The Open Road

I just got home and poured a glass of wine, after being away from Seattle for a total of 28.5 hours and 566 miles, and I'm in my best spirits since I boarded the plane to leave Copenhagen. I love me a road trip.

Even though I constantly struggle to understand how my relatives and I all sprang from the same gene pool, I agreed (translation: was coerced and bribed) to go to a family reunion this weekend. That involved driving down to Vancouver, Washington, last night, then continuing another hour South to Woodburn, Oregon, this morning.

After spending about 3 hours making small talk with relatives whose names I can barely remember, and eating various "salads" containing mayonnaise, I set back out on the highway, headed for home. But by the time I hit Portland, I realized something: it was a beautiful day out, I was cranky, and I really didn't want to come back to Seattle.

I thought to myself, I have about 6 hours of remaining daylight, and a full tank of gas... well, let's see what's shakin' in the Gorge!

I got on Hwy 14 eastbound (also known as The Washington Side), which is a narrow winding road with various low speed limits, just because it's pretty. It was a completely arbitrary decision, and I really had no destination. After an hour or two, I stopped in Bingen, and it occurred to me that I had to either turn back or continue east and zig-zag my way back up across Central Washington. I chose the former, crossed the Hood River bridge, headed back west on I-84 (The Oregon Side, because it's a much faster large highway), and rejoined my original path only a few miles from where I had left it.

And now I'm happy. Extremely happy. All I did for most of my day was drive, sing along to various CDs, and look at scenery. On the way east, I stopped off at Beacon Rock State Park to stretch my legs and use the public bathroom; on the way back, it was Multnomah Falls. That was enough.

I really like to drive, and to get away from the usual sights, especially when there's little traffic and the route is beautiful. It's even better when it happens on a whim. Today had all of these elements. I need to do it more often.

Over the Rainbow - Seattle Pride 2010

I've been doing a lot of complaining recently about how I'm not behind what the Pride celebration has become. I love my gay friends and am completely supportive of them and the celebration of being out and proud. But when did Pride weekend go from the ideals of commemorating Stonewall, to the gay version of spring break in Cabo? It seems wrong.

However, in support of my friends, I committed to two Pride events this year, both at Changes: Saturday night just to hang out, and Sunday karaoke. When I got to the bar last night, I was grumpy and disinterested in whatever debauchery might be happening, but then it hit me: I was surrounded by my friends, people I truly loved, and my being cranky and going home early wasn't doing anything for anyone. If a big drunken party was how my friends wanted to celebrate their gay pride, then I was in.

When in Gay Cabo, do as the Spring Breakers do.
And Taste the Rainbow was born.

Marshall was having trouble deciding what to drink, so he had this idea that he'd try one cocktail in each color of the rainbow. He didn't want to do it alone, so I agreed to join him, and later we recruited Kelly and Jordan too. We left it to our cute and capable bartenders to determine what the rainbow of booze would be.


Here's what Ryan and Seth came up with:

Red - Pomegranate press with a splash of cranberry
Orange - Strawberry vodka with orange juice and grenadine
Yellow - Lemon drop
Green - Melon ball
Blue - Pomegranate/Blueberry press with a splash of blue curacao
Purple - Vodka press with a splash of rasperry liqueur

Not only did it make the night much, much more fun than just sipping vodka and chatting, it's a great new Pride tradition. And it's kind of brilliant. Imagine if every bar had a Taste the Rainbow special for Pride Weekend! Marshall and I made a drunken pact to get together every year at Pride to drink the rainbow, no matter where we are in the country. Typically drunken pacts are broken by last call, but maybe this time, just maybe, there's some hope.

There's still one more day of Pride left, so I encourage y'all to go Taste the Rainbow before the weekend is through. Happy Pride!

Where I Hang My Hat

Well, after 12 days away and 7 days back, I can definitively say that I am NOT happy to be home. I started reading a book of collected letters from Charles Bukowski during my flight back, and I don't think it's a good sign that I'm actually relating to some of them. When you look at one of Buk's drunken, self-destructive, anti-social rants and think this guy makes a lot of sense, you're probably not enjoying your life all that much.

Which is true. One of the main reasons I travel alone is the escape factor. It's not only getting away from work and responsibility, it's just time away from life in general. If I don't want to talk to anyone, I don't. If I don't want to do anything but drink wine or walk along a canal, that's all I do. There's something very freeing, very relaxing about it. There's not really any soul-searching going on, I'm just letting my brain be quiet for once. When I blog things like This beer is tasty, or It sucks that it's raining, those are truly the most meaningful things going through my brain at the time. And that can be glorious.

