Whirlwind First Week In Copenhagen Part Two

Since my first week was so busy I split that post into 2 parts. Here is the second part of that. The first part can be found here.

We left off on Tuesday 6 December after I got the bivalent covid booster vaccine shot. For dinner Tawana, Anette, Timo and I decided to do something easy so we went to Field's Mall and walked around the food court but before that I popped by the pharmacy to get some painkillers in case I felt sick from the vaccine. I really don't do well with pain so I had already researched which one was the strongest over the counter painkiller available in Denmark. 

I had read from both Reddit and the Facebook expat group that the over the counter medication selection in Denmark was quite bad, i.e not nearly as many painkillers and remedies are available as in South Africa. One interesting positive reason behind it might be that the work culture in South Africa and many other countries are quite relentless, so if someone gets sick, there are lots of medications available to take and then keep going about the workday, especially because taking sick leave often requires a doctors letter, but in Denmark most workplaces have a policy that if you feel sick the best course of action is to go home and rest up, so they don't rely on the veritable portable pharmacies that so many South Africans rely on. 

Perhaps I will embrace that approach after living here for a few more months but for now this is much more my speed:

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMFTkt8RJ/

I waited in what I thought was the queue and when I got to the front they asked me for my ticket number. I then noticed that at the entrance of the pharmacy was a machine to give you a ticket. So I went to the machine and it gave me 2 options. I pressed the first one and it printed out a ticket. I then wondered if perhaps I chose the wrong option so I pressed the other option and the machine spat out another ticket. The pharmacist at the front called out something in Danish, which I can only presume was the next ticket number, so I just repeatedly glanced between her and my tickets looking like a lost child/puppy. I then just decided to take a more direct approach and walked up to the counter and finally got my painkillers.

I met the others upstairs at the food court and we all agreed on Burger King. We worked out that the way to place an order was to by using the unmanned touchscreen terminal near the entrance and then wait for your number to be called by the sole person standing behind the counter. Oh joy, more Danish numbers! I really do need to learn at least the first thousand numbers I thought to myself. Luckily we had Anette with us to translate so she ensured that we all got our correct orders. I ate my R279 fast food burger and chips and then we headed back to the hotel.

Some pretty pictures I took on the way home.

The next morning I woke up feeling a bit under the weather. I had a cough and a scratchy feeling throat. I assumed that it was side effects from the vaccine so I headed down to the breakfast buffet. Tawana and Timo pointed out that my voice sounded a bit sick and one of them suggested that I have a few ginger shots at the buffet.

Timo and I had decided to form a team and we submitted our idea for the hackathon to the shared spreadsheet. We then had a meeting with the whole IT team to run through all our ideas. Bogdan mentioned that because of the way the prizes would be awarded, we should form ourselves into 4 teams of 2 people each. Timo and I had already decided on a pretty good idea before the meeting and although there were some really cool ideas put forth in the spreadsheet, especially Martin's which took up nearly half the total, based on my experience with hackathons that I had done in the past, the most important factor is to run with an idea that can be put together into a fully working solution/product within the time limit available, which in our case was only Wednesday (which was already underway), Thursday, and Friday morning. 

Timo and I got some valuable advice from Bogdan about how our solution could work, and Timo had already confirmed with the people in the company that would use it (if it got brought into the real environment) that this was indeed something that they would find useful. I also started a rumor that the reason why there needed to be 4 teams was because the prizes were each of the 4 Tesla models. The Model X would be the main prize and then Model S runner up, and then Cybertruck and then the Model 3 as last prize. Everyone else found this idea quite ridiculous so the rumour didn't really take off.

That evening the plan was to head out to some Christmas night markets in Copenhagen, and then in the afternoon, with perfect timing, the weather had decided to join in the spirit of the season and start snowing!The shoes that I was wearing were completely not waterproof, in fact if even the lightest rain touched them my socks would immediately get wet. I did have some more slightly more water resistant shoes at the hotel in one of my 5 bags but I knew that more Copenhagen weather appropriate shoes were now a priority. 

Bogdan also needed some running shoes so before the Christmas market we went to Field's. If you haven't been shoe shopping with me before you should know that it is an absolute ordeal. I am size 13 so I don't go into the store and look at all the shoes and take the ones I like and ask for those models in my size. That's size 9 luxury behaviour. I ignore all the nice shoes and go right to the front and ask them to show me the one or two pairs that they have in stock of size 13 and then decide from there. So Bogdan experienced this first hand with me, and after figuring out my local size (47) and 2 shops later we finally found some really nice waterproof shoes by a brand called Whistler. We then met up with the rest of the team and headed to the night market.

