

Finally, at 3:30am or so Lily and I are both spent and decide to bike home. Noelle was just getting started and had a good few more hours in her (got home at 6am). Lily and I have a great time figuring out how to get back to the apartment (plenty of wrong turns), but also talking and getting to know each other. She just graduated school and wants to see the world before working. She meets people, gets suggestions of a good place to go and heads there. She is doing it right.

Once we get back to the apartment, we enjoy some cereal and stay up for awhile talking about life. It is just amazing, the people you meet and the things you learn traveling. Everyone needs to go out and travel like this. I can't imagine how people grow individually without this experience. I have learned so much about my self in such a short span that I didn't know. You can't begin to understand yourself until you throw yourself as far from your comfort zone as possible and figure out how to get home. I was always to scared to leave on this adventure and now that I did it, I don't want to come back. I want to see my family, but I want to stay on this adventure, I don't want to settle down again.