Anybody got the number for the local AA in Copenhagen?

This morning I got that feeling that the ugly threatening realities of daily life is about to sneak up on me. It is the very last day of my holiday and I only got ½ day before I need to go to the airport and fly home. Only having half a day sets certain limits to what you can do - but then again I think I have done what there is to do in Tripoli. Hence my main objective of the day is only to get a few of the essential souvenirs you need to bring home with you. I mean you can't really live without a Gadaffi watch and a copy of The Leaders very own writings in the Green Book. A book with such a unique understanding of democracy and how to govern a country - did you know Libya is the only democratic country in the world - well of course this is only according to The Leader who is just a ordinary citizen in Libya - sure just average man The Leader no special treatment there.

 

Where do you get your needed souvenirs - well there is only one place to go shopping in the old town or right next to it.

I head down to the old town for my very last visit and on the way just outside I get my Gadaffi watch.

 

Then I go for the very last stroll around the old medina - get to a gate I actually for some strange reason have never been through before - and here I thought I had been all over the medina. Well right next to the gate is a mosque and it is open and the caretaker is just inside it - he gives me a quick tour of the mosque taking me inside it and outside there is a grave of somebody - I got no clue who it is but it must be a very important person judging from the way the old man gesture when he points me to the grave.

 

Then I pay the old man - or I try to do it - but the tour is not over yet he points me to a room and wants me to enter.

Hmm I don't know what is in here - it does not look very interesting at first. But there is a stair inside the room - I start taking the first steps up the stair it is a pretty narrow and steep stair leading upwards. After a few more steps I realize where I am - I am inside the minaret. I thought this was a special place which would only have access for the imam - but apparently not I am in there now and judging from the bird dung and other things blown in there it has been a long time since the imam have been up in the minaret. At the top I get the best view of the old medina I have had on all the walks I have taken around the town before - so I guess you should never say you are finish with a place.

 

Time is running out for me so I start heading back to my hotel on the way I pick up the much needed Green Book to give me something to read in the plane and airport.

I get a taxi who speaks no English at all and I got all sorts of problem explaining that I want to go to the airport and I want to know the price - well we have to go to my hotel to pick up my back and they manage to translate for me - and of I go to the airport. Once again it is an easy thing getting through the airport - no queue at the check in counter - no queue at the security control - no queue at the immigration. Hmm some European airports should take note here.

 

The plane takes of and we leave Libyan territory - it is 17.30 when I crack - the flight attendant comes by with the drinks. She asks what do you want to drink - and I say red wine. Finally alcohol - the drought is over and alcohol is available again. I am not the only one cracking in the plane virtually everybody ask for some sort of alcohol - be it wine or beer.

I don't usually consider myself an alcoholic but I got to admit that during the last almost 3 weeks in a completely dry country without a drop of alcohol I have come to miss a glass of wine or a bottle of beer. Well the flight attendant comes back with seconds on the drinks really quickly a lot quicker than usual on a flight - I guess they are used to alcohol starved passengers on the planes from Tripoli.

 

I got a short layover in Vienna airport - I get off the plane back through immigration flashing my EU-passport which actually means this is also a quick tour through immigration. Then I got to make it from one gate to the other. And I got about 45 minutes until boarding on the plane to Copenhagen will begin.

On the short walk from one gate to the next I pass several bars - and I am tempted I mean I could easily get 2-3 beers and if I hurry I could probably get 4 or 5. Well I resist the temptation and feel really proud of myself. Get onboard the plane - but when drinks come along I still go for the red wine - I am a bit of an alcoholic after all.

 

After an otherwise uneventful flight I get to Copenhagen airport - which for unknown reasons have been appointed one of the best airports in Europe. It is definitely not because of the luggage handling which takes forever- like always. After waiting for ages to get my backs I leave the airport and decide that I don't want the first comments back in Denmark to be from a cab driver complaining about having to take me on such a short ride to my flat - hence I go for the bus.

Which has just left. Well a cab arrives dropping of passengers at terminal 2 I flag him down instead and he takes me home without complaints. After the short ride I am home. The ride is only about one tenth the distance of my cab ride from central Tripoli to the Tripoli Airport of course it cost more than twice as much as the trip in Tripoli - it is good to be home with prices you know again.

 

I look into my fridge to see what is inside - it is pretty empty. But the important stuff is there - a bottle of beer from my local microbrewery and one from another microbrewery a bit north of Copenhagen.

Yeah what a find. I check the bottles just to make sure it is not non-alcoholic beers. The first a Brøkhouse Blonde is a good possibility 6.0 percent alcohol - yes we can look into this. The other Amager Bryghus - Dragør Triple - it is 9.0 percent alcohol. We got a winner. I open the bottle and drink it - nice with a beer. And not just the usual crap you will get from Carlsberg but the good stuff. The beer taste good and the newfound alcoholic finish the beer and are relieved. I guess realizing you got a alcohol problem is the first step in AA :"We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable" though I don't think I totally agree with the second part of the sentence.

 

Well cheers and good night.