Travel X, Free Stuff

Back on Monday afternoon I chucked my toothbrush into a taxicab and set off yet again for the delights of Brussels airport.

I almost had a hot dog at the bar but they'd sold out and I didn't fancy waiting 20 minutes for the next batch, I only had 5 minutes to boarding. So I knocked back a lively leffe and jumped aboard for the hop over to Copenhagen, they have excellent hot dogs even in the baggage hall, next to conveyor 3.

I'd ordered a little Ford Fiesta to get to the hotel thinking that would cause the least hassle if I wrapped it round a post, but the kind rental people upgraded me. Few things can be as big and ugly and still say "It's supposed to look like this", as a Sport Mondeo Estate. In hindsight it was very nice of them, but at the time when the lady asked me "Any questions?", all I could think of was "What's the drink drive limit in Denmark?", I'm sure she knew the answer but somehow she couldn't get the words out.

I followed the GPS to the hotel, no bother, I've been there before but somehow I'd confused it with that pokey rat-hole in Oslo so I was pleasantly surprised by the lovely huge suite they put me in. 150 kroner of drinks tokens and free movies in the room helped sweeten the deal. The downside is that it's Fashion Week in Copenhagen, I've nothing against Danish fashion, it's just that I couldn't stay in the hotel for the full week or even find a room in the city at all on Thursday and Friday, so I have the pleasure of a couple of nights at a hotel next to the airport. Awful location but because of that they make more of an effort. This time I've got access to the Executive club lounge with endless supply of drinks and food. Also free Internet in the room but then if they wanted to charge me I'd just charge it back to my Loving Employer anyway.

Oh, the free movies, I watched Rocky Balboa. Well there was nothing decent on, including Rocky Balboa. That film is like a hospital moment when they say "this might hurt a bit", you know it's going to be fucking agony and it was.

But back to the airport hotel, the view looks out across the sea and it's next to "that bridge that goes into a tunnel", I saw it from the plane on the way in and someone on the row in front said "look, there's that bridge that goes into a tunnel". I reckon I'll take a drive over at the weekend, it comes out in Malmo (Sweden) then I can go along the coast to Helsingborg, get the ferry to Helsinger (Denmark again) and drive back down to Copenhagen. It's about 150km round trip so tomorrow I'll see if I can blag a blank CD off the local IT mob and burn a Motorhead disk - the Danish radio's giving me a headache.

I've got heaps more stuff to tell but now there's a film on tv with female vampires fighting, so it'll just have to wait.

Goodnight!

JJ