Copenhagen, Denmark with Jay
Back at work after my weekend in Copenhagen, Denmark with Jason, my roommate. The country turned out to be a lot more expensive than we thought, and we had to budget quite a bit. On the bright side, Swiss Air just joined with Lufthansa, so now the airline has the best of both worlds. Swiss efficiency and cleanliness and don't forget chocolate, and German hospitality (is that a German trait, I dunno.) Basically what it boils down to is they spoil you on the flight. You can have tons of food, like three servings of the meal and as much swiss chocolate as you can grab. I think the average flight costs about the same as Air Canada, but we get the last minute Wednesday flights which only cost Jay 220 CHF and me 290 CHF (he got the last cheap ticket, oh well) which is amazing for Denmark. Rome was up for 100 CHF round.
Thursday, May 26: We kindof informally walked around and caught the sites at our own pace. There is a long pedestrian walkway through the centre of town that has shops and squares and fountains, and tons of 7-11s. I'm not exaggerating when I say that there is at least one every block.
We walked along the canals and ended up in a place called 'Christiania', a kind of free state in the middle of Copenhagen. It's basically its own self contained society, where they say NO to hard drugs, and YES to hash. The main street was called Pusher Street, and you weren't allowed to take photos there. The police pretty much stay away from there. It seemed really safe there too, although we didn't go at night.
After having a quick beer, we headed back downtown and rested in the hostel for a couple hours (we only had a couple hours sleep because our plane was so early.) For dinner we have some herring, because the only phrase given in Danish in the Lonely Planet guidebook was "Danish herring is much better than Swedish herring." It was wayyy too expensive. Then we headed out downtown to check out the entertainment. We sat on the main canal for a bit and then headed to the Copenhagen Jazz House, where we bought tickets for the show. The show was really good, turned out to be some guys from Harlem, well at least the pianist was.
After the show we were tired out so we headed back to the hostel for the night.
Friday, May 27: We decided to get out of Copenhagen, and we had spent so much money just surviving on Thursday, we had to go to a grocery store and buy a loaf of bread, some buns, and four litres of juice (it was a deal if you got four litres.) We got train tickets and headed up to Helsingor, where Hamlet's Elsingore was set. We walked around the old town there, and then we hopped on a twenty minute ferry over to Sweden, which can be seen from Denmark.
We stayed in Sweden for about an hour and a half, went up to a tower, down to the beach, through the town, we really had no idea where to go.
Back in Denmark we got lost on the confusing train system and eventually made it to the beach in Klampenborg around 4:00 PM. There were actually tons of people on the beach, and it was pretty hot, so we stayed until about 6:00 PM when the wind started to be too cold. Back in Copenhagen it was really hot because there was no wind, and we went back to the hostel to drop off our stuff. Since we didn't have nearly enough money to do anything special for dinner, we went to the grocery store and picked up a block of cheese, a bunch of 'Brutalis' beer, and some sausages which we cooked up on the grill at the hostel. It was great.
After dinner we found a club where there was no cover, and it was in the sketchy part of town, but was still really cool. Denmark is supposed to be one of the partyingest places in Europe, so we had to check it out. The club was called Vega, and was multiple floors, with a lounge on top. On the main club floor, which was the second, they had live music, a Danish DJ and an African MC doing Reggae style music. It was really cool to go to a club that wasn't pumping top 40 hits like everything in Canada. The place was absolutely packed, even at 2:00 there was a huge line of people trying to get in. The capacity was 1500 according to the poster.
Saturday, May 28: We realized that we had over stressed about money and now had a bunch of Crowns to get rid of. We did the real Copenhagen tour, with the actual sights like Hans Christian Andersens 'Little Mermaid' and then just walked up and down the pedestrian street and watched the street performers.
The highlight was there was a huge festival going on in one of the squares, commemerating some anniversary, but the cool thing was there was a massive free concert for a Danish band called BikStok, which we think means 'Big Stick' because they got excited that one fan brought a giant log to the concert. Heh. We really liked the band, it was a mix of rock, reggae and rap, and it was really original. I'm going to try to download it. The concert went till 6:00 and our plane was at 7 something, so we stayed as long as possible and then booked it to the airport.
