Riso & Roskilde, Denmark: Day 6

Thursday morning was one of the those times when you are traveling that you feel like you would give anything to just have a translator by your side for a second. Since we are leaving the guest house soon, and they have free* laundry here, I volunteered to stick around in the morning and do it. Easy, right? I mean a washer is a washer. Well, three hours later and only one load done, I was feeling like the dumbest human being on earth. So I threw in the towel, stuck the second load in and headed into town.

In Roskilde, I did whatever I felt like. The pedestrian street was busy with people with lots of fun things to look at. I followed it to the end, shopping a little a long the way, watching Danish mothers with their kids, sitting in the sun, taking pictures. It was lovely and very relaxing. Eventually, I had wandered all the way down to the waterfront where the pride and joy of the city is the Viking Museum. About 30 years ago they unearthed a Viking ship in the fjord and now it supposed to be a great place to go. I did wander around the docks where many replicas are, including one that they take you for a ride in. The museum is really expensive (20 dollars each), however, and I kept going back and forth on it. As a tourist here you could literally pay at least $300 in just entry fees to things that are not always that great. You really do have to be selective. In the end, I decided against it.

Instead, I headed back up the hill to the Domkirken, the main church of Roskilde, where every King and almost every Queen of Denmark since the early 1800’s has been buried. All of the tombs are inside of the church- each decorated in their own frivolous and beautiful way. It was a neat tour, especially because during this time the organist was practicing. Amazing sound, it always takes my breath away. I sat and listened for a little while reveling in the massive space that is created inside European churches.

Because eating out here is about $25 per person for each meal, Jff and I looked for inexpensive option and found that all the shops we see advertising ‘kabobs and pizza’ are really good. They are run by immigrants from Mediterrean Europe and they do make amazing pizza and gyros, but because it is not Danish food, they can only sell it for about half as much as other dinner places. It is funny to me, because the pizzas are stone fired pizzas that we spend about $15 a pop on in the U.S. from places like Punch Pizza, but here they are not real food.

So in the end, our laundry got done. Our first load dried out on the line, the second load dried hung around our room, with underwear hanging out the window and socks baking in the evening sun. I can’t say that I understand the washer any better, but I am okay with that.
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* So the washing was ‘free’ in terms of money, but a huge time waster. Only to find out tonight that Athena believes that laundry in this country is one of the most time consuming tasks possible- 4 hours per load if you dry it in the dryer. So much so, that for a family of four she does a load EVERY day just because otherwise it can take up a whole day otherwise.

**Also note that I have been trouble with the ISO setting and my camera- the light, because it is so sunny, is too bright. So my photos have not been looking as great. And to Kat, I am working on posting to flickr, but be warned that I am not a very good photographer. Yours are a bit more impressive...