30/7 Voyage to Nitra

I woke up to a beautifil Bratislava morning with a nice view of the River. Turns out, this is the longest river in Europe. Shame i need to leave so quickly.
I gave my bat keys back to the front desk, then browsed the internet while i still had wifi. after a short period of time, i needed the toilet. this is when i remembered that i am back in the old USSR teritory, as the morons stuck the toilet roll outside the cubicle again. I can only assume it is some dumb Russian idea of effeciency.
I walked outside, and this time, i caught the tram to get back to the bus stop. when i got on, i notised the lack of ticket buying boxes and conductors. i asked a bloke where i buy the tickets, and he pointed to a box on the side of a road. he said he would tell me if he saw any ticket inspectors.
I got off the tram and decided to walk the rest of the way, and see a bit of the city. I found a great hamburger place that sells hamburgers influenced from different countries. I got the French one. The English burger looked a little miserable. Someone really needs to teach the pom's how to make a hamburger.
I got on the bus for Nitra with my new esperanto hat. Within a few moments, someone sat next to me and said "saluton". Well, my hat works. This bloke is Robert, from England, but working as an English teacher in Germany. I am sure 80% of Esperantists are either in a technical field or some kind of linguist field.
We got to Nitra, and again, the location of the next bus stop was not known. Fortunately, another traveller knew where it was. This was fortunate, as I did not want to walk again.
The venue was a rather small university. Good bed, good toilet, toilet roll in the cubicle for the room toilets, (main toilets still had one roll outside), hot water for 24 hours a day, and a pub that sells cold beer! 1 euro for a pint, or whatever their measurement is.

Photos: my breakfast burger in Bratislava, the street in bratislava with the tram, just outside the burger place, an esperanto bottle opener for sale. Does the format of the label look familiar?

27/7 Vikings

Today was excursion day. I am heading off to the Viking ship museum. I am normally good at falling asleep in a bus, but the bloke on the microphone is talking me to sleep his voice just drones. On the map, the town looks far away, but it only took about an hour to get here.
It is good to finally see the ships that I was taught so much about at school. The long ship is surprisingly long! I was about to buy a drinking horn, but I can't afford the space in my bag, so I took a photo instead.
I could have stayed for longer, but the bus was leaving. Turns out, I was 20 minutes late, which did not impress the old fogies much; I had mis-understood the details discussed earlier.
The next stop was a church, which is where all the royal family are buried. Their casket's are amazing! There are also graves all over the floor of the church.
We then returned to Copenhagen mid-afternoon. I decided to walk around the city again. First I went to a supermarket for cheap eats. Here, I found the first true Australian beer in Europe. Unfortunately, it was VB. They could have chosen a better beer.
Next was a walk around the castle. As it was late, most things were closing. I got to see through the door of the chapel where the royals get christened, and walk all around the buildings.
Evening was another concert in the streets. It was interesting watching people stop to figure out what the language was.

Photos: part of the castle, the concert, the river next to the concert

26/7 Carlesburg brewery and Christiania

Today was a trip to the brewery. What a sweet smell it was! They have the worlds largest beer bottle collection, about 20,000 by memory. However I could not find any Australian beer, so it wasn't a complete collection. I had only just got through the brewery when it was time to go. This was an issue as the entry ticket entitled me to 2 free beers. To solve this dilemma, I stayed at the brewery. They were very nice beers!

I chose not to go straight back to the conference, like the bus did. Instead, I walked through the city. I remembered about a hippy community that took over an abandoned naval base in the 70's, called Christiania. As I approached, I saw 3 girls getting excited over a suspicious looking package. I soon found out why. There is about 20 or more stalls selling all varieties of top quality marijuana and hashish. There was also food and drink stalls and cafe's. I am not sure if they were selling herbal food and drink, I didn't buy anything......... honest, I didn't!
The whole village is definitely hippy, with graffiti and bright multi-coloured t-shirts everywhere.
The evening was a concert, then a meal of spaghetti, with another beer ($20 aud in total), with 3 other esperantistoj from the UK (the country). I couldn't help but think of the irony; 4 fluent English speakers, (3 native) in a country that has worked hard at learning English, discussing the menu in esperanto, the "internacia lingvo".  Curiosity got the better of the waiter, "what language are you speaking?". He had never heard it before and couldn't quite figure out where it came from!
The last item of the day was a theatre production in esperanto about a piece of its history.

