Unspoken words - Copenhagen part II

Posted by: fracas on March 11 @ 11:03 pm

Aaah yes…Copenhagen part II. I have fond memories of Copenhagen, my earliest memories going back to around the age of 5 or 6. There was Tivoli which was the unbeatable amusement park for a young girl. Equally the toystores were always better than their Swedish equivalents and lunches consisted of red pølse (Danish hotdogs). What a treat! As a teenager Copenhagen became my monthly shopping Mecca, and whilst still not being able to be admitted into clubs in Sweden, we had no issues getting into them in our neighbouring country. In my late teens I had already made my decision to move away from Sweden for a bohemian life in Copenhagen. However life had a different plan in store….

So it’s always with great anticipation I visit Copenhagen. As so many times before, we stayed at Hotel Skt Petri, a modern boutique hotel in the city centre. Reinout had some meetings on the Friday so Sebastian and I went out for an excursion. Sadly I soon realised that we weren’t welcome in several cafes and boutiques as the Danish has decided to ban prams and strollers. It felt strangely odd walking in a country which I presumed to be rather egalitarian but my baby wasn’t welcome. In the few shops I did venture into people cast an evil eye as I had committed a major offence. A bookstore didn’t seem to have any apparent issues though and as it was rather cold I sheltered for a good 30 minutes hunting down some books such as Crime by Irvine Welsh, Satan’s Circus by Mike Dash and the Enchantment of Lily Dahl by Siri Hustvedt. Later I met up with Reinout and as I had still not had a lunch by 5 pm, we went to Hotel D’Angleterre for an Oyster supper.

On Saturday Reinout had booked a chauffeur to take us over to Malmo to visit my mother’s grave. He bought several bouquets of her favourite flowers - tulips and roses. After spending some time at the grave, we continued for a walk through the graveyard and I showed Reinout some of the old and rather special graves from prominent Malmo families. I love graveyards, especially the old ones telling their silent stories of families joined in life and death. I can walk around for hours making up stories based on the names and date of birth and death carved into cold, polished stone. A morbid treat for my vast fantasy…

As we were standing there ready to depart a sudden sadness came over me. I reached for Reinout’s hand. “When I die, I want to be buried next to you” I said. I had never thought of this before but the thought of death parting us seemed unbearable. He pulled me closer. “Honey, we will always be together.” The rest was left unspoken, but no more words were needed…