So the stout bassist goes through his first song and I am feeling really cool as the crowd grows around the outdoor set-up at Nyhaven, the cool canal area at Copenhagen Harbor.
I am convinced he is American for no particular reason and waiting for him to address the crowd after the song saying something like how honored he is to be here at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival.
After he talks in Danish for a while, I am impressed but still think he is American, just bilingual.
After enjoying another song, he says he is going to play SWEET CHICAGO, except pronounced just like anyone with a Germanic mother tongue would- CHEE KA GO.
At that point, I begin to respect how many good Danish jazz players there are.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
LOT Polish
Ahhh, yes, the benefit of low expecations. I was looking forward to flying LOT Polish (Copenhagen-Warsaw-NY) return for the novelty but upper mgmt wasn't, not after sumptuous service on Singapore Air from NY to Frankfurt on the outbound. (For the list of kooky airlines flying to weird destinations, write us here)
Surprise, surprise- an above avg experience! Half-full flight to Warsaw on a clean, good legroom regional jet. They are our first to offer a second drink (tea or coffee) right away with the meal. Alcohol was free, and the food pretty good, though repetitive.
Shockingly, we'd have to put LOT above SAS, where nothing, not even water, was free. They're both under pressure from low-cost carriers (SAS from Norwegian Air Shuttle and Sterling; LOT from Wizz and there they are again- Norwegian Air Shuttle in Warsaw)- maybe LOT is owned by the state still and doesn't care. Nonetheless, it joins Iberia as an airline without a reputation we rate above the crowd.
A gleaming new Terminal 2 at Warsaw's Chopin airport as good as any in Europe- looked underused but this is a growing economy- it will fill in due time. It was quite a contrast to the Soviet-era Terminal 1 we arrived in- ugly red vinyl chairs, atrocious dotted white tile floors.
The European airports we transited were all great- Frankfurt is a little worn being older and heavily used, but Oslo, Copenhagen (!!!), Warsaw's new terminal 2 were all expanses of light and high ceilings, easy directions/departure screens, no lines, beautiful wood or tile floors, hard-to-imagine getting crowded. Even Bergen's and Tromso's small airports in Norway put your typical American small city airport to shame.
Surprise, surprise- an above avg experience! Half-full flight to Warsaw on a clean, good legroom regional jet. They are our first to offer a second drink (tea or coffee) right away with the meal. Alcohol was free, and the food pretty good, though repetitive.
Shockingly, we'd have to put LOT above SAS, where nothing, not even water, was free. They're both under pressure from low-cost carriers (SAS from Norwegian Air Shuttle and Sterling; LOT from Wizz and there they are again- Norwegian Air Shuttle in Warsaw)- maybe LOT is owned by the state still and doesn't care. Nonetheless, it joins Iberia as an airline without a reputation we rate above the crowd.
A gleaming new Terminal 2 at Warsaw's Chopin airport as good as any in Europe- looked underused but this is a growing economy- it will fill in due time. It was quite a contrast to the Soviet-era Terminal 1 we arrived in- ugly red vinyl chairs, atrocious dotted white tile floors.
The European airports we transited were all great- Frankfurt is a little worn being older and heavily used, but Oslo, Copenhagen (!!!), Warsaw's new terminal 2 were all expanses of light and high ceilings, easy directions/departure screens, no lines, beautiful wood or tile floors, hard-to-imagine getting crowded. Even Bergen's and Tromso's small airports in Norway put your typical American small city airport to shame.
Copenhagen
Why don't people talk more about this wonderful city? Maybe it's because it's summer but this is a walking person's dream- pedestrian streets, squares, happy people, English-speaking, harbors, canals, cafes, restaurants, museums absolutely everywhere, clean clean clean, and shopping for those who love Scandinavian prices. It's not a vista city- upper management was less enthusiastic snapping photos than in other places, but you have such a sense of content here, you feel like you have to wake up from the dream (and Copenhageners probably do in their dark, wet, windy winter).
On Fri Jul 11 alone the program had 110 performances around the city for the Copenhagen Jazz Festival. We managed to see 4 in 2 days, all free (this city rules!)- surprisingly all performers spoke Danish- there must be a lot of Danish jazz musicians. We heard everything from vocal to young guys playing modern to five 60-somethings puffing oboes and trumpets to traditionals- crowds from 50 to 500. It was great- we'll have to see the Williamsburg Festival in Sep in NY.
So supposedly Danes are the happiest people in the world- is it the social capitalism inherent in Scandinavia or that this is a fairly homogenous, educated, content small country. The travel book said the attitude to working longer hrs here is "Why? You just get taxed more.". Maybe they're happy because everyone at the top is scuppered and no one is rich to make the rest feel bad. It's hard to find luxury shopping in Copenhagen- we saw more H&Ms and Zaras than all luxury stores combined. Could it work in the US? Will Obama try? He better not- I am holding my wallet.
On Fri Jul 11 alone the program had 110 performances around the city for the Copenhagen Jazz Festival. We managed to see 4 in 2 days, all free (this city rules!)- surprisingly all performers spoke Danish- there must be a lot of Danish jazz musicians. We heard everything from vocal to young guys playing modern to five 60-somethings puffing oboes and trumpets to traditionals- crowds from 50 to 500. It was great- we'll have to see the Williamsburg Festival in Sep in NY.
