Whasblog

Hello again everyone. Hot on the heels of Arran I buggered off again to Denmark for a bit of a laugh. And this is what happened! (Sorry it’s not quite as interesting as getting married…)

Just before going I emailed one of the folks who I went to Arran with, as her manfriend is Danish, asking for advice and tips etc. Only to find that she was travelling to Copenhagen about 12 hours before us! What is this madness.  Luckily it meant we had an emergency point of call in the city, which I will come to later.

Day 1

Up at 4am, coach to Stansted, plane to CPH! Lovely! We arrived and headed out to explore. And good grief is Scandinavia cold or what? Average temperature was about 0, add to that the blustering winds and we were certainly in minus whatnot figures. We met some Moscowvian tourists who said that CPH was actually colder than home… So, anyway, on the first day we saw… LOTS. The Little Mermaid, of course, Nyhavn, and the longest pedestrain street in Europe, many green statues and spires, some of which were incredibly twisty. But the highlight was certainly when we stumbled into a Danish Princess at a museum. We walked in down a red carpet, wondering if this was standard procedure for tourists, only to learn that Princess Marie of Denmark would soon be making an appearance. An one she did indeed make! What luck :]

We slowly learnt that CPH perhaps wasn’t the best location for a budget holiday, with everything costing about twice as much as here. A mug of coffee sets you back 35DKK on average, which is about £5! Whups, we thought. The only place we could really afford to eat was an all-you-can-eat Indian resturant. So much for staying out clubbing and pubbing all night! So with the freezing temperatures becoming even more freezing we continued to wander the streets and re-visited the main places by night. Eventually we gave up and got the train to CPH airport again, where we enjoyed a night’s sleep on the lovely warm wooden floors above arrivals. Mmm.

Day 2

Tired! Plenty more walking ahoy as we saw the changing of the Danish guard and continued with the various cultural explorations of the city. We also found the highly rated (3 mich. star) resturant ‘Noma’ (maybe recognise the name from Masterchef?) but couldn’t even afford to open the door to get in, let alone sniff the food. After dinner and more exploring we headed off to our Youth Hostel for the night: “Sleep in Heaven”. Not a very optimistic name considering it was in one of the dodgiest parts of Denmark. We turned a corner to see graffitti, rocks and stones all over the pavement, etc. etc. Luckily this turned out to be the wrong corner, and the hostel was around the next bend. Phew. It was a lovely place though, and I’ve never appreciated a warm bed more than that night! A fantastic experience, sociable people there.

Day 3

After the botanical gardens and a bit of castle action we went to my Arran contact’s house for lunch! A lovely traditional Danish lunch, with fishy bread and schnapps. Mm! We then wandered off to Christiania, which is a very bizarre place indeed. It’s basically a part of CPH that a bunch of hippies invaded and took over =] So there are stalls selling plenty of drugs, and people smoking their substances out in the streets. There was a great cafe there though, with live music and the like (read the sign below…). Anyway, the time had come to head off. And before we knew it we were back in England.

Thus concludes the brief account of my time in Copenhagen! But I’ll have to go back because we never made it to Elsinore castle! It was too far north of the city to reach, alas. But we only spent about £130 each, with accommodation, flights, food and everything else. Which I think is pretty damn good for 3 days in the second most expensive city in teh werld.

Well I hope all those photos haven’t taken too many years to load.

Now then, also! Easter is approaching! I propose a big meet up session. However I am well aware that everyone is practically drowning in university work, and that our holidays do not neccessarily collide in a favourable manner. Thus I shall begin by just stating when I’m free :] I -think- it’s from the 30th Mar – 17th Apr. But I’m really not too sure actually =]

Anyway, hope everyone is keeping well, see you all soon hopefully ^^