A Weekend in Copenhagen, Denmark
Day 0: Thursday, Oct. 1st, 2009
After getting out of class on Thursday afternoon, the group I was traveling with (my roommates Brett and Taylor, along with Claire, Colleen and Sophie) walked to the bus stop at Cafe Vink to catch our bus to Venlo station. We barely made it, as buses going both directions on route 83 pulled up while we were still half a block away—we started sprinting even though we didn’t know which bus to get on. It was confusing (but mostly hilarious) and we ended up getting on the right bus. Whew. It was a nice afternoon ride, with the sun slowly sinking over the Dutch countryside. When we got to Venlo, we found another giant group of castle-dwellers waiting for their train as well (though they were going in the opposite direction, to Interlaken, Switzerland—one of my future destinations). We all hung out for a bit and grimaced over the fact that we all were about to endure our first grueling, overnight, 14-hour train rides. Our train pulled in (this one a commuter train to Dusseldorf HBF, where we caught our international train), we said our goodbyes and wished each other all an adventurous weekend. Our layover in Dusseldorf was fairly uneventful, aside from us getting to the ticket office right before it closed (meaning some of our group wouldn’t be able to get their tickets for our international train) but we scooted in a few minutes before they closed and we were all smiles. We boarded our CityNightLine overnight train, and piled into one compartment in the day coach, which was cramped to say the least (yay for poor students and Eurail passes). Once we had passed Cologne, Germany, all the people who were supposed to be in our compartment had come to claim their seats, we just looked around like dumb students, and they found other seats. It worked out pretty well, and we settled in for the night. In an attempt to kick off our weekend in a classy way, Taylor bought us all wine for the train, but failed to remember that we’d need a bottle opener. We tried to implement by using my nail clippers and tweezers to try and pry it open (what were we thinking?), but of course it wasn’t a normal cork, it was a plastic one; we were not successful in the least, except to make it look like a dog had made the cork its personal chewtoy. By divine intervention, I realized that the steward in first class might have a bottle opener! So, Claire and I made our way to the first class section of the train (it was far away…we were the last compartment in the last car of the train) to hunt for a steward. We found one, but couldn’t really communicate with him what we needed—yay language barriers. He finally understood, and we had to walk all the way back to our compartment to get the wine bottle, back up again to the steward, and then all the way back again to finally sit down and drink it. Which we did. But naturally, since we’re cheap students, it wasn’t very good wine. At all. In fact, it tasted a lot like vinegar. Fail. But it took the edge off, and we had lively conversation until falling into a fragmented, uncomfortable sleep (lesson learned: on CNL trains, splurge for the couchettes). No matter, the next morning at about 10 am, we arrived in Copenhagen!
Day 1: Friday, Oct. 2nd, 2009
We woke up to a gorgeous sunrise over the water as our train was speeding across a giant suspension bridge. Can someone say photo op? Yes. After arriving in Copenhagen, we had a bit of trouble finding our hostel, because lots of streets were closed in the area of our hostel because all of the Obamas, as well as Oprah, were in the immediate vicinity to push for the Chicago Olympic bid. It was kindof surreal—there were helicopters hovering over the area, and police were blockading quite a few streets. Nevertheless, we found our hostel (DanHostel Copenhagen Downtown) and checked in. It was a very nice place, but a little pricy since they charge for linens, lockers, basically anything they could think of. But the location was excellent (I mean, hello, Oprah was nearby. What more proof do you need?). After that, we spent much of the afternoon exploring the quaint and colorful streets. We also stumbled upon all of the security vehicles blocking off where Obama’s cavalcade was going to drive through at some point, but we didn’t have the attention span to wait for that. But we saw snipers on the roof…it was legit. We got a great little lunch from a cafe off one of the main squares in the shopping district—mine was like a pizza, except with artichoke and this great type of cheese that I can’t remember the name of. We kept exploring in the general direction of Tivoli Gardens, which is (I think) the oldest theme park in the world and it’s right in the center of town. But, sadly, it was closed. We were pretty upset about that, but we bounced back with a touristy ferris wheel ride above the city, which was absolutely gorgeous—Copenhagen has a beautiful skyline, especially under sunny skies. Afterward, we went to the Rundetaarn, or