So after a good few days of fun and frolic in London, I was off to Copenhagen for the first time ever! In fact, it would be my first time ever in any Scandinavian country. Exciting stuff! I met up with Stef for her lunch hour over by Aldgate station to have a quick lunch and chat before running off to catch my plane.
Strangely enough, on the way back to the tube station, we ran into Laura! Laura is the fellow south african who I met with Stef back in Isla Mujeres 2 years ago. She also lives in London after globetrotting another year or so after we’d met. So here we were running into her on the street. Love it when that happens.
Though we didn’t have much time, we did manage to have a chat, and agree to try to meet up when I was in town on my way back to the states in the first week of October. I was scheduled for a 2 day layover in London, so it should work out. I had already said bye to Berina, who was on her way to Venice that same day for a fun long weekend with her beau. We’ll definitely meet up when I’m back in London as well.
So in order to catch this plane, I had to get to Stansted airport. Which while claiming to be a London airport, is actually quite a ways out of the city limits. I took the “Stansted Express” train, which got me to the airport in about 50 minutes, for fifteen pounds (about 28 bucks, expensive, like everything else in London).
Check-in was a HUGE fiasco. Air travel in Europe has been taken over by discount airlines that advertise EXTREMELY cheap fares to destinations all over Europe. Of course, I took advantage of these fare for my trips. But the downside of this is that these airports are absolutely mobbed by people in ways that you can’t imagine. The lines at the check-in counters are staggering. There’s a check-in display that apparently is supposed to tell you which counter you’re supposed to go to for your respective flight. I suppose this is supposed to streamline the check-in process somewhat. I saw my Easyjet flight show up on the board, but for the counter number it kept saying “waiting”. I was supposed to be there by 4:00 pm for my 6:00 pm flight, and I waited in front of this board until about 4:30. No change. By that time, I decided I should find out what the hell is going on, and I found an Easyjet employee walking around with a clipboard. She answered me that I can check in at ANY counter. Nevermind that it didn’t say that on the board. Oy…
Anyway, let’s cut to the chase. Even with the flight delayed, I BARELY made it onboard for the flight. Since the flight was delayed about 40 minutes, I knew we’d get to Copenhagen late. I had given Sjelle the flight info, as she told me she would meet me at Kastrup airport for my arrival. Unfortunately, she didn’t check that the flight had left late, and got there a little early, so she ended up waiting a long while. It was still very nice to see her again at the terminal.We caught the train and headed into town. Her friend Bergljott (who had visited Andiamo) was going to put me up for a couple of nights. We went straight from the central station to where she lived, about a ten minute walk away. After getting me settled at Bergljott’s, Sjelle headed home because she had to work the next morning. I crashed out on Bergljott’s VERY comfortable L-couch (hey after what I slept on in London, ANYTHING had to be better), and got a great night’s sleep.
The next morning, the weather was great, I had a light breakfast and headed out into the town. Lucky for me, Copenhagen is a VERY easy city to get around in. First, it’s quite small for a major city. Second, all the streets are in a pretty nice grid fashion (like L.A.) so it’s really easy to know where you are. And third, Bergljott lived right on a main thoroughfare, so it was impossible for me not to find her apartment on my way back. After stopping at a 7-11 (oh thank heaven), for a Denmark SIM card for my phone, I was on the grand tour. I headed down Vesterbrogade (the main street Bergljott lives on), and walked to the center. I passed the Tivoli, Copenhagen’s famous classic amusement park that is in the heart of the city. Then walked through the Radhusplatsen, which is the main plaza that has the city hall on one end of it. Then I went through the very busy shopping district, into the Nyhavn. This is the canal-laden old harbor of the city. It’s still home to many of Copenhagen’s fishing boats. on the sunny side of the Nyhavn, there are shops, cafes and restaurants everywhere. The weather was absolutely glorious, so it was a great time to be outside.
