Cool in Copenhagen

  Copenhagen, Denmark
Saturday, June 9, 2007

So it turns out that the train from Gothenburg to Melmo, Sweden, continues for another 35 min on to Copenhagen, Denmark. So about 2 min before we arrived in Melmo, we decided to stay on the train and go to Copenhagen for 2 days. We arrived at the train station at about 8 pm and had no place to stay and it was a friday night. We'd read about the hostels filling up fast, especially on weekends in the summer, due to hotels being ridiculously expensive. You'd think we'd have learned our lesson by now after Oslo. So we found a pay phone and credit carded a call to a few hostels we had numbers too. Score on call two! A couple of Dorm beds for the night and breakfast included for only somewhat ridiculously expensive, but then everything here is in that category.

We had heaps of trouble finding the place, but people kept stopping and asking us if we needed help (yes, everyone speaks excellent English here too). A stop at a small bar proved most successful because they had a map and got us sorted out. Next stop food, problem - no cash... Denmark cash that is. We had American, Egyptian, Euro, Canadian, Norwegian, and Swedish cash, but no Danish cash. Searched a long time for an ATM, got one, got Super Burrito from Taco place. Soooooooo good. We wandered around the beautiful streets eating our giant burritos and watched a parade of roller bladers going down the street. Apparently Copenhagen has a Friday night roller blade tradition with police escort and everything. We spent some time talking to two American guys and a Danish guy in our Dorm and hit the hay in semi decent time.

Hamlet's Home

We woke up early the next day and took full advantage of the buffet breakfast (sneaking sandwiches for lunch) and headed out for the info centre. Info'd up, we found out that our Scranrail passes gave us free rides on the local trains, so we took a 30 min trip up to Kronburg Castle - the setting of Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'. It's also a UNESCO World Heritage site. We wandered the streets of the town first, marveling at how beautiful all of the architecture is, even the train station was gorgeous. There were many street shops selling their wares, and the people watching was fantastic. Dan spotted a Danish guy that was hugely tall, and saw him duck to go into a shop. Comparing later, Dan found that his own head stood just below the doors arch, but this guy would have smacked his chin if he stood up straight! Anyway...

Kronburg Towers

We spotted a bakery and thought, while in Denmark, one must eat a Danish. Best Danish Ever. Hands down. No contest. A thousand times better than any other Danish we've ever had. I can't repeat just how good this Danish was. Crisp, flakey pastry, light sweet frosting, and a rich berry centre. mmmmmm. So we continued on and attacked the castle. It took us awhile to find a gate in, but when we managed, there was no one around. Turns out we took the not so main entrance and we didn't find any other tourists until we hit the castle proper. Even so, it wasn't packed at all. The main grounds were free but we bought the cheap ticket to go see the cathedral and the dungeon. The church was ornately decorated on every inch, with every pew having a different ornate carving on the end. Everything was detailed, from the organ to the board where they put the numbers for hymns. The dungeon area was dark and cool and required flashlights, but at the beginning of it stood a statue of Holger Danske, or 'Holger the Dane', a legendary Danish hero who was sleeping in the dungeon of the castle and would awake once again to defend Denmark if it was threatened.

Slumbering Warrior

We grabbed a train back to Copenhagen central and got stuck along the way. First, our train was switched to another train, and the train we were riding on just stopped moving part way through the trip. We eventually began moving again and a round of applause erupted from the masses... then the train stopped again. Much booing ensued. Then more Danish was spoken over the loud speakers and everyone started getting off. Apparently we had to change trains... again. So eventually we got back to Copenhagen central. Unfortunately we missed the opening times for one of the fantastic looking free museums in town, but we went to see the 'Little Mermaid' statue and then went into another free museum on the way back. The little mermaid statue was cool for the history of it, but it wasn't in a very obvious place. It was also fairly small, so it seemed odd that there were so many other statues of equal or bigger size and similar quality, but this one attracted the masses. The museum was interesting as well but it took us a few minutes to figure it out. We started off in a 'modern art' section with some really gruesome sculptures. Things like distorted bodies of people, pigs and dogs or 'death' like figures. We quickly got out of there and found our way to more beautiful sculptures and into painting rooms. The walls were loaded with fantastic paintings from top to bottom. We were pretty tired at this point and it was a bit overwhelming so we hurried it through but stopped to enjoy the pictures that really caught our eye.

Eternal Embrace

We took a few minutes to regroup at the hostel before we ran a few errands. We ended up going out later, with a few other backpackers, in search of this famous jazz bar. We figured out that our map said it was a completely different place than it actually was after we stopped at a different bar. Walking the city at night was an entirely different experience. So many people stay out late and socialize, and the party only starts well after midnight. We found the Jazz bar after another trek of searching, but poor backpackers can't afford a cover charge, so we went to a local pub and chatted with the other backpackers long enough to call it Dan's Birthday before getting a bit lost on the way back to the hostel again.

Little Mermaids

Overall we had an awesome time in Copenhagen, met some cool people and made a few friends. We're headed off early in the morning for Gothenburg and then on to the Shetland pony farm. Hoping everything goes to plan.

Wall to Wall Art

All our best from Denmark!

Dan and Gabrielle