Copenhagen Adventure, Day 6

Some more good office time, but most importantly, I took the train in to work!  No issues, and I felt like I blended nicely with the local Copenhageners.  Wear headphones, dress as stylishly as possible (with dark, muted colors of course) make sure your cheekbones are high and proud, and look awake but not too awake.  The further you get on your train journey the more you can confirm you're on the right one.  But halfway to Malmparken (it's a station, not a car from IKEA) I saw one of my workmates get on the train.  One of the sales folk, we've talked a ton, and he was actually the only person I brought a gift for - some beef jerky, as he mentioned he liked it.  So we got to talk some more, and more significantly he helped me get on campus and badged me through the door!

Some things I liked about the office that I think we might want to have in Minneapolis

Ok, this one is just a front end developer and our CEO playing some fierce ping pong

Dashboards.  Tasty, tasty dashboards

A "conversation pit" - handy and comfy

Polaroid org chart - they even took polaroids of our online pictures since we weren't there

Office supplies

They keep their sales people in a glass cage.  I mean, office.

Whiteboards and sound baffles

So many international workers that every desk in the office has a little flag representing the country of the person who sits there.  I think Eli would be challenged to name them all!

That evening the team I'm on had a dinner out in my honor.  We first went to Tivoli (see previous post), a historic amusement park in the middle of the city.  Normally closed for the winter, they have Christmas themes in December and do it up in full yuletide fashion.  They even run the rides - and some of those rides are crazy tall and all the way up in the wind and cold temperatures.  None of us were brave enough to go on them in the 30something degree weather, but I secretly wanted to go on the crazy spinning airplane ride.  Next time!

I liked the mixed media steampunk-like theme here - also, it has Hygge in the name, so,.

There are a lot of Hans Christian Andersen themes here, and this one is, of course, the flying luggage story..

Hard to tell, but old fashioned cars!

The crazy spinning airplane ride

It really is an amazing place - even if you don't go on the rides.   There are many HCA references, and it was fun to hear my Danish cohorts talk about riding some of these rides forever ago when they were little.  There was a great episode where everyone was explaining to me who Rasmus Klump was, and all about his pancakes and friends (Seal, Ostrich, etc.) -- for as endearing as they described it, it was utterly foreign.  Like listening to the radio in Canada - you understand what it might be, but had no idea so many people loved it, while you didn't know it existed.

 We followed the walking tour of the park with a traditional Christmas dinner at one of the more famous restaurants in the park.  Apparently when the Christmas season opens all the celebrities of Denmark pay tons of money to eat there on opening night.  As much as I like the idea of eating where Mads Mikkelson ate, I'm much happier that my boss paid for the pleasure.

The foods were amazing.  Some really fish fish, creamy creams, and bready breads with many backstories and tales of how the Danish co-workers grew up with these foods.  It was extravagant and tasty - but surprisingly filling, for sampling foods for so long.  No room for dessert, even!  But I think the herring with different sauces was my favorite, even if I was tasting it for hours afterward.

We also had some of the holiday beers, and more importantly, some proper holiday Aquavit.  It tasted okay, but I was just happy to finally have some after having read about it for so long.  Side note:  Friday night's holiday party involved quite a bit of drinking, but nothing compared to the single shot of Aquavit I had this night and how I had to concentrate on not falling asleep or freaking out about the bed table spins.  It passed quickly but I thought it was funny how intense it was.

We wrapped up the evening, and I had a good walk with our CTO.  We had a good chat, and it was another of those times where I was really happy to be getting to know my co-workers and the founders not just as people I work with, but as good friendly people with whom I have a lot in common.  Especially the leadership - it's nice to have the common experiences of children and age to share perspectives regardless of our countries of origin.