So supposedly Danes are the happiest people in the world- is it the social capitalism inherent in Scandinavia or that this is a fairly homogenous, educated, content small country. The travel book said the attitude to working longer hrs here is "Why? You just get taxed more.". Maybe they're happy because everyone at the top is scuppered and no one is rich to make the rest feel bad. It's hard to find luxury shopping in Copenhagen- we saw more H&Ms and Zaras than all luxury stores combined. Could it work in the US? Will Obama try? He better not- I am holding my wallet.
Tromso
Was it worth spending 200 bucks going up, 200 bucks going back, a 20% premium to southern Norway (a 30% premium to the US) in prices, and 25 dollar unused intl drivers license to see mountains up close and twilight all day? In your 30s with youth slipping away and future responsibilities pending, I suppose anything is worth it.
Tromso is at 69 degrees north latitude with two months all day sunshine late May to late July. Being cloudy outside, one pretty much couldn't tell what time it was- it looked like it was 6-7p whether it was 7p, 1a, or 10a. It looked like a small midwestern US city- 70s era buildings and signs, not much else around the region, and lots of delinquents running around.
Lower mgmt spent 25 bucks and an hour in NY getting a cheap intl drivers booklet from AAA only to realize there aren't any automatic transmissions in northern Norway- so out with driving the beautiful island of Kvaloya in the middle of the night.
We busted the bed/breakfasts internet network by trying to connect the line to upper mgmt's corporate laptop. How? We don't know but we slithered away a bit embarrassed. We tried to mingle with the locals but found the preponderance of 20-somethings wearing black and with nothing to do a bit undesirable. Besides they stared at us a lot- we must have been the only Chinese people within 1000 miles.
So we strolled around, paid a lot of money to see their typical tourist attractions (what kind of church charges for entrance? Maybe one named the Arctic Cathedral with a whopping one wall of stained glass that a 3rd grader could have designed)- 20 bucks to see a polar museum essentially 5 seals and a film about Svalbard (which Tromso is STILL 500 miles away from).
So we saw our vistas, took photos that had midnight time stamps, ate expensive food and got the hell out of there, armed with a story for our future kin.
Tromso is at 69 degrees north latitude with two months all day sunshine late May to late July. Being cloudy outside, one pretty much couldn't tell what time it was- it looked like it was 6-7p whether it was 7p, 1a, or 10a. It looked like a small midwestern US city- 70s era buildings and signs, not much else around the region, and lots of delinquents running around.
Lower mgmt spent 25 bucks and an hour in NY getting a cheap intl drivers booklet from AAA only to realize there aren't any automatic transmissions in northern Norway- so out with driving the beautiful island of Kvaloya in the middle of the night.
We busted the bed/breakfasts internet network by trying to connect the line to upper mgmt's corporate laptop. How? We don't know but we slithered away a bit embarrassed. We tried to mingle with the locals but found the preponderance of 20-somethings wearing black and with nothing to do a bit undesirable. Besides they stared at us a lot- we must have been the only Chinese people within 1000 miles.
So we strolled around, paid a lot of money to see their typical tourist attractions (what kind of church charges for entrance? Maybe one named the Arctic Cathedral with a whopping one wall of stained glass that a 3rd grader could have designed)- 20 bucks to see a polar museum essentially 5 seals and a film about Svalbard (which Tromso is STILL 500 miles away from).
So we saw our vistas, took photos that had midnight time stamps, ate expensive food and got the hell out of there, armed with a story for our future kin.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Norwegian Food or not Norwegian Food?
To eat Norwegian food or not in Norway?
By Guest Blogger (Lower Management)
It's not such a tough choice in Oslo because there are no Norwegian restaurants. The honeymooners spent 2 nights in Oslo- night 1 was a Burger King fest because nothing else was open near midnight and the better half refused to eat at one of the 50 kebab places open until 5am. Night 2 was a fruitless search through central Oslo (on a Friday night!) for a bonafide Norwegian place, ending up with boring and expensive French food. We saw everything- Chinese, kebabs, French, Italian, Irish, steaks, a lot of bars, but no Norwegian food. Unbeliveable. All the places in the book were 5-star or outside of downtown.
With all that, why was I surprised to find there are no Norwegian restaurants in New York? The last one apparently succumbed to a Chinese place ~10 years ago, bizarrely sharing a menu for a few years after Chinese management acceeded to begging from Norwegians to keep some items.
By Guest Blogger (Lower Management)
It's not such a tough choice in Oslo because there are no Norwegian restaurants. The honeymooners spent 2 nights in Oslo- night 1 was a Burger King fest because nothing else was open near midnight and the better half refused to eat at one of the 50 kebab places open until 5am. Night 2 was a fruitless search through central Oslo (on a Friday night!) for a bonafide Norwegian place, ending up with boring and expensive French food. We saw everything- Chinese, kebabs, French, Italian, Irish, steaks, a lot of bars, but no Norwegian food. Unbeliveable. All the places in the book were 5-star or outside of downtown.
With all that, why was I surprised to find there are no Norwegian restaurants in New York? The last one apparently succumbed to a Chinese place ~10 years ago, bizarrely sharing a menu for a few years after Chinese management acceeded to begging from Norwegians to keep some items.
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