Photo's: a good feed at the brewery, the gates and the internals of Christiania

25/7 eco-village

Today was a trip to some Eco village. A group in the 70's decided to settle here. There is all sorts of different houses here. When we returned to Copenhagen, I realised I left my hat at the village. Damn, that is the 2nd that I have left behind. Guess I will buy another.
Afternoon was a concert, and the evening was a banquet, followed by a concert. The feeling of this congress is very formal.

Photos: the little mermaid, and a store that specializes in kids designer couches. Someone had to do it.

24/7 UK opening

This is being written 4 days late, so its gonna be quick.
The opening consisted mostly of boring speeches. The day was a consent with the band Kajto. I tried to listen to some of the lectures, but I didn't understand them. I get a slight impression that "english bashing" is a favorite hobby of some Esperantists. I think they need to get over their objections to English. It doesn't do their cause any good.

The frustration of the day came from an evening concert featuring local musicians, the sort of thing I like. I thought I arrived 10 minutes early. Turns out, I arrived 80 minutes late. Someone decided to move the start time forward an hour and a half. The only place this was written was in esperanto, in a daily newsletter. The 2nd objection I have of this lot is their assumption that everyone fully understands esperanto here. After all, it is still a language that needs to be learnt. This has caused me a few problems here. They really do need to recognise English a lot more; sometimes it is needed, even at an esperanto conference. How many international conferences is important information only available in one language? Maybe it is just the old folks that forgot what it is like to learn. Maybe its just me still being upset about the concert start time being changed.

Photos: outside the congress centre, inside the centre, and the concert hall.
Photo game; where's the bloody toilet. at some point in the next few posts, there will be a public toilet in a photo. See if you can spot it! I was starting to believe Copenhagen didn't have public loo's until I had to ask. Turns out, the loo was only a hundred metres away!

23/7 registration

Today was mostly waiting in line collecting stuff and buying tour tickets. At night, I made it to my new home for a week, the student accomodation. I have my own bathroom here! The room is quite big, but no TV. There is a basement with a whole range of stuff, but unfortunately can not be used as it was flooded one month ago by a big rain. There is a couple of washing machines that appear new. I can't figure out what coin I need to operate them, so my clothes will have to wait.

Photo is of the wind turbine outside the Congress centre.
Added photo: Copenhagen street with Esperanto banner.

22/7 planes, trains and bicycles....... and Copenhagen

Today was my first trip in a turboprop plane, times 2. I had a very brief stop in some airport, I don't know the name. I got to Copenhagen airport in 3 hours, landing at 12:30. The airport appears small, but very busy.

My first opinions is that this is a very clean and friendly city. The "friendly" bit probably comes from the fact, almost everything is in the local language and English, and I recognise the alphabet. Makes things so much easier. If only someone thought of using just one simple language across the world 100 years ago, trips would me much easier for all of us. Hang on......someone did! 
Some of the trains here do not have drivers. They are automated. It's quite fun to sit where the driver normally would sit. The trains with drivers are like 1st class in every cabin, complete with tv! Some even have personal lights and power points. The trains and busses have free wifi. The public transport also runs on time, and not a minute late.
The surprises do not stop there. There are bicycles everywhere. Many antiques, dedicated bike paths everywhere. outside the central station was at least 1000 bikes.

I discovered my pre-ordered accommodation opens tomorrow, so I needed accommodation for 1 night. Again, all the hostel are booked out. For the first time on this trip, I booked a hotel room. I almost fainted with the room. Good bed, sit down toilet, with paper, hot shower, even a tv! In English!!! then I discovered, no electricity. After a quick trip to reception, I discovered that my key card needs to go in the box next to the door to turn on the power. That's different.
As I have not properly washed my clothes for 2 weeks, I tried To find a laundry, so I asked reception. They pointed me to a street that has one, but they also warned me about what else I will find. The laundry was closed, but the girls were open......wiiiiiide open. As were the brothels and sex shops. I had barely stepped into the street when one girl grabbed my backside and tried to drag me away. A little further on were the restaurants. The food smelt good, and the pad thai noodles tasted good. No more Ukrainian surprise!
I spent the rest of the time, sitting on the loo, using good toilet paper, having a hot shower and watching TV in English. I never got the cold beer though.

Photos: Copenhagen city street with Esperanto sign, inside a train with the TV on the news.