Copenhagen - Day 4 & 5
It rained on the way to the Neil Bohrs Institute.
Rainbow!
I described The Copenhagen Lakes in one of my writings, and they looked exactly the way I had envisioned. The encounter bespoke the power of virtual reality. Strangely enough, it did not arouse a feeling of déjà vu, but the feeling bore some semblance of ‘why did it take you so long?’
Strange.
Finally I arrived at the Niels Bohr Institute. And… what do I see?
Naughty graffiti – more precisely, decadent messages towards an ex-lover named… let’s just call her Judy. I might be the only person with these photos, as the staff covered up the walls shortly after my arrival.
Shame on you! Judy’s ex-boyfriend. No matter how you felt about her alleged betrayal, this is not how you resolve love quarrels – not in a public domain.
There is more to this story. Please check back later.
One positive thing came out of this fiasco. Soon after my arrival, a few people came out to witness the spectacle and I got to talk to one of the professors at the Institute. The anonymous professor (at his request) applied his expertise in particle physics to study gravitational waves. From the Standard Model to Gravitation Waves to Copenhagen Interpretation to Schrodinger’s Equation to…. we talked for a long time. I’ll post a more nerdy, detailed version of our conversation another day.
After talking to the anonymous professor, I got into what the Hungarian-American psychologist called flow. The state of flow happened only three times prior to this. Unlike the first three times when I saw slightly different colors around me; this time, the highly focused state of mind engendered a feeling of levitation. I sat on a bench for at least an hour regurgitating the conversation I had with the physicist. It made me feel melancholy for some reason, so I walked over to an adjacent coffee shop and got myself hot chocolate and croissant. I heard tryptophan in chocolate helps the brain produce serotonin, but unfortunately, the sugar-laden drink and pastry did not elevate my mood.
I wandered around the town and came across The Marble Church where I spent thirty minutes meditating. It was good for the soul. It started to rain again so I sought refuge at a gift shop and bought an umbrella and Danish dark chocolate for my colleagues.
I wanted a decent meal for dinner, so googled the highest rated restaurant in the vicinity. The place was called L’Alasce. I was the only patron at 4PM and had the restaurant all by myself. Winning!
Hygge seemed like an appropriate word to describe the place.
The positives were (in the order of preference):
1. The service was impeccable. I mean IMPECCABLE. The waitress checked on me just the right amount of time and she knew the menu like the back of her hand. 10 out of 10.
2. She recommended Chablis to go with mussels and yes, that was a solid choice. The citrus fragrance and high acidity of the wine balanced the buttery mussels quite well. It was properly chilled and served in a hock wine glass from Chef & Sommelier. I liked the glass so much that I ordered a set when I returned home.
3. The beets were cooked to near perfection. The texture and flavors were just great, and I am saying that as a recovering vegetarian. Kudos.
4. Other than the items I mentioned above, everything else was meh. One unforgivable culinary blunder was the total lack of textural contrast of the main entrée – the entire dish had the texture of mushy mashed potato.
Overall, I tremendously enjoyed the dining experience and made a mental note to order pasta dishes next time I visit Copenhagen.
I had so much food, I spent the evening working out.
Also, the hotel sauna was great!