Back in Copenhagen our first order of business was to secure some bikes. Everyone, it seems, rides a bike here. We wanted to fit in and, more importantly, be able to explore a wider range of the city. The problem is that to rent 4 bikes for a month in this town will set a person back over 3,000 DKK, which, with the weak U.S. dollar, translates into over $600, about how much we can buy 4 bikes for back in the states.
A friend told us we may be able to purchase used bikes from a store they knew about and then sell them back after a month so that the net cost was less than 3,000 Danish Kroners. We went to the bike store to investigate. The owner told us that rather than sell us bikes that we sell back to him after a month he recommended we just rent used bikes from him. That way if we had any problems (flat tires, etc.) he would fix them for free. At 1,200 DKK for four bikes for a month with free repairs we took him up on his offer.
But the main reason I’m telling you this story isn’t about how to get rental bikes in Copenhagen. (If you are interested, though, his shop is just north-west of the Forum on Orsteds Vej.) Why I’m really relaying this is so that I can tell you the story the bike shop owner told me.
The owner is a really nice man from Iraq. He has been a Danish citizen living in Copenhagen for over 8 years running a humble bike shop.
He wanted to have a big vacation in America, visiting some relatives, so he saved up his money and purchased a plane ticket last year flying through New York with a final destination of Detroit which is near where his relatives live. He converted his savings of Danish Kroners into U.S. Dollars before leaving. Upon arrival in New York he honestly claimed at customs that he was carrying $7,000 as spending money for his vacation in the states. This was apparently too much money for someone born in Iraq to have on their possession and not be a terrorist in the “land of the free.”
Homeland Security immediately put him in handcuffs and ankle cuffs (since bike shop owners from Denmark who just walk off of airplanes after having gone through airport security are well known to have WMDs fly off of their person when not completely shackled). My bike shop owner friend was then searched and placed in a detention cell for two days. He told me he was cuffed at the wrists and ankles for more than 12 of those hours. After two days he was told that he cannot go to Detroit. They placed him on the first flight back to Copenhagen and so ended his American “vacation.”
And we sit around wondering why some of the rest of the world don’t like the good old USA?
He told me that he lived under the regime of Saddam for 30 years, and even though he didn’t like Saddam Hussein, he was never treated poorly during those 30 years by the Iraqi government. No, it took a trip to the United States of America, under the regime of George W. Bush, for all of his human rights to be taken away.
He told me he will never go across the Atlantic Ocean again and will never believe someone that tells him America is a land of freedom.
I told this story to a conservative American couple in Copenhagen a few nights back. I thought it would shock them. Instead of outrage, their response was, “At least they (the U.S. Government) are doing something.” My jaw dropped.
I felt like saying, “How would you like it if on your trip to Europe the British police had cuffed you and thrown you in jail for two days upon your arrival at Heathrow and then sent you on a plane back home?” But I bit my tongue as they changed the subject. The golden rule appears to be a one-way street for them.
Posted on July 5th, 2008 under Denmark. Tags: bikes, copenhagen, frederiksberg, norrebro. Comments: 11
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