I decided I liked hanging out by the harbor the most, so I stopped at a few places, had a drink and perused their menus, trying to figure what to do for lunch. Most of the places, though quite nice, were a bit touristy (read: expensive) for my taste. I did walk by one place, though, that was serving these massive seafood salads. I was absolutely enthralled by the amount of seafood you got on these salads, and everything spectacular. So, it was to be, I sat a table on the patio, and when the waitress came, I pointed to the guy at the table next to me and said, “I’ll have one o’those”. I’m sure she gets that alot.
Anyway, the salad was absolutely fantastic, and I was in seafood heaven, almost in tears. I was in awe of this thing. Mine was loaded with crab, mussels, shrimp, tiny lobster, and god knows what else. Not cheap, but worth every kroner I paid for it. Very, very nice…
About the time I was done, I sent Sjelle a text msg to let her know that I was at the harbor, and asked her if should just wait for her there. She had the idea to meet up in the afternoon after she got off work, and go on the canalboat tour. While I’m not a fan of these touristy things, the canal tour did sound like a good way to see the harbor. Also, to check out the different parts of Copenhagen. She replied that that was a good idea, and told me to meet her at the big anchor monument at the end of canal about 4:30. So, knowing I had to be back around Nyhavn by that time, I ventured off and walked some more of Copenhagen’s streets.
I met up with Sjelle and we took the canalboat tour. They actually had a boat leaving by the time we got to the dock. No waiting, gotta love it. The weather was still really amazing, and the canalboat actually took us by some interesting sights: The Queen of Denmark’s Royal yacht, a really classic-looking ship with all the royal adornments (which she was actually still living aboard at the time); Christiania, Denmark’s world-renowned hippie community; the new Danish Opera House that sits right on the harbor; the city’s winding canals, courtesy of the Dutch architects that the Danes imported from Amsterdam to design (it’s no accident that this city’s canals look alot like Amsterdam’s); and much more. It was a nice trip, and Sjelle was good company, considering she’d done it a few times already. After changing for the evening, we headed out to a sushi restaurant not far from Bergljott’s that was really excellent. Afterwards, we walked down to a bar that had live music, and had a couple of drinks there. Sjelle had to leave early though because of work in the morning, so we called it a night pretty early.
We were set to head to Malmo, Sweden the next afternoon for the weekend after she got off work. When I was looking for places to stay back in London, I found it absolutely impossible to find anything decent in Copenhagen for the weekend. Bergljott had some family coming in for the weekend, so that meant I couldn’t stay there then. During my mad hotel search back in London, Sjelle suggested I check Malmo. I ended up finding a nice hotel in Malmo for friday and saturday. I had a room already booked for my last two nights in Copenhagen, so this worked out nicely.
We met up at Radhusplatsen, and hopped a bus that took us straight to Malmo. What was even better, the bus went right by the Ibis Hotel we were booked at. We were able to hop off the bus and walk a block to the hotel. After getting settled in the very nice room, we ventured out into the center of town, about a 10 minute walk away. Malmo is a thriving city in Sweden. It’s Sweden’s third largest, and it’s apparently booming. There is new construction everywhere, and I mean, everywhere. Sjelle says that this is because many Danes who live in Copenhagen are now moving to Malmo because it’s much cheaper to live there while working in Copenhagen (the swedish Kroner is worth about 20% less than the Danish Kroner). Since Copenhagen is only a short bus or train ride across the Baltic Sound, about 30 minutes, for many Danes, it’s a no-brainer.
Malmo also has a very cosmopolitan mix of immigrant residents. You see everything from Chinese, Korean, to African immigrants living and assimilating here in a very fascinating way. This also means that there is a very eclectic array of cuisine in this town that you would expect from a place like London. I was really impressed. Once we got into the center, it seemed like there was no end to the choices we had for dining. We ended up picking an Indian place. Good call.
That night, we hung out at a laid back bar, and had a couple of drinks. Things were a bit slow in Malmo that time of night, and it looked like things wouldn’t really take off until much later at night. Sjelle was a bit tired from work, so we grabbed a bus back to the hotel about midnight.