I was rapidly feeling less and less well and by the time we had reached the night market (conveniently it was quite close to the hotel) I contemplated the idea of wandering around outside in the snow for an hour or more and decided the safest option was to go directly to bed and skip out on the evenings plans. 

The next morning I was feeling even worse so I called in sick and slept through most of the day, but later in the afternoon was feeling a bit better so I helped Timo with our hackathon project. Luckily we had gone with one of the simpler ideas to implement so we managed to get everything done and ready for Friday's presentation.

I also headed out to get something to eat and marvelled that even in the tiniest little corner store they made room for all these types of canned fish.

I settled on some cereal, milk, peanut butter and bread.

My first grocery shop haul in Denmark!

Everything was completely frozen from the cold weather

The next morning I was feeling quite a bitter better but took 4 ginger shots at breakfast to assist with recovering. I saw this stunning sunrise on the way to work.

The canals had also completely frozen solid:

We presented our finished demos to the whole company and all 4 teams really had some great ones. The judges then met and came back to announce the winners. Cleverly, the way they had arranged it, instead of it being one grand winner, they broke down the awards into multiple different categories, for example best user interface (Anette and Shawky won that one), or idea most likely to be implemented into production first (Timo and I won that one). The prizes that we won were 2 packs of snack sized toblerones and 2 packs of mini marshmallows perfect for putting in hot chocolate and suited the weather perfectly!

We then took the metro to the first of our two part Christmas party activities which was indoor mini golf at a a bar, where I was on a team with Peter (the CEO) and Dina. After mini golf we headed to the Italian restaurant called La Buca where I had the most delicious Italian food that I've ever eaten. The table was laid out so nicely with each persons name tag in the company font, and I had hit the jackpot in being seated right next to Peter, who always has the most interesting stories especially about how each person ended up working at the company.

Each one of the 5 courses came with its own wine homework but I could not keep up. Much like writing a blog, the trick is to keep up with each one as they come along rather than letting them build up and overwhelm you and end up with a backlog.

The first course was that set of appetisers in the top left. The top right photo was this truffle pasta that had no meat in it, yet it had the richest savory taste thanks to the truffle sauce. It's one of the single most tasty things I have ever eaten, or in fact ever will eat! Bottom left was a rack of lamb with fresh rosemary. I was kind of already full from the pasta but pre-dessert(?) I guess was a cheese board of all kinds of Italian cheeses, each one more savoury and tasty than the one that came before it. Finally for dessert was a wonderfully refreshing pistachio ice cream.

We headed back to the hotel in a taxi and I got packed up and ready to move across from the Hotel Sankt Annæ where I had stayed for the week to Cabinn where I would be staying until I found a place.

I said goodbye to Tawana and Timo who were heading to the airport and lugged by 5 suitcases one at a time from my hotel room to the luggage room of the hotel. The big challenge was moving my 5 suitcases from one hotel to the other. Luckily Claus offered to fetch me, on a Saturday morning no less, from Sankt Annæ and drop me off in his car at the new hotel. He made quick work of moving my 5 suitcases from the hotel luggage room to his car, and I was so exhausted from carrying them from my hotel room that I didn't have the energy to protest and insist on at least packing the car myself which was my original thought. Using what I can only presume are magical Danish tetris powers, Claus managed to fit all 5 suitcases in his car. On the way we stopped off at a store that sells a rechargeable travel/metro card called a Rejsekort that lets you take any bus, train or metro in Denmark.  

We then went to Cabinn and thankfully they did have a moveable luggage trolley and Claus loaded up all my suitcases on it and wheeled it to my hotel room. We unloaded the bags into my room and once he was satisfied that I was settled into my new temporary home he left me to unpack. 

Claus, if you are reading this, I know that you said I don't need to thank you, and I won't make more of a fuss, but I just have to say that you have been my guardian angel on that moving day and many others since then and I can't thank you enough for making my move to Copenhagen so smooth and seamless. I didn't even mention helping me arrange the Visa & Residence Permit, CPR number and all the other administrative things that I could have never worked out without you!

That concludes my recollection of the first whirlwind week in Copenhagen. I hope you enjoyed reading and following along and I'll see you in the next post!