Day 28-29: Perstorp, Copenhagen, and Back
from Photographs of Europe, May-June 2002 by Tim Darling
(Click on the photos..)
Friday, June 14 - Copenhagen, Denmark
As I got off the ferry in Denmark, a large group of people passed me going back to Sweden stumbling with large crates of alcohol for the Friday
night.
I met Phil as I got off the train and he took me around Copenhagen. We sat on a dock
near the center of town in the last minutes of sunlight the town would see for another 5
hours. He said it's the other way in the winter: only five hours of sunlight on some days.
We walked up to Christiania which I wanted to see: it's a part of town surrounded by the
walls of an old army barracks that's sort of self-sufficient and exists very much separately
from the rest of the city.
We had dinner back at his house and walked around the town
for a while. A very drunk girl bumped into me in a bar and started talking to me, but the only
thing she seemed to be able to say in English was 'it's crowded in here'.
Saturday, June 15 - Copenhagen, Denmark and Back
My last few hours to walk around Europe: Phil and I went to see more of the city,
including a statue of the Little Mermaid which sat somewhere along the river.
I had enough time to see some of the Denmark-England World Cup game on a large TV
at the stadium. The stadium was packed with football fans in painted faces cheering
loudly at every kick of the ball even though Denmark fell behind early in the game. We
had to leave early, but knowing how seriously Europeans take football games, it may not
have been an entirely bad thing.
I said goodbye to Phil at the train station and then was on my way back to the US via Paris
and Hamburg.
On the ten hour night train from Hamburg back to Paris, I shared a sleeping compartment
with a guy and 4 women (lucky me). I had a middle bed on one side- the man slept
below me and the cute young girl who spent the whole ride in her underwear slept across
from me at the top (lucky me).
I listened to the three girls who were above and next to me talk for half an hour trying to
decipher what language it was. It sounded like Swedish, I recognized a couple words, but
I was sure it didn't sound like the Swedish I'd heard in Sweden.
I made a guess at a pause in their conversation: "Are you from Finland?" "Yes," the
oldest of the three replied.
"Finnish?" I pressed. "No, Swedish with a Finnish accent." Ah ha.
And, finally..
They went to sleep and I lay awake in the dark, watching the white and orange lights
outside flash through a gap in the curtains and spin around our beds like a disco ball.
And then it struck me why I love photography so much. It's because with a
camera, we have the potential to capture all the joy and beauty that flashes by
momentarily in some small point in this universe and immortalize it through all the
trash that the rest of time brings. I don't know how those moments
come together, or how we sometimes find them. But I do know this: you have to
surround yourself with as much beauty as you can, create as much beauty as you can, and share
it with as many people as you can, because those small moments are all we have. And
they're enough for me.
So if you're thinking about traveling, Go! Travel books won't be able to show or tell you
anything about what you'll find or who you'll meet. There's a whole world out there
running through these passing days with moving gears and waiting faces. Go now before
it all changes, or before they all move on.
The End.
Back
Your Comments
Comme toujours, tes photos sont incroyables.
-- Lindsay, June 27, 2002
Wow... you can write too! (Just don't forget there's a lot of living to be done around here too..)
-- Mark, June 28, 2002
This is beautiful, Tim. I'm glad you had such a wonderful time.
-- Rachel, June 28, 2002
How are you able to travel so much???
Are you rich or something, or do you work really hard for a
while and go off on your adventures for the summer??? What kind
of job let's you do that??
I want to do the same!!!
Let me congratulate you on the excellent pictures you have taken
of Europe. I have been to some of the places that you have
visited and seeing your pictures brought back nice memories.
Hope your next adventure is as good as the European one seemed
to be.
-- Javier Lopez, June 28, 2002
That was great! You should try to publish what you do; your
writing and pictures are so interesting. Tack sa mycket!!! Go
to Finland too.
-- Inger, June 29, 2002
Great page Tim, but I'm sure everyone is wondering about
this "thin yogurt" you've written about! Well, for their and
your information, it is a typical swedish product made out of
processed sour milk and containing a culture of acidofilus and
bifido bacteria. What most people don't know, is that this milk
product is actually the secret behind the Swedes legendary white
teeth, healthy skin and tall slender beauty...:-)
-- The girl under the rhododendron bush, July 7, 2002
Tim - it seems you had a wonderful trip. You really did meet a
lot of people. I noticed that since I travel with other people,
I don't meet any other travelers or any other people at all for
that matter. Or maybe I'm just too introverted around Europeans.
Sometime I'd like to see your other pictures that didn't make it
to this site.
-- Kim, July 9, 2002
Wowzers.
you did a great job on the page.
wonderful pictures and great story.
-- julie, July 12, 2002
Just wanted to say that I enjoyed visiting Europe again through
you and that I thought your photographs were gorgeous. Thanks
for the trip!
-- Lisa, June 19, 2003
Sounds like you had a great time, fellow Darling! Next time
you're in Europe look up my clan - myself in Paris, my brother,
also Tim, in Munich, and my sister in Madrid!
Loved the Darling quotes on the homepage...
-- Neil Darling,
June 28, 2003
Your pictures and adventure has inspired me to go to europe, I have never
wanted to see something so much untill i stumbled across this site, thank you.
-- Tara Garland, Feb 22, 2004
Tim! I wanna see the other pictures too (the ones that didn't make it to this site) - have you been anywhere else since?? Plz plz email me, maybe next time we can travel together:)
-- Anna, Jan 22, 2007
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All text and pictures copyright © 2002 Tim Darling.
As I got off the ferry in Denmark, a large group of people passed me going back to Sweden stumbling with large crates of alcohol for the Friday
night.
I met Phil as I got off the train and he took me around Copenhagen. We sat on a dock
near the center of town in the last minutes of sunlight the town would see for another 5
hours. He said it's the other way in the winter: only five hours of sunlight on some days.
On the ten hour night train from Hamburg back to Paris, I shared a sleeping compartment
with a guy and 4 women (lucky me). I had a middle bed on one side- the man slept
below me and the cute young girl who spent the whole ride in her underwear slept across
from me at the top (lucky me).