All in all, Denmark and Sweden were really cool places. I'll have to go see Sweden for more than an hour and a half later on.
Thursday, May 26: We kindof informally walked around and caught the sites at our own pace. There is a long pedestrian walkway through the centre of town that has shops and squares and fountains, and tons of 7-11s. I'm not exaggerating when I say that there is at least one every block.
Rådhus
Canal
In the park
We walked along the canals and ended up in a place called 'Christiania', a kind of free state in the middle of Copenhagen. It's basically its own self contained society, where they say NO to hard drugs, and YES to hash. The main street was called Pusher Street, and you weren't allowed to take photos there. The police pretty much stay away from there. It seemed really safe there too, although we didn't go at night.
Christania
After having a quick beer, we headed back downtown and rested in the hostel for a couple hours (we only had a couple hours sleep because our plane was so early.) For dinner we have some herring, because the only phrase given in Danish in the Lonely Planet guidebook was "Danish herring is much better than Swedish herring." It was wayyy too expensive. Then we headed out downtown to check out the entertainment. We sat on the main canal for a bit and then headed to the Copenhagen Jazz House, where we bought tickets for the show. The show was really good, turned out to be some guys from Harlem, well at least the pianist was.
Copenhagen Jazz House
After the show we were tired out so we headed back to the hostel for the night.
Friday, May 27: We decided to get out of Copenhagen, and we had spent so much money just surviving on Thursday, we had to go to a grocery store and buy a loaf of bread, some buns, and four litres of juice (it was a deal if you got four litres.) We got train tickets and headed up to Helsingor, where Hamlet's Elsingore was set. We walked around the old town there, and then we hopped on a twenty minute ferry over to Sweden, which can be seen from Denmark.
Careful!
Inside Hamlet's 'Kronborg' Castle
Leaving Helsingor
We stayed in Sweden for about an hour and a half, went up to a tower, down to the beach, through the town, we really had no idea where to go.
Helsingborg
Beach in Helsingborg, Sweden
Back in Denmark we got lost on the confusing train system and eventually made it to the beach in Klampenborg around 4:00 PM. There were actually tons of people on the beach, and it was pretty hot, so we stayed until about 6:00 PM when the wind started to be too cold. Back in Copenhagen it was really hot because there was no wind, and we went back to the hostel to drop off our stuff. Since we didn't have nearly enough money to do anything special for dinner, we went to the grocery store and picked up a block of cheese, a bunch of 'Brutalis' beer, and some sausages which we cooked up on the grill at the hostel. It was great.
BBQ
After dinner we found a club where there was no cover, and it was in the sketchy part of town, but was still really cool. Denmark is supposed to be one of the partyingest places in Europe, so we had to check it out. The club was called Vega, and was multiple floors, with a lounge on top. On the main club floor, which was the second, they had live music, a Danish DJ and an African MC doing Reggae style music. It was really cool to go to a club that wasn't pumping top 40 hits like everything in Canada. The place was absolutely packed, even at 2:00 there was a huge line of people trying to get in. The capacity was 1500 according to the poster.
At the club
Saturday, May 28: We realized that we had over stressed about money and now had a bunch of Crowns to get rid of. We did the real Copenhagen tour, with the actual sights like Hans Christian Andersens 'Little Mermaid' and then just walked up and down the pedestrian street and watched the street performers.
Church behind fountain
The Little Mermaid
The highlight was there was a huge festival going on in one of the squares, commemerating some anniversary, but the cool thing was there was a massive free concert for a Danish band called BikStok, which we think means 'Big Stick' because they got excited that one fan brought a giant log to the concert. Heh. We really liked the band, it was a mix of rock, reggae and rap, and it was really original. I'm going to try to download it. The concert went till 6:00 and our plane was at 7 something, so we stayed as long as possible and then booked it to the airport.
BikStok
All in all, Denmark and Sweden were really cool places. I'll have to go see Sweden for more than an hour and a half later on.
posted by Devon at 09:39
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