Copenhagen - Day 1, May 22, 2010

I arrived in Copenhagen around 10 in the morning. By 1pm I was at a Carnaval parade.


Who knew the Danish celebrated a Brazilian holiday in such a boisterous way? The streets were lined with brightly colored dancers, drummers, costumes, and there was lots of loud music.


There were alternating sections of dancers and then drummers. And sometimes the drummers surrounded the dancers:


Maybe it's a product of living in SF, but I have an incredible appreciation for good costumes. There were a lot of good ones there, especially the ladies' highly detailed Carnaval dresses:


But elaborate dresses don't always have to be for the ladies, sometimes a devil needs a good dress too, even if it's not blue:

The men had pretty elaborate costumes as well, including these ones from the Bolivian / Danish Association (whaaaa...?). The best part were the boots, with jingling bells on them.



---------Part 2: In addition to the Parade----------

I'm staying here in Copenhagen with my friend Chris. He's really an amazing person--besides letting me stay with him in his (borrowed) palatial apartment for 10 days--he phases through life alternately working and taking time to volunteer for extended periods of time doing disaster relief. (He spent months in places like in Gonaives Haiti with HODR after the 2008 Hurricane Gustav and in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina).

Chris played on my pool team in SF a few years ago and is in Copenhagen now studying for his Master's degree. The best part is that his Master's is in disaster relief. Yup, he's going to officially be a "Master of Disaster!" Here's a pic of him and his Danish girlfriend Louise. :)


If you're really interested, you can see more parade pics on Flickr.

Later that night, after the parade and a picnic in the King's Garden...


...we went to see Snow Patrol at KB Halle. It was here that I realized the perils of being short in a crowd in a country of very tall people. It seems that many people have elbows at the exact height of my face and after some really close calls, I worried that I was going to leave the show with at least one black eye.

Luckily for me I escaped unscathed. Chris is one of those people who are very tall, so I credit him for the picture. :)