Friday morning I woke up at 6am to make sure that I got to the airport in time to catch my 8am flight to Copenhagen. I had made plans with Grace (at 2am the night before) to meet her outside the metro station at the city center. I got to the airport and to Copenhagen with no troubles. This was the first time that I did not check any bags so that simplified things. I probably could have not check bags all the way through but oh well.
While I was on the plane, I passed out for the majority of the flight because I hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before.
When I arrived to Copenhagen, I realized that I never looked up the exchange rate for the dollar to the kroner. I had read the night before that the metro costs about 30kroner. So I went to the ATM to take out some money and just went with 200kroner (which I later found out is close to $40). I went up the information booth to ask how I should get to the city center via metro and she told me that the bus would be the best way. Since that was not what Grace and I planned, I ignored her opinion. I kept walking through the airport a little more and saw a place where I could buy metro passes, so I got on line to get one from the attendant working. It was a good idea that I went to a real person and not a machine because I probably would have bought the wrong thing. Luckily, I had taken screen shots of all the instructions that Grace had given me the night before. I literally just slid my iPhone through the little whole in the glass and let her read what instructions she had given me. I got a pass for 145kroner, which would last me my entire trip.
I went up to where the metro line was and it was just two lines and one did not seem to be running. I punched my ticket (incorrectly—which would later benefit me…oh the benefits of being a tourist) then tried to find someone who could verify which line was going to the city center. After striking out with a few people, a metro worker came up and I asked him.
I got on the metro and took a window seat. Sometime along the way, a man sat down next to me and I was impressed by his intuition and got up to move for me when I started touching my bags. I later found out that this is common for the Danes. They don’t like having to ask people to move so they just move around a little bit and the person on the aisle is expected to interpret this and move for them. No words exchanged. Very interested.
When I got off the metro, I realized that I was like 20 minutes early because my plane got in. I figured I’d find a coffee shop nearby where I could wait for Grace. That was unnecessary because Grace checked my flight and she got to the metro stop early so she was waiting for me when I arrived.
We took the train to her apartment so I could drop off my bags. She realized that I punched it on the wrong side but she said that it wouldn’t be a big deal and that I might have gotten two free trips from it.
Her apartment was so cute, it looked like it should have been out of an Urban Outfitters catalog. I also got to meet her roommate who was incredibly nice and hipster fresh. After I put my stuff down, we went to walk around a bit.
We walked around quite a bit, I told Grace that I didn’t look anything up about Copenhagen so I wanted her to take me to her favorite places. We first visited some beautiful parks because the weather was so nice (minus the insanely strong wind that would occasionally attempt to knock us over). After walking around in the parks, we went into the city. While in the city, we went to the glass market and a bakery and got some dessert, then went to another park to eat them in. I got a dessert that had cake covered with chocolate, with creme on top of that and strawberries on top of that. Conclusion: it was delicious.
After eating, we went to the round tower and walked by the big shopping street. By this time, it was close to the time that Grace had to go to a celebration for her program. I told her that I would wander around on the shopping street and meet her at the round tower when she thought she’d be done. After I went into a few stores, I realized that this might be a problem because I was getting too tempted to buy something. So I did what I normally do to seek refuge in a foreign land, I went to McDonald’s. I always feel comfortable going to an American chain because I know I can get something to eat for cheap and sit there for a good while. So I sat in McDonald’s and read my book on my iPhone while I waited for Grace to be done.
I met her back at the round tower around 715pm and she called Dan to see if he wanted to join us as we walked around the city. Thanks to daylight savings, it stayed light out until like 10pm, so we got a lot of walking in.
We walked by the harbor, where “the best restaurant in the world” is located. Then we went to Christiania, which is an area that was an old military base that was retired then used as hippies to make a commune. It was the most bizarre place I think I’ve ever been. It still looks very much like a commune but it’s a place for people to go/live if they want to live a more outdoorsy lifestyle and smoke weed. They have a few rules for the place, one being that you cannot take any photos. Marijuana is not legal in Copenhagen but I think that if they do not cause any issues, the government doesn’t interfere with their lifestyle.
After we left there, we walked by the water, where the picturesque image of the little, colored houses along the water are always taken. We also went to where they have little trampolines by the water. This city has so many little random things like trampolines that it’s not wonder why it’s one of the happiest in the world. We also saw the opera house and the queen’s residence. The final place that we wanted to go to was to see the little mermaid.
Unfortunately for us, when we finally did reach the little mermaid, there was a good of drunk people who were climbing over the poor mermaid. We decided to keep walking and try to go to the big hill. The lookout spot on the hill was closed but we decided that we had done a lot for the day. We walked back to the city center and went by the amusement park, Tivoli, which apparently was an influence for Walt Disney. After that, we headed back to graces apartment to have some dinner.
We ate a delicious pasta with tomato sauce and zucchini. After we ate dinner, we were all fairly exhausted so we headed to bed.
5.11.12
