2002-03-30 Lordag: Temptation Corridor

What a crazy day!

I hope Chris comes to visit, and I think I'm going to see if Fatima will join me for a waffles tomorrow. But now, it's time for bed. I'm exhausted.

Helsingør with the Spanish and Italian people, and a French-Canadian named Sacha

It was hard getting up in the morning, after five hours of sleep on an potentially lazy saturday during the holidays, but I managed to do it. After all, I'd told Luca that'd I'd join him and the N-korridor for their excursion to Helsingør, and I didn't want to flake out.

The Spanish Guy (whose name is something like Javiez) was also up and eating breakfast at 9:00. I asked why he was up so early and he replied that he was going to Helsingør (and that I was completely welcome to join him if I wanted).. ah-ha. Anyway I told him that Luca had invited me and I was indeed going. So we finished breakfast, and said our heartfelt goodbyes to Martin, who was in the process of moving out. As we left Martin was lugging a giant oscilloscope out of his room.

Ah, the N-korridor. Yes, Temptation Corridor, the international korridor at Delphi. Walking into the kitchen, one passes through a korridor littered with broken glasses, derilict bicycles, candles by every doorway, and an old invitation to their Naked Christmas Party from back in December, taped to the wall. The residents (those going on the excursion anyway) and five friends of Wendy's visiting from Madrid sat around the kitchen table, enjoying a hearty breakfast. At eleven our party set out; there were a full dozen of us, including: one American (me!), one French Canadian (Sach, some Italians (Luca and friends), and the balance of Spaniards.

There were a dozen of us, and Oscar, the enthusiasic leader of the Spanish contingent, et al asked about a group discount wherever we went. I was quite skeptical of this at first, but it worked at every place. SkåneTrafiken wrote us up a special ticket (really, we got one handwritten ticket for the twelve of us, and it said, ``SPECIAL'') and gave us the 20% discount on the Pågatåg.

It was great being with such an enthusiastic group of people. I always find it a bit stressful to be with such outgoing people (as I explained above), but I got used to it pretty quickly; it felt something like one of those trust exercises where you let yourself fall backwards, relying on a group of people to catch you. It feels funny, but once you realise you're safe, it feels good and you just enjoy the ride. Well that's kind of the way it was. It was sa bit of a relief to be with this huge group of jubulent tourists in the wonderful spring weather. Every place we'd go they'd insist on getting everyone together and taking a half-dozen group photos, and rather than being annoying, it was refreshing, refreshing to be free from the idiosyncratic introversion of the Swedes.

Pretty soon they started teaching me Italian.

Train ticket to Helsingborg	SEK 112
Fredriksdal	SEK 25
McDonalds	SEK 62
Ferry to Helsingor	SEK 40
Coffee in Helsingor	DKK 45
Exchange	DKK 40	(SEK 50)