Hej hej, København

A friend told me that an update in my neglected travel blog would be better late than never. It is my last night in Copenhagen. I just called five taxi companies, then finally asked Ask, a Dane who lives in my apartment, what the automated message on one of the lines was saying. I have now successfully reserved a cab to take me on the first leg of a journey back to a country where I understand when I am being put on hold.

This morning, I walked my friends Marlo and Rachel down to the bus stop in our neighborhood to say goodbye. For four months of our lives, we have lived in Copenhagen. The CPR cards, imprinted with our Danish social security numbers, prove it. I made a last trip alone today to Amalienborg Slot, the winter home of the Danish royal family. It is near Kongens Nytorv, just a short bus ride from where I live in Østerbro, just down the street from the hotel where my mom and sister had stayed. My long overdue visit to the castle began at exactly noon, when the Danish Royal Life Guard was changing the guard. Two policewomen on horses stopped traffic as guards in tall plush hats marched by with french horns and tubas on their chests. I grabbed for my camera. It was worth looking like a tourist. I will never see this in Boston or in Waterville, I thought. This was something distinctly Danish: proud, reliable, nationalistic. The movement of a fairy tale through modern city streets.

Tomorrow I will be back in Newton. I hope that I remember some of the Danish I have learned.