Copenhagen: this is really overwhelming.

First off, the airport is a city. Actually, scratch that. It seems ALL airports are this way here. Amsterdam's Schiphol is about the same way; I may have speed walked about a mile before I got to where I needed to be. This is good; I may not be able to play soccer this summer that much, but the walking will more than make up for this. As I got off the train to begin a several block jaunt to my hostel, the architecture change between North America and Europe was pretty much immediate; I could probably be correct in assuming that the average age of buildings here is about 150 to 200 years. It's as close to a time machine as I could get, in my opinion; never has the transformation been that immediate. It's beautiful, sunny, and a perfect 64 degrees Fahrenheit, a joy for a Danish summer. It'll be great to work off the allergies I definitely did not earn happily on the 8 hour sleepless plane ride to Amsterdam.

However, contrary to my hypothesis, the football atmosphere isn't as crazy as I thought it would be. This is a wonderful opportunity; I am now in a country that has not been to the World Cup in 8 years but is finally back. It's a little dissapointing that I haven't seen any ads hinting towards triumph in South Africa yet...however as I just typed this, I saw a great publicity ad on Denmark's VH1 channel that did the trick-- Kaka (Brazil), Messi (Argentina) and Drogba (Ivory Coast) all running around amongst South African children in a savannah wearing Nelson Mandela-esque shirts. My hopes have risen!

In any case, I am typing against the clock--20 minutes of internet! Aah! As great as the culture here is, I'm going to have to get used to the economic changes here. It makes sense though; the scares with Greece and Portugal are making every EU country scrape for money, everywhere possible. So, I type with empathetic swiftness. It's okay, because I have a wonderful, breathtaking view of the Copenhagen harbor from my hostel room. Bliss, surely.

Within a day, I will have a more constructive post!

Ciao!