Our blog has includes posts on the places we’ve been to, but it was only from the Bali 2008 vacation ten years ago when I got into the habit of really writing increasingly copious notes on our travels – with the Japan 2010 trip topping it off with a whopping 82posts. I don’t think I’ve got the kind of energy to write that much on a single trip these days – on account that a good part of our evenings when we travel are routinely spent minding the kids!
For years now, I’ve been wanting however to also loop back on our trips before 2008, but kept putting it off. While working on the new Travelogue page of our re-themed blog site over the weekend, I decided I need to really get on this – before I completely forget what we did during the couple of trips we made during the 2004 to 2008 years. This is going to be a really tough series of posts to do, on account that I wasn’t quite so Excel-obsessive back then – so the itinerary and records of those trips back are permanently lost. What I do have left to aid in my reconstruction are the photos and the EXIF data embedded in them.
So here goes nothing. This will be a four part series, and starting off with our trip to Copenhagen 14 years – in Dec 2004. This seven day trip from 4 to 10 Dec 2004 was made possible in good part from funding support coming out of my Ph.D research at Curtin University. I’d just completed my candidacy in June that year, and thanks to steady progress made in the project, wrote and submitted two papers that were both accepted at the Other Players’ Conference hosted at the IT University of Copenhagen. I remembered the conference organizer quipping that the acceptance rate was fairly low at 35%-ish. So feeling pretty thrilled at having not just one but two papers in it, I submitted the request for funding support to present one paper, with my co-author presenting our second paper. Ling was free during that December stretch, so she accompanied me for the trip.
Some photos and commentary!
The title of my paper was “Redefining Grief Play”. This wasn’t my first paper presentation, though my first to at a European institution. Among the attendees I recall was Eric Zimmerman, who wrote Rules of Play, and who had some questions about my research; and also Richard Bartle, the well known professor who was instrumental in generating interest in understanding the motivations of participants in large role-playing environments.The four of us who were all PhD candidates in 2004: besides myself, Elina (from Finland), Mirjam (from Sweden) and Jonas (from Copenhagen). Yep I was the only Asian crazy enough to do a full PhD by research looking into anti-social behavior among game players at that point! Though after I’d completed, there were others, judging from the number of persons who wrote asking about my research. All four of us have long since obtained our PhDs.At the Christiansborg Palace. It was in the dead of winter during that month of December, though oddly the weather was only mildly cool. There was no snow about, and the sun pretty much hid itself from sight throughout the week we were there.Visiting the National Museum. The several floor building housed a lot of artifacts that were specific to the region: including armor and weaponary used by the Vikings almost fourteen centuries back.At the Radhus Plausen, or City Hall Square. It sure looks empty of crowds for a public square, but this was in 2004: well before the hordes of Chinese tourists descended around most places of the world.Yep, totally no crowds @ Amalienborg Palace. There was a changing of the guard event the afternoon were went by, though as I recall it, the event isn’t anything as extravagant as the one we’re going to see in Taipei later this year.Visitors to the city will all want to take a picture of Den lille Havfrue, or Statue of the Little Mermaid. I reckon the backdrop would have improved by now, since it was obviously very unglam 14 years ago LOL.At the top of the Rundetaarn, or The Round Tower. The Observation Tower itself isn’t particularly tall at 36m high, but the top offered a wonderful uninterrupted view of the old city.We stayed at Top Hotel Leda, a very small property but was functional and good enough for our purposes. 2004 was well before the age of online aggregate hotel booking sites and Tripadvisor, so I remembered we booked this place directly with the hotel. The hotel doesn’t seem to have done very well these days, if Tripadvisor ratings are anything to go by.
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