Weekend Update

This weekend's adventures included two of my favorite things: old stuff and arts and crafts.

Saturday: Flea Market
So, I've become mildly obsessed with flea markets since my arrival here. There's one behind the Frederiksberg town hall on Saturdays that's mostly housewares and clothes and such, another along the canal near Christiansborg Palace (the Parliament building), and one at Kongens Nytorv at the end of Stroget (the tourist-bonanza walking street) that's actually pretty excellent in terms of craftwear and obscure trinkets, but pricier than the ones away from the tourist district.

And although I love the happenstance of flea markets, they kind of make me sad as I really can't justify the purchase of china cabinets with peeling paint, candle chandeliers, leather trunks, meticulously crafted wire bird cages, turn-of-the-century brass doorknockers--or any other of the beautiful-but-impractical-to-bring-home things I find.

However, this weekend, to upset my retail depression, there were several joyous encounters:

a) A music man (see right)
b) Harem--the Iranian guy who owns Moe's TexMex burrito (and who recognized us!)
c) Four African-American women (ex-pats from Boston, Seattle, and somewhere else I can't remember) who were advertising free English lessons with purchase.
d) An antique dealer from Manchester who came to Copenhagen on vacation while in art school and never left (he then convinced a bunch of his friends to move as well). He was subtly guided to antiquing after screen printing chemicals put him in the hospital for two years.

You can find the traditional Danish porcelain (see Christmas bells and plates below) everywhere (and for really good prices at Frederiksberg), so holler if you want something.



Sunday:
On Sundays, you can make your own plaster casts the Royal Cast Collection (and it's only $4 ). So Eric, Chris, and I went today and were the only people over the age of twelve there, but whatever. See below my air-bubble filled cast (my plaster wasn't thin enough), and my manatee turned airplane-shark



In other news, Eric and I are going on a four day trip to Norway at the end of this week! I've been wanting to see the fjords since I saw a picture of them in my illustrated children's atlas, so I'm really, really excited. We'll be touristy in Oslo, outdoorsy in the Aurland-Flåm-Lærdal area, and in-transit in Bergen. Really excited.