in the spirit of collecting nostalgia, after i finished my paper with a flourish, i joined the girlz for dinner and tivoli. it's this cultured, well-manicured amusement park in the middle of copenhagen, filled with pricey restaurants, silly game booths, outdoor theaters for very short silly shows, lots of lights, vendors, and rides. the usual, really, only more graceful. that it never changes is part of its charm. anne had gone twelve years ago and could still recollect where things were. i couldn't compete with that: i'd gone two years ago, with jamie of course. but everything was as i remembered it. the handful of roller-coasters, the so-excellent fun house, the really intimidatingly huge Drop tower thingy i was too scared to go on then and too totally disinterested for now.

we watched the same shows even. the first, a pantomime, for which denmark is supposedly "world famous," struck me as just as ridiculous this time around. it's basically bad ballet. costumed types (the clown, the big-nosed miser, the sweet idealistic girl who wants to marry for love) hopping around in toe shoes, telling a story in exaggerated gestures. not even to particularly good music. the other is vaudeville in three acts: a cabaret singer, two contortionists, and two guys on unicycles. we laughed. but, along w/ the other old folks, anglo tourists, and kids in the audience, we enjoyed.
what else do i need to do before i go?