Top Ten Life Moment

There are special places that one stumbles upon that stir something deep inside. When it is a beautiful night and there are people playing guitar on their stoop in the twilight, or an all day brunch fest on the cute street side cafe with good people watching, sometimes it can be Mid Summer Swing at Lincoln Center. The energy is better than good, everything feels calm, relaxed and happy. Charley and I were lucky enough to find ourselves in one such moment while in Copenhagen.Welcome to Nyhavn! A canal runs into the city for a length of space to allow beautiful tall ships to dock, inspiring envy and fantasy lives in which one lives on a boat and travels to all the Scandinavian countries in the summer, collecting fun people to travel with, regional booze to make late night cocktails to share with your new travel partners as they regale you with tales of far away lands. Like I said, fantasy life.... Anyways- the cobble stone street is flanked by this canal on one side, and a series of adorable restaurants and cafes on the other. All the outdoor seating is ready, even though it is still a bit cold for that. They have their heaters going and a blanket for each chair so if one chooses to sit outside, and one will choose to sit outside, one is warm and comfortable.
We rode down the street on our bikes and were immediately pulled into the scene. We wanted to drink! by the canal! and then we noticed that these cafes were not our only option! Yes! We could just pick up a six-pack and drink on the canal. Classy! Drinking outside is totes legal in Denmark.
Sitting down with our first beer on the side of the canal with loads of attractive, well dressed people walking up and down the street perfect for people watching, tall boats to our backs, and tall, attractive men to our left and right Charley turned to me and simply said "Nora, I think this is a top ten life moment. Right here, right now." I couldn't have agreed more.When the sun is shining in Copenhagen, everyone is happy!
We let go of life stresses, work, impending future life choices, and just were in the moment people. Who ate beers for lunch. I was decidedly, shall we say, drunk with happiness and also maybe regular drunk when we found our way back to our bikes. Sad to be leaving the canal, but happy to have spent the last hour there we mounted our trusty steeds and headed back to the apartment. Little did we know our plan was to be foiled! By a gallery opening! With more beer!
We rode past the gallery on our bikes, decided spur of the moment that we probably needed to go and performed a quick U-turn.
Aren't the Danes so cute. They hang out in galleries on the floor.
This painting below is a perfect representation of Charley and I. We're in a relationship.
Top Ten Life Moment, brought to you by-
Travel
Denmark
Attractive people (men)
BEER
Boats
Historic Architecture
Bike Riding
AND GOOD COMPANY (Charley, of course!)

More Photo

Self promo time- check out photography of Basket I took in this pub- http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/STMG/boutiquedesign_20110506/#/78

Your Blind Passenger

Hold your hand in front of your face, no really- do it. Can you see you hand clearly? All fingers there? If you were in Olafur Eliasson's Din Blinden Passager (Your Blind Passenger) you wouldn't. You might be able to find a blurry distant outline, but I wouldn't count on it.
The only museum I wanted to go to was the Arken because I had heard from my travel buddies that it was hosting an Olafur piece, and since I'm big into his work I knew I had to check it out.
We entered this box which brought us into a dark black room with a door on the other end. Once we were all inside we opened the next door- which led us into the tunnel...

The doors opened into a blinding light and fog/mist. I heard someone say as the fog envolped them that they could use some sunscreen and sunnies. Charley and I were the last ones to enter and almost at once Charley disappeared into the fog. I found myself utterly alone, which was terrifying. But only for a moment. We were in, all actuality, very close to each other but it was impossible to tell unless we spoke. It was also impossible to say where the walls were, and which in direction we were walking. Our senses were completely out of whack, totally on edge and going haywire, which was exactly the point.

(us on the outside, walking the length of the piece)

We slowly started our 90 meter journey to the other end of Eliasson's fog tunnel. Quite suddenly, and yet subtly, it came to our attention that the color was changing. We were now in a yellow tunnel instead of a white one. And then orange. For a moment, as we walked, we were plunged into total black, and emerged on the other side in this most peculiar orange that did a number on my eyes because I kept seeing flashes of pink. I felt like I was tripping. There was no way to see ahead as to what color might be next approaching. We were at the mercy of the whims of the tunnel.
The colors blended so seamlessly together it was hard to tell where one color stopped and then next began, we just knew there was something all together different. What I found fascinating is everyone I was with saw Blue and Purple, however I did not see those colors at all. Yet we were all in the same tunnel.
Because we would probably never have another chance to experience the tunnel again, before we were done at the Arken Museum we walked through it again. This time from back to front. We stumbled out the end, blinking our eyes against the natural light of the museum and crashed on the steps to recuperate from a total sensory overload-AKA top ten art piece ever.
Man, it was really special to see Olafur's work in his home country. What an amazing piece it was!

Note: I really wanted to upload a longer video (with me saying quite a few times "I feel like I'm tripping," but I was really having problems.