Round Tower (which was originally an old astronomy tower), for more panoramic views of the city. There was also a fantastic gallery attached to the tower with really cool modern art installations—highly recommended if you’re ever in Copenhagen. Then we began our long trek to see the Little Mermaid statue, making stops at the beautiful King’s Gardens and Rosenborg Castle, as well as Amelienborg Palace (with stunning views of the Opera House) on our way there. I’ll be honest, the statue was a little underwhelming, but the folklore that goes along with it makes it worth seeing (it’s just one of the things you have to do in Copenhagen), I just wish that it was a little closer to the center of town. Afterwards, we got an amazing dinner at Sari, a restaurant near our hostel. When the check came, though, we almost died because the grand total was 638 Kroner and we had forgotten that we were in a different currency system than Euros! That was a scary moment. Then, back to the hostel to get ready for the most anticipated event of the weekend—the IceBar!!! IceBarCPH was right down the block from our hostel (how convenient) and worth every penny. When we got there, they outfitted us with arctic-weight gloves and fur-lined parkas. The drinks were served in hollowed out solid blocks of ice, and yes, the walls, the bar, basically everything but the floor and the booze was made of ice. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen, and a perfect end to our first (and tiring) day in Copenhagen.
Day 2: Saturday, Oct. 3rd, 2009
Today, we slept in pretty late, and then made our way to the Statens Museum for Kunst (the Danish National Gallery) but only after a few pit-stops to get real danishes from Denmark, and to visit a big candy store where I bought a 2-foot-long gummy snake! Not only was the National Gallery one of the best museums I’ve ever been to (it’s top 3—and I’ve been to a hell of a lot of museums) but the best part is it’s free! I also discovered a new favorite artist while wandering its halls, Carl-Henning Pedersen. While we were in the museum, it decided to start pouring down rain, so it’s a good thing that we spent most of our day there. We headed back to the area of our hostel for an early dinner, and we were lucky enough to find a tiny, family-run, hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant with only about 4 tables in the whole place. The guy liked us so much that he made us mozzarella and pesto baguette as an appetizer for free! Needless to say, we made a point to come back again the next day—oh, did I mention it was one of the cheapest meals we had in Denmark? That night, Claire, Colleen, Sophie, and I decided to go to the Opera House to see a performance of the Royal Danish Ballet company performing two works: first, a traditional ballet, and second, Jerome Robbins’ original choreography in the West Side Story Suite. It was a fabulous evening, and the Copenhagen Opera House is by far the most architecturally stunning building I have seen anywhere in my life. I would live there if I could. After the performance, we perused an outdoor art exhibit on one of the main squares and met up with Taylor and Brett back at the hostel to go to a local bar for some drinks. Then it was sleepytime.
Day 3: Sunday, Oct. 4th, 2009
This morning, we all went to the Danish Design Center, which was a small, but very intriguing interactive gallery showcasing, well, Danish design. Not just in the architectural sense, though, but in other ways as well like energy efficiency (there was a fully electric car on display which was very cool). Afterwards, we had to make a stop at the train station to secure tickets for some of our return trips. Most of the group then went to a big indoor mall (it was raining again), but Brett and I decided to explore just a bit more and went to Nyhavn Harbor, one of the most picturesque places in the city. And it was just our luck, that the sun came out just when we got there! We took some great pictures for mom and pop, and found an icecream shop to satisfy our addiction. It was damn tasty. We met up with the rest of the group at the mall, and I found the watch of my dreams, which was of course many thousand Kroner, so I didn’t even bother converting it in to $US because I knew it would make me cry. As all of our goals for the weekend (minus Tivoli) had been accomplished, we didn’t really have a plan for the rest of the afternoon. So, we wandered around and happened upon this little kitschy shop filled with the funniest trinkets you could imagine (I had to take a picture of the “Paparazzi Playset”). We then headed back to our little Italian place to pick up some food for then and for the train later, went back to the hostel to pick up our luggage, and made our afternoon/overnight train back to the Castle. Copenhagen was one of the cities that I was most excited about visiting this semester, and it definitely didn’t disappoint… I can’t wait to come back (except next time when it’s warmer and Tivoli is open)!
