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Travel Journal Photos
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Road hazards Hi from Copenhagen Denmark is home to the Lego company, makers of my favorite childhood toy. My lego city is still assembled in the basement, although I haven't added to it for at least 10 years. It would be cooler if Copenhagen used lego bricks for cobblestones in the streets. Nonetheless, it is a very beautiful city with buildings painted in a full rainbow of colors. I arrived earlier today from Gothenburg. Arriving after all the riots had ended, the city was very quiet--as if 150,000 protesters never converged on the city after all. The biggest thing I saw was today when a street car collided with a car turning a corner, forcing me to walk the rest of the way to the train station. In the hostel, I met a reporter from APTV who was doing a documentary on one of the opposition groups. She complained that the police were inappropriately praised by the Swedish media, despite some serious abuses of human rights including raids searching for a fictitious fugitive. She responded to the extensive property damage with the remark that "people scream, buildings don't." Now that I am out of Sweden, I have to reminisce about a few of my favorite street signs I saw while there. My favorite was in Stockholm. The city was a group of islands surrounded by water. Naturally, there were some parking spots along the water. There, they had a sign, in the typical European style of an yellow triangle with a red border, depicting a car midair driving off a cliff into water below. Seeing it reminded me of 'Toonces the cat that could drive a car' from early 90's Saturday Night Live--whom had a problem with cliffs. It's also much funnier if you consider how big a problem it must be for them to put signs everywhere. Another, is a picture of two humps, in a way that could resemble a butt crack with the label underneath of 'fart hinder'. In swedish, it translates to speed bump. Lastly, there is a sign of an empty circle with a cross through it (like a nonsmoking sign without the cigarette), crossed out by an even larger slash. It's supposed mean end of the no parking zone, but it's not no interesting use of double-negatives in signage. One week from today, I will be flying home via Chicago O'hare. Today I made my last few reservations for Hamburg and Krakow as I make my way to the Warsaw airport. |
