Being back in Odense, Denmark was slightly surreal because I hadn't been there since the second time I returned as a student to study in Denmark - the spring of 2011. It was there that I walked back to our hostel one night with the Communication program intern, and I revealed that I worried I'd never truly get the chance to come back to Scandinavia for any long period of time. Very rarely do you get to witness full circles, but when you do, they're quite precious. I remember the exact walking route we took through the King's Garden. I walked the same way on Saturday morning to get a dirty chai from Nelle's, three years later.

My bike was hit in Copenhagen last week - while it was parked, so no, I wasn't riding it at the time. They've been working on making the downtown Copenhagen streets even more bike friendly, which involves switching some street directions around and creating more bike parking. The current street that my office is on is a one-way for cars and a two-way for bikes, and they've been replacing a lot of the parking spots with bike parking. The downside is that a lot of trucks still want to act like it's mainly a driving street, so they tend to be pretty annoying. On this particular day, a truck backed into an entire bike rack and bent the front wheels of four bikes, before speeding off in an anonymous hurry. The Danes I talked to were pretty shocked that the truck driver hadn't turned himself in (but as an American, I would have been shocked if the truck driver had stopped) but luckily I think my insurance will cover it.

Then I saw the above in Odense. Bike parking in that is both design-y, a visual reminder of the eco-friendly nature of bike riding, and, most importantly, a good framework for bike parking near the street. Without any sort of metal protecting the front of our bikes in Copenhagen, the rack provided no support from the street elements, mainly rogue trucks. But this rack protects the bikes with the 'car' face. Nice.

On the way back to Copenhagen the group ended up paying a visit to Midtfyns Bryghus, which is actually American-owned. They had a really good chili tripel.

Finally, come Sunday my roommate celebrated her birthday with a 'Festelavn' themed brunch. Being back in Copenhagen is always the best.