Pre-Departure and ArrivalCopenhagen... when we booked this trip, we were all so excited to finally have our first travel booked and ready to go! But as the weeks drew closer, we all thought to ourselves.. 'Denmark? Why are we going to Denmark?' It honestly was never a place on my list, however, many of my friends that went abroad loved it and said I had to go. Plus, the flights were fairly cheap so we figured why not! Also during the weeks leading up to our trip, we told many people we were going to Copenhagen and we got the statement... "Oh, that's going to be expensive." And it was true, the Danish Krone exchange to USD was absolute sh*t (explains why the flights were so cheap... they trick you into getting there, then you have to spend a bunch of money to be there). But even through all of this... I was still so excited to finally be going on my first (plane) trip. I was ready for adventure and to see a new beautiful country! When I say 'we', I am referring to the other 5 people I went on this trip with (Sebastian, Mackenzie, Olivia, Peyton, and Julie). Three Americans and three Canadians were off on an adventure! Our flight to Copenhagen was later in the evening (7:25pm) because most of us had class during the day. The trip to the airport went smoothly because I booked an 8 seater airport coach that picked us up straight from our campus and took us to the airport. Since there were so many of us, it ended up being cheaper to do it this way than taking the normal bus. We arrived with plenty of time at the airport to get dinner (Burger King) and relax for a bit. The way RyanAir works is they don't tell you your gate number until 40 minutes before departure.. Then once they do, you have to hurry to your gate and get in line because there are only two boarding lines: "Priority" and "Others". No one really books priority unless they are flying for business, so the others line is always super long. And if you are far enough up in the others line, then you are forced to check your bag, even if its within measurements! So you really have to be ready to get to your gate when its announced. We ended up being one of the first groups there so we were fine (thankfully). Our flight was decent. I somehow ended up under the one stop where the air conditioner leaked, so I was constantly getting water droplets on my head (that's what you get when you book budget airlines). The hour and half flight flew by though and before I knew it, we were landing in Copenhagen! *Side note: The landing of this plane was one of the scariest landings I've ever been on. I think my little sister could have landed a plane better than this guy, but we survived* We exited the plane and got in line for passport checks. No problems here, but I was excited to receive a stamp in my passport!!! As we were walking towards the airport exit, I looked around and noticed NOTHING was in English. I had never felt more out of place than not being able to understand any of the words around me. Thankfully most of the signs had pictures, so we followed the train picture signs out of the terminal. A few train stops down the line, we exited into the city and headed for our hostel! We checked in, got to our room, and settled in. The hostel had great reviews and I could see why! It was very clean, the beds were fairly comfortable, and they gave us free towels. We all wanted to wind down from the evening of traveling so we headed to the hostel bar, which ended up being closed. We decided to walk down the street until we found a pub. We quickly learned, that this was not an area to walk alone around at night. There were pimps with their hoes on every corner. It was a this moment that we all surrounded Sebastian and were thankful we had a man with us. We found this bar called "Spunk Bar" (We later found out what the word 'spunk' means in european slang... I'm not going to say it here, but if you would like to look it up, be my guest). It looked like a local bar, so we entered and ordered some beers. We looked around and noticed it was majority men in this bar, which makes sense if you looked up what that word means. The beer was pretty good, and decently priced. We hung out for a bit and headed back to the hostel to get some rest. By this time it was 1am and we had a huge day planned ahead of us!. Saturday 11/11/17 - Day OneUpon arriving to Copenhagen the night before, we had noticed that there was a Dunkin' Donuts inside of the train station, so we went straight there Saturday morning to feed our caffeine addictions. The other two Americans in our group are from the east coast, so they really needed their Dunkin'. On the go breakfast options were limited. It was either a donut (which looked nice but so much sugar in the morning hurts my tummy), or McDonalds (which was crazy expensive). SO for some reason Peyton and I settled for chicken kababs from 7/11. They actually weren't too bad! Similar to Edinburgh, I booked a free walking tour for Saturday morning so we could get our bearings of the city. The city was so different than I was expecting. I'm not sure what I was expecting because all I really knew about Copenhagen was there was a line of houses that cute and colorful (I later found out this was called Nyhaven). This city had a mix of old and new. I would be walking along a row of old buildings and then stumble upon something modern. I later learned that this was because there were two huge fires in Copenhagen's history that destroyed parts of the city, giving room for new buildings to be build and created this mixed aura of fresh modern and classic old town. The streets were easy to get lost in because everything generally looked the same once you weren't on the main street. Our tour guide had been born and raised in this city, and showed us everything the best he could. He took us from the City Hall, to the old town, to the new town, then to Nyhaven, and we ended our tour at the Queen's palace. Our tour guide explained to us that the Queen had 4 palaces, one for every season, and that Copenhagen was her Winter palace. Apparently the Danish truly love their queen. Every New Year the whole city gathers in the courtyard, and the Queen gives a New Year speech. In this speech, she tells the people of Copenhagen everything that is going right and everything that needs to change in Denmark. Almost like a scolding from a mother. Below are pictures from the walking tour! After we tipped our tour guide, we exited the palace courtyard and took a left, in search of the Little Mermaid statue. My favorite childhood fairytale, the Little Mermaid, was written by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen (which I didn't know until I came Denmark) but I just had to see this statue! It turned out to be very small, but still picture worthy. Along the walk there we was some cute buildings, a quiet park with some interesting statues, and a wild goose! This crazy goose was pecking at everything he possibly could. I snagged a picture of him though... doesn't it feel like he's staring at me? (After we saw the statue, we went to this place called Paper Island. My friend Britney told me I had to go while I was here, and I'm very happy that I did! Imagine a farmers