Late night photo stream of consciousness

Tomorrow morning at 8:15 I will board a bus to Berlin, Germany. At the eight-hour mark of the journey, we will pause for a tour of Sachsenhausen, a Nazi forced labor camp in Oranienburg. It seems that this year I cannot help but live and relive the memory of the Holocaust. Maybe I should go to sleep right now to prepare. It is 1:31. But in the past two days, I have been trying to absorb as much culture in CPH—that's what the cool kids call it—as I can, and I'm excited to share what I've seen. When I write at night, it's usually incoherent. That said, I present instead a captioned tour through my favorite photos.

Last night was Copenhagen's Kulturnatten, The Night of Culture. Nearly all of the museums, national buildings, and music venues are open all night to anyone wearing an event badge, which costs only 75 Danish kroner. (The exchange rate is about 5.4 DKK : 1 USD.) I met my friends Marlo, Jo, and Rachael at the København Zoo, where we drank Newcastle beer, peeked into the pens of nocturnal animals, and tried to work the nighttime modes on our cameras.

The flamingos, whose elegance cannot be captured with a point-and-shoot


The arse of an ursus maritimus

What had been advertised as "live music" was actually a children's choir

We rode a bus back to Rådhusplasen, the city center, where we visited city hall in search of more culture and pancakes. No such luck. But they did have public toilets.


The Danish flag

Most Kulturnatten events end around midnight. Our last visit was to Rundetaaren, the Round Tower. Inside, a spiral ramp winds its way up 36-meter tower, which has one of the best observatories in Copenhagen.


The tower also hosts modern art exhibits



And good places to hide

Today, I visted the Ny Carlsberg Glypotek, a private art collection owned by Carl Jacobsen, who owned Denmark's own Carlsberg Brewery. The museum is beside Tivoli, a stately marble building with mosaic floors and elaborate ceilings. Two staircases diverge from the entry hall, each one leading to various ancient and modern permanent exhibits. The main modern wing, home to several Van Goghs, seemed to be sealed off this afternoon. I spent most of my time looking at ancient Greek sculptures and relaxing in the winter garden, an atrium in the very center of the museum.


From the sculpture garden

A favorite room of ancient Greek busts

I realized how little I know about art when I visited the Glypotek. I feel uncultured and imprecise for not being able to provide even the name of this work in my entry. Instead, you'll just have to appreciate it as I did: quietly.

I will do my best to write as I travel in the next few weeks. Tomorrow, my exploration of western Europe begins.