Aberdeen Day 1 April 28? Who knows....

So, I made it to Chicago and then to Copenhagen without any glitches. No one on the plane really wanted to talk and there was no free wine. How awful is that??? In Copenhagen I had a long layover. I arrived at 7 AM, 1 PM their time. My flight was at 6 or so that evening. I was sitting around, practicing my Italian (and shopping. Look at the warnings they have on their ciggarettes! Man, who would smoke there???

) until my flight's gate showed up on the board, when what to my surprise but the board showed the word "CANCELED" next to my flight. Oh, shit. I looked for help but had to leave the ticketed area and talk to a travel help person outside who told me that they had assigned me to a new flight which left in two minutes. Great. Thanks. So she booked a hotel and food and a taxi for me to stay in Copenhagen overnight and then I would take two flights in the early morning and get to Aberdeen by noon. Ok, so the adventure really begins. My taxi driver told me it was safe everywhere in Copenhagen, that I would have to try very hard to get mugged. My room looked like a page from an IKEA catalog. Cute, efficient, birch.

I went down to the restaurant for my free meal where I was told I was allowed to order stew and ice cream. That's it. OK Same stuff I had had on the flight. Kind of a stroganoff, kind of fatty meat with mashed potatoes.

Everyone else was getting these great looking hamburgers, or fish so that was rather disappointing and I think I will complain! Anyhow...I went for a walk next and while it was cool and a bit drizzly, it was really nice to see this place. It wasn't new looking at all but it was so striking how many bikes there where. Everyone was riding everywhere.

They even had shelves built onto the front of their bikes to haul things. I got a kambucho in a little shop, in honor of Sara, and just roamed around until it was late enough to go to the room and sleep. I was exhausted but I had to leave by 6 am. And therefore, I could not sleep at all that night for fear of missing the flight! But! Not to worry, because my flight was now delayed and since they never told me what time my next flight was actually, I wasn't sure if I would now miss that one. Communication is great. LOL Anyhow the flight to Norway was beautiful. Clear skies showed mountaintop lakes and fiords everywhere. LOTS of water. There was plenty of time fortunately and Stravanger airport was tiny so no problems and I was finally off to Aberdeen. I called Carol to tell her when I would arrive because until I was boarding that plane I was not exactly sure if I would get there that day. Once we were on the flight, I was sitting next to a British lady who looked exactly like Judi Dench. We started to chat and then laugh and then giggle and then we ordered drinks and by the end of the flight we were promising to visit. She lives in Rome and 30 years ago came for a vacation and ended up marrying the Italian man she met on the last day of her trip. Lindsey. Carol met me at the airport at about noon, we checked into my bandb, and we set off for adventures and drinks. That eve we went to a pub called Blackfriers. There was to be live music that night. We ordered drinks and fish and chips and Carol chatted up our waiter. She told me no one ever talks to the waiters here. Well we sure did. By the end of the evening he was sitting with us and bringing us drinks (whiskey, btw.) Also sitting with us was the guy playing the plugged in acoustic guitar and his best friend. A bit young but we got their numbers anyhow. Can you say "fun"? They offered to walk us home but we politely declined. Let's not take this too far! And so ended Day 1.