market, and all of the food trucks are lined up... now triple the amount of food trucks and put them inside a giant warehouse and you have Paper Island! It was supposed to be some of the best food in Copenhagen, and it was! They had everything you could imagine! Since I hadn't brought much cash with me, I opted for a basic ham, cheese, and tomato panini and even that was quality. The vides in this place were so happy and lively (even though you could hardly move and there were no seats anywhere) it was such a great place to spend our afternoon lunch. *Sorry for not getting great pictures from here, it was so crowded I couldn't eat and take pictures* After our bellies were full, we made our way back to Nyhaven to walk along the Christmas Market. There were cute lights everywhere, and people selling Christmas items out of little huts. I had never had mulled wine before so I decided to give it a try. Oh my, was it delicious! Mulled wine is hot wine headed with different spices, but has a strong cinnamon flavor to it. If it wasn't so expensive for a small cup of it, I would have bought more (thats how good it was). We had all agreed that we didn't want to purchase anything on our first day, so we zipped our wallets shut and went back to the hostel for some rest before the big night!! I'm sure you are wondering... what is the big night? Well it just so happens that we were in town on a HUGE football weekend for Denmark. We were about to witness Danish people in their element. Ireland vs. Denmark is apparently a big deal because the city was live streaming the game in front of City Hall for free! After we rested and warmed up for a bit, we bundled ourselves up, drank some beers, and headed for the game! I watched most of it, and tried to learn to love it, but it just wasn't my type of football. I did enjoy though seeing the Danish people wholeheartedly support their team! And the Irish... considering the fact that the game was in Denmark, there sure were a ton of Irish people there for the big weekend. We had a great time watching the game, but after we were about frozen we decided it was time to find a real pub. It was at this moment that we found out the interesting drinking ages in Denmark. Apparently the drinking age is 18, like the rest of Europe, however the bars have the option to follow the US rule of being 21 to drink, and most of the bars on this big weekend were following that rule. Since two of our group members aren't 21 yet, this meant that our night was coming to an end and we headed back to our hostel. I was quite pleased to go back though... it was freezing and I was tired. *Did you notice in all of that, that we didn't eat dinner? Yeah, we came back and ate more 7/11 food (yuck, but we were a little buzzed so it was okay)* Overall, the first day was a great day and everyone truly enjoyed themselves! Sunday - 12/11/17 - Day TwoDay two started a little later than day one, as we didn't leave the hostel until about 11am. We were all starving and craving a real breakfast, so we went on a search for a real restaurant (no more 7/11). We walked to this place our hostel recommended but they didn't have room for 6 people... this started to become a trend and before we knew it, it was 1:30pm, we still were searching for a restaurant and we were starving. We finally found this place that specialized in some very weird dishes, most of them being oatmeal. Our bellies couldn't wait anymore, so we sat down at the table. I couldn't tell what it was that I ordered, but it tasted like some sort of potato pancakes with a mustard side salad. It wasn't bad, in fact, I liked it at first, but the taste grew too familiar and I didn't end up finishing it (No worries though, I did get full). After our meals, we went to this place called Christiania. This place is known as the "green light district" (if ya know what I mean). A little back story on the place... Weed is illegal in all of Denmark. Christiania is a community that formed in the 70s and fought for their right to smoke, as long as they stayed within their neighborhood boundaries and didn't sell any within the city. It was a battle for years, until Denmark decided to sell the land of Christiania to the people that reside there. So basically, this community is completely self owned and governed, has its own laws, sells weed to support its economy, has its own flag, and even has its own currency. Because it is such a secluded place, pictures are not allowed inside the gates of Christiania. I had heard stories of friends of mine trying to sneak pictures, and locals coming up to them and throwing their phones on the ground. I didn't want that to happen to me, so I refrained from taking pictures. We did have one area where there was a sign that said "Photos Ok!" so I have a few pictures I can put on here. I found this community a little scary at first, because its a very different lifestyle than the one I lead, but after being there for a bit, I could feel the deep sense of community this neighborhood had. I could never live in a place like this, but it was neat to visit and learn about how Christiania became Christiania. Following our trip to Christiania, we decided to get our shopping out of the way before the shops closed. We all got the souvenirs we wanted for ourselves and for our families and decided it was time for us to have a really good meal, since it was our last night in Copenhagen. We chose this cute restaurant on the walkway of Nyhaven, where we could sit outside under a blanket, with heaters arounds us, and enjoy the beautiful scenery just a little bit more. I ordered a salmon dish because I love sea food so much, and was very pleased. I ate every bite of my dinner!
After dinner, we went back to the hostel and prepared for our departure in the morning. We had to leave for the airport at 4:30am to catch our 7:30am flight back to London. It was bittersweet leaving, we had all grown to love Copenhagen in our own way. I can't say its a place a care to visit again, and I still like Edinburgh a lot more, but I am still happy that I was able to experience this trip with my new friends. We all had so much fun together and made memories that will last forever! So as I am typing these last few sentences, I figure I should wrap up by telling you all that I am leaving for Nice, France in the morning! I will be coming back on Tuesday, and will hopefully have a blog post up for that trip faster than I did for this trip. Here are the last few pictures from my adventure in Copenhagen, and as always... Thanks for reading my ridiculously long blog posts! XO, Maddi
1 Comment
Betty Fink
4/12/2017 07:32:03
Another great trip! Some really interesting “fact toids” on this adventure!
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MadeleineMy name is Madeleine Sarner, and I am an American student living in Britain's oldest recorded town, Colchester. After many months of saving, extensive planning, and a few break downs along the way, I have finally started my journey of living abroad. On this blog you can keep up with my adventures, my culture shock, and my new and exciting experiences! Archives
December 2017
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