So, I am continuing the pattern of escape. I've already booked my next trip, leaving in 6 weeks. I have so many places that I want to visit, but not enough vacation time or money to get to them all. I saw a good deal for one of the spots on my list this morning, and I jumped on it!

Where am I off to? I'll give you a hint.

Except I already gave it up on Twitter, so it's not really a mystery anyway. Shrug.

Rainy Rainy Copenhagen

After my last post, I checked the weather. The hour by hour forecast showed 12 little rain clouds in a row, so I decided to just suck it up and go out anyway. And it rained. Nonstop. Sometimes lightly, sometimes heavily, but it just never. stopped. raining.

In general today was kind of a fail. It's not Copenhagen's fault, it seems like a cool enough town, it's just hard to enjoy it when you spend the whole day wet and miserable. Even with an umbrella, I felt like every inch of me was moist, and my dancer's joints ached from the damp. I can't really be blamed for being cranky.

My cough has managed to linger the whole trip (shut up, Ryan!), and I ran out of cough suppressant in Sweden. Most of the time I'm fine, but I have random coughing fits at bad times, like the middle of the night, or when I'm sitting in the silent car of the train. I checked several pharmacies for some more today, but all they have are useless herbal products. How can a culture survive without any drugs at the drugstore?

On the plus side, I saw some cool buildings, visited the shopping district, and had a nice frankfurter with spicy mustard and a hefeweizen. Definitely more of a German than Danish lunch, but it hit the spot regardless. I sucked down that weiner in about 40 seconds. (Shut up, Ryan!)

It still hasn't stopped raining, so I'm taking a break before dinner, then I'll decide if I feel up to braving the weather anymore. I don't leave until tomorrow afternoon, but the morning forecast looks identical to tonight's. I might actually be GLAD to get back to Seattle, where the rain occasionally stops for a minute or two. What an odd turn of events.

Hotel Mayfair, aka Weather Jail

I wish I was out wandering Copenhagen right now, but instead I'm trapped inside by the weather, unable to go enjoy my last full day in Europe.

From up in my room on the 4th floor, the rain doesn't look too bad, a bit drizzly, nothing I can't handle. So I went down to the lobby and drank some coffee, to check it out from street level. It's pouring. The rain was coming down sideways from the right, I took a sip of my coffee, looked back, and it was raining sideways from the left. I can't go out in this weather.

I used to be a good Pacific Northwest girl. I'd walk all around Seattle in the driving rain with no umbrella, no raincoat, and I'd be happy. Like a duck. But somewhere along the way, I became sick of all that moisture everywhere. And now, I don't care if it's Seattle, or Denmark, or bloody Botswana, this weather makes me suicidal.

It's still early, not even 11am yet, so I'm attempting to wait it out, hoping it lets up soon so I can still have time to see a few things.

If not, well, I guess I get wet.
And angry.
Hooray.

Copenhagen

As of today, I'm at the last stop of my Eurotrip: Copenhagen. I haven't yet figured this city out, and I'm not sure how to describe it. My first impression is that it's like the bustle and crowds of NYC or Chicago, along with all their businesses, have been plopped down in a city from a few centuries ago. It's just wild.

I have the rest of today and tomorrow to figure it out, so wish me luck. At least if I get exasperated, there's tons of readily available booze!

Mmmm... Aquavit...  Carlsberg...

I wonder if the cheese Danish is actually from Denmark. I love me a cheese Danish. I'll investigate and report back.

Malmo

Well, Sweden gets an A, even with the lack of English speakers. In fact, after my brief need to talk to other humans yesterday, I'm back to being glad I can so easily tune out everyone around me.

If Goteborg is Sweden's Seaside Heights, New Jersey, then Malmo is its Vancouver, Washington. This is a reluctant suburb of Copenhagen, mainly drawing tourists because it's half the price of its neighbor across the water.

However, that's where the similiarities end. Malmo has a sort of untouched, old-world charm. Sure, it has more than its share of modern businesses and chain restaurants, but even the Radisson and the Burger King live in old brick buildings of times gone by.

It's a small town, so small that I can walk in any direction and still find myself back where I started. Should I get lost, I can simply follow the canal and I'll soon have made a circle of the city. I think we need more canals in American cities; let's start digging, shall we?

For now, I'm just taking a break from the hot afternoon sun in my air-conditioned hotel room, which looks out at a 12th century church. Could anything be better? Tonight I'll be savoring my last taste of small-town Sweden, then tomorrow I'm off to Copenhagen.