The weather was great again the next day as well. Off we went on another jaunt around town. We had missed breakfast at the hotel because we slept in. So we headed back into town to try to find a good breakfast or brunch spot. We did just that a couple streets past the city hall, and had a very nice funky Swedish breakfast on the sidewalk patio. Then, we walked along the central shopping district and checked out some places. Sjelle appears to always be on the lookout for shoes. She did the same thing when we were in La Ceiba too, as she does everywhere. What is it with women and shoes?
Not finding anything she really liked, we ventured on. We saw that Malmo had a canalboat tour as well, so we checked on it. It was all booked up for that day, but wide open the next day. We figured we can do it then. We walked around some more, and saw some really cool sights. There is a particular 54 story residential building designed by a popular architect named Santiago Calatrava. It’s called the “Turning Torso”. The building “twists” 90 degrees from the bottom to the top. Really unique. I should have pictures of it up on the gallery soon.
Also, we walked through the main square of Malmo, and noticed alot of rather organized activity. Lots of different groups of people wearing different colored t-shirts, handing out pamphlets, talking through bullhorns, crowds forming everywhere. Sjelle then remembered that Sweden was holding their national elections that weekend. All the people in the different t-shirts were from the different political parties. They have a multi-party system, which means that there are many different parties vying for the same seats in their congress, as well as the executive offices. So all around us were the Social Democrats, the Christian Democrats, the Moderates, the Green Party, the Socialists, the Conservatives, and so on. They hold their elections on a sunday to make it accessible to everyone. It was an interesting thing to watch, actually.
We walked along the harbor of the city, which while wasn’t nearly as bustling as Copenhagen’s, was still interesting. There were a couple of classic Swedish sailing ships that had been restored to their original state in the harbor. Sjelle got the idea of going to a supermarket and getting some food that we can bring back to the room for snacks, as well as some beverages. So we found a better supermarket and raided it. We got some munchies, as well as some juice beverages in tetra-paks to take back to the room. I also got to check out the caviar that Swedes apparently love to eat out of a tube. You know, like a toothpaste tube?? Apparently, they squeeze it on to bread or this flat, cracker-like bread called knackebracken, and slather it around. Yum…
We headed back to the room, and ate the cheese and knackebracken (no caviar!), along with the prosciutto I bought. And watched some TV, mostly CNN. Then we ended up falling dead asleep for several hours. When we came to, it was well after 10pm, and we had not eaten dinner. I went down to the lobby to find out what our dinner options were since we were both a bit too lazy to head into to town just to eat. Apparently, as modern and booming as Malmo is, there is still no late-night Pizza Hut or Domino’s delivery, nor any other food delivery for that matter. So since I was the hungrier one, I resorted to having a few more knackebrackens and cheese to tide me over until breakfast the next morning, which I swore to Sjelle we would NOT miss this time.
And we didn’t, the next morning, we made it with ample time to enjoy the very nice spread that they had out for breakfast. It made me sorry we missed it the morning before. After we were happy, we headed back up to the room to pack and check-out. Instead we became engrossed with the “Swedish Idol” tv show, which is just as funny and cheesy as the “American Idol” back in the states and its “Pop Idol/X-factor” counterpart in the UK. It was the open auditions part of the competition, so you can imagine all the bad singing going on. I have to say we were quite engrossed and entertained, because the room maid had to literally throw us out of the room at noon.
After checking out, we stashed our bags at the lobby and headed to town to catch the canalboat tour. We made it this time. Unfortunately, it was not nearly as interesting as the Copenhagen ride. The tour guide, a young swede no more than 30, was quite bizarre though. He spoke in a multi-language monotone that was so droning, that you can only imagine him saying to himself that he loathes his job and he just wishes he could die rather than say another single sentence. It was really disturbing and amusing at the same time.
Once we got back to the dock, we headed back towards the hotel, but not before stopping and having a cup of coffee and some snacks. Then we got the idea to hang out at a park for a little while, and enjoy the sun. It was really nice. Afterward, we took a detour back towards the hotel through this park that had a huge lake with loads of geese. Apparently it was still warm enough for them stick around the north a little while longer. Global warming, anyone?
