My bag is really heavy: The Danish way to rock

So after Africa, we flew to Copenhagen which is a world away from Africa. Civilisation, what the hell is that. We quickly got used to all the creature comforts of living in a western society.

Upon arrival in the airport, we were picked up by Mardys cousins Camilla and Elisabeth and his cousin-in-law Annie. They were waiting for us when we arrived and waved Danish, Australian and an American flag upon our arrival. Why the American flag? Well somehow someone confused American Katie aka Cajun Katie from our Kilimanjaro climb as the Katie, Mardy was traveling with and thought she was American, none the less we laughed about it. Mardy was stoked to see his cousins again, they are cool people.

For 2 days they showed us around Copenhagen visiting Christiania, Vesterbro, Newhavn, and having dinner at Tivoli gardens. On the 3rd night we stayed at Camillas house about 40 minutes outside of the city and about in the middle of the island of Zealand. Both Annie and Camilla made us amazing food, it was a GREAT change from eating African food, soo delicious. And when they weren't feeding us, we were gorging ourselves on Danish hotdogs although we didn't get to eat as many as we had hoped, because every meal we ate was huge so we weren't often hungry.

As good as it was to see them again, we had to make tracks for the mainland, as our schedule here in Europe was tight, 28 days to see the family in Denmark, travel eastern Europe and make it back to Zurich in time for our plane to America. So after a couple of days in the "big city of Copenhagen", we caught the train to Holestrabro (probably spelling that wrong), to see Mardys godparents, Rita and Christian and there mutt Luffe. It was good to see them and there hospitality was also amazing we drank wine and ate open sandwichs (a Danish speciality) and sat around and shot the breeze.

After a night there we headed to Herrning, which wasn't far from where we were to go to one of Mardys uncles partys celebrating his employment with the Danish telecom company TDC for 25 years. It was a good party and good to see even more family. And Katie got to see the traditional way the Danes celebrate, with there songs and chants, none of which Mardy knew how to do and, not surprisingly which a huge feast in tow.

We then went back with another uncle of Mardys uncle Kim, aka Killer Kim, and stayed at his house in the country. Uncle Kim and Auntie AG live on Mardys grand dads old farm, and have built a new house there and restored the old house. They have really done an incredible job of making the place an amazing place to live, especially if you had have seen how tired the place was beforehand .

Inside the new house Kim has whats called the "room of death" or "the chapel", where he keeps taxidermied animals that he has killed - as he is a keen hunter. Mardy was very excited to show Katie and made her close her eyes before taking her into the room, putting her in the middle of all these stuffed animals and then letting her open them. It really is a site to see, and I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

We spent a couple of nights on the farm, and during that time Kim took us out on his ATV to show us the deer in the forest nearby, we saw several red deer and rhoe deer. Red deer and really big animals, we were surprised at there size, but alas no hunting took place as the season hadn't started yet, but we still got to go out and see them about. Kim also let us shoot guns. Coolest uncle ever. We did some practice shooting with a .22 rifle and a .308 rifle. It was heaps of fun, and who is the better shot you might ask? Well that probably depends on who you ask. We then shot his shotgun into the field, and were surprised at the kick of it, you wouldn't want to shoot that thing all day.

Mardys favourite gun - .308
Katies favourite gun - shotgun

After shooting some guns and shit, we ate venison in the new house and "had to eat ALL of the meat, we never leave meat left over", again our stomachs would be pushed until bursting point.

After this we went to visit Mardys cousin Anya in Kolding, she is a cool cat, and we spent a couple of days there, drinking, yahooing and shopping. Where Mardy bought a skateboard, which is either going to be the best or worst decision of his trip, time will tell.

After this, we jumped on another train to Mardys Aunty Toves house, near the Danish-German border, they showed us around southern Jutland and the famous windmill that I can't spell and where the Germans invaded in the 1800s. Damn Germans. We then ate hotdogs and retired to her place to, again, eat more food. Jeebus.

And that was Denmark, one week to visit Mardys family, under the pump, and now we get on a train to Berlin, and our savage journey into the Eastern Bloc begins.

A healthy racists billboard to kick off our visit to DK

While strolling the streets of Copenhagen, randomly came across the changing of the Queens guard

Us in New Harbour (Nyhavn)

Kev going on a canal cruise in Copenhagen, passing Nyhavn

Mardy up the top of the round tower overlooking the city, whats up with the massively oversized tongue? Whatever Gene Simmons

Mardy having some trouble with the elephants at Carlsberg

Carlsberg have there own horse stables!

And they still use them to pull beer around to some pubs. Here we are freaking out a bit (Katie especially), because the horses were all sweating from working hard and making weird grunting horse sounds. Funny how Katie can pat a lion and a cheetah, but be afraid of a horse.

Annie and Camilla

Tivoli!

The family

Cousin Ivan, being specially while eating tea

Tivoli at night

Annie showing us around the streets of Copenhagen

Katie with a big lego man at a lego store

Dinner at Camillas house, she is a really good cook, the food was delicious.

From the right, Mardys uncle Carl, his wife Annie, Mardy, Annie, Ivan, Katie, and Camillas boyfriend Michael
Centre from right, Kevin, and Elisabeths Kangeroo