We got back to the hotel, picked up our bags and headed to the train station to catch the next train back to Copenhagen. It had been a great, relaxing weekend in Malmo, which was very welcome and needed by both Sjelle and me. We got back to Copenhagen central station, and walked the two or so blocks to the hotel I had booked for my last two nights in Copenhagen. Once I got settled in, I took a nap, and waited on Sjelle to call and decide where we were going to eat that night.
My hotel was in Vesterbro, the same part of the city as where Bergljott’s place was. However, my hotel was much closer to the err… sleazy… part of Vesterbro. Along the street my hotel was on, there were dive bars, sex shops, strip clubs, junkies and working girls on the streets. It was… colorful… to say the least. Anyway, Sjelle decided that Thai would be good that night, so we walked a couple blocks down the street past this illustrious streetside strip club (that was closed… damn!), and went to a Thai restaurant that was on the corner. While the restaurant was quite nice, the food was just ok, and a bit expensive for what we got, according to Sjelle. After that, it was time to more or less call it a night.
The next day, while Sjelle was at work, I did some more walking around. This would be my last full day in Copenhagen before having to head off to Italy the next morning, so I figured I’d see some more of the city. I actually wanted to look into renting a bike, but called off that idea after finding out how much it cost. Sjelle’s dad had offered to let me borrow his bike, but I would have to go to their house to get it, and since I had never been there, I deemed that impractical. So I was to hoof it once again.
I started out with the route I knew, and made a couple of turns on to some perpendicular streets. The only “sight” I really wanted to check out was this tower called the “Rundertarn”. It’s a 17th century tower that instead of stairs has one continuous spiral ramp going up the inside of it, all the way to to the top. It was adjacent to the old cathedral, and despite the fact that I had a map, I simply could not find the place. I started getting hungry, so the desire for food took over. I walked around some more, heading back towards Vesterbro from the center. There were several places, but I couldn’t decide on any of them. I got to a Doner Kebab joint down the street from my hotel, and decided that was where I would eat. I had a durum chicken. I then continued my walking tour, and saw some more of the city.
I went back to the room to get a nap after all that walking, and got a msg from Sjelle that she had to do some stuff after work, so she’d be there a little later than 4 as we had planned. It was fine with me, because I was pretty relaxed, and not really ready to get out and about again. She showed up a little after 5, and we tried to figure out where we’d have dinner that night. She came up with the idea for Mongolian BBQ. This is the kind of place where you walk along a “buffet” bar, and you fill your plate with the meat, veggies and other stuff you want. Then, you choose the sauces and oils you want from a large selection. Then you give the plate to one of the bbq cooks, and they cook it on a grill right in front of you. These places are usually “all you can eat”, but not in the cafeteria-buffet, “slop on your plate” way. There was a nice mongolian place by the center close to the Tivoli park. So, after I changed, we headed over there. It was a good call, except for the lamb soup, which Sjelle detested.
After dinner, we went to a gelato place for dessert. Then we found a bar and had a drink there. It was a bit of a “dive”, so we didn’t stay long. We had to make it a short night anyway, since I had to get up early the next morning to catch a train to the airport, so I can catch my flight to London. Then I’d have to go from Stansted airport over to Gatwick to catch my flight to Rome. My friend Luigi (the sailmaker from Guatemala) was set to pick me up in Ciampino airport. So after saying goodbye to Sjelle at the train station, I was off again. It seems like much of this trip has been spent on trains, planes and airports.
My flight left on time, but unfortunately, there was bad weather over Ciampino, so our flight got diverted to Rome’s other airport, Fiumicino. I was concerned that Luigi didn’t get the word that my flight had been diverted, so I would try to call him when I got there. My cel was not working when I landed, which is no surprise, btw. I then looked for an internet kiosk to see if I can dig up Luigi’s italy number, which wasn’t on my phone. No luck there either. Luckily though, Luigi had gotten the word and was waiting at the gate when I got out after claiming my bag. So all was good.
And so, was to begin the Italy chapter of the trip, which let’s not forget is why I’m in Europe in the first place. This trip was destined to become just a